Watton & Wayland Trails

The Wayland Word Journey was launched in May 2007 and contains four trails for visitors and local people to explore by car or cycle or, for those with time and energy, on foot. The words in the book have been written by local people, the residents of our Wayland village and town communities, who wanted to celebrate the distinctiveness of this quiet and lovely part of Norfolk.
The trails, named for either historical or geographical reasons, are:
The Templar Trail marks the Knights Templar, who  were based at in Carbrooke during the Crusades; the 4 villages of the trail form the Templar Ward.
The Wadetuna Trail is based on Watton, Wadetuna being the ancient name for the town as recorded in the Domesday Book.
The Wissey Trail winds its way through the villages in the western part  of Wayland, criss-crossing Watton Brook before it feeds into the River Wissey just to the south west of Great Cressingham.
The Peddars Trail runs through Wayland's southern villages,  marking the route the peddlers took as they made their way north on the 'Peddars Way', which is now part of a National Trail and Long Distance path.
These Trails offer a challenge to find Wayland's treasures - some are obvious and some less so - but the search for them will help visitors to understand what local people love about Wayland. They all start from the Dragonfly Visitor Centre at Wayland House on Watton High Street (Tel  01953 880212), where more information about where to stay and what to do whilst in the area can be found.  The book is priced at £3.50; whether or not the trails are followed the book is a must to read at leisure and to treasure.

THE WATTON HERITAGE TRAIL

The Watton Heritage Trail, produced and published by the Watton Society, was launched in February 2007. Over the last few years the Society has been researching Watton's historic places, and, where appropriate, providing information plaques.
There are 20 places of particular interest listed and illustrated in the Heritage Trail brochure, with a short background note about each one. To visit each place would involve a walk of about 2.5 miles but a shorter route, missing just three places, reduces the distance by nearly a mile! Although the given start point is at the Clock Tower, the route is circular and can be started at any point. However, we recommend starting from the Visitor Centre at Wayland House towards the west end of the High Street. There are car parks nearby but, more importantly, the Visitor Centre (Tel  01953 880212) has FREE copies of the Brochure!
Guided walks of the Heritage Trail can be arranged for small groups; contact the Visitor Centre.

Norfolk Health, Heritage & Biodiversity Walks

A series of 'Walks' booklets covering the main areas of Norfolk has been produced by the County Council.
The final one in the series, for the WATTON area (shown below), was launched on 26th July 2011.

The booklet is now available from the Watton & Wayland Visitor Centre, and, although designed mainly for use by local people, visitors may obtain copies on loan from our accommodation providers, ie as listed on the "Where to Stay" page of this website.

For information about the other booklets in this series please click here

The Visitor Centre has Reference copies of the Dereham & Swaffham area booklets.

From the Countryside Access website it is possible to download copies of any of these booklets or even individual pages.
       HOME PAGE          WHERE TO STAY             VISITORS GUIDE        ACTIVITIES

This page is published by the Wayland Tourism Association. Last updated 26/07/11