Well, if you want to be at the fashionable heart of just about everything, Burnham Market is for you. Often nick-named Chelsea-by-the-Sea, there are some fab-u-lous boutiques, interior shops and eateries. The setting, around a village green, is very pretty and the flint and cobble homes are all in keeping with the area. It’s a couple of miles inland but so handy for Holkham, Burnham Overy Staithe, Wells and more.
Facilities include a primary school, a doctor, pharmacy, tennis courts, post office, a deli (Humble Pie), fish monger’s (Gurney’s) and more, plus numerous specialty shops such as the jeweller Urban Armour and Barefoot Living, one of several on trend interior shops.
Foodies are well catered for with The Hoste Inn - which also has a luxurious spa - standing proud on the village green, Socius has countless fans for its Norfolk tapas, and the Tuscan Farm Shop offers wonderful oils and wines from its Italian estate.
Fashionistas enjoy Anna’s, Percy Langley, Joules, Aurina and Gun Hill and well, we could go on - this is a shopper’s paradise!
There are seven Burnhams in all, with Burnham Overy Staithe a watery paradise and said to be where Lord Nelson learnt to sail. The Hero pub is a great meeting place and, in the summer, there is ferry service out to Scolt Head Island, a national nature reserve, which has more than a touch of Treasure Island about it. Look out for the windmill and some 18th century mill buildings on the village outskirts.
Burnham Deepdale, which really runs into Brancaster Staithe, is another little shopping hub with a supermarket, a great cafe and the backpackers’ site, Deepdale Camping and Rooms.
Burnham Thorpe is where Nelson was born so it’s no surprise that the newly renovated pub is called The Lord Nelson, Burnham Norton is a quiet village, on the edge of Norton Marsh, rich in bird life, and Burnham Overy Town is an unspoilt hamlet with a fine medieval church.
South Creake and North Creake are attractive inland villages, both with the River Burn running through them and both with pubs. North Creake is home to the ruins of Creake Abbey, a 14th century Augustine priory, where there is now also a thriving farm shop - with a great food hall - and cafe plus several shops in converted farm buildings. It’s a lovely spot, with a popular monthly farmers’ market, and operates a ‘something for everyone’ policy.
Docking is a large village, again inland but with good access to the coast and also the amenities of Fakenham, a busy market town best known for its racecourse and weekly auction on Thursdays. Docking has many attractive houses, plus good facilities such as a doctor’s surgery, post office, fish and chips, pub, shop, village hall - and a weekly market on Wednesdays. The recommended Duck at Stanhoe is just next door where Ben Handley cooks exquisitely.