We appreciate the hotel is not exactly central England, but it’s reasonably easy to get to. 🙂
By Car
You will likely be coming from west or south of Norwich – all routes pretty much wind up on the A47, turn off at the Sainsbury’s/Premier Inn roundabout near the Showground and follow this route.
Driving along the A47 (Norwich Southern Bypass) to the west of Norwich, leave the A47 at the junction with the A1074 and head towards the city (signposted Norwich). (Note – there is a large Sainsbury’s close to the junction – good for shopping and for petrol).
After three quarters of a mile, turn left at the traffic lights onto Longwater Lane (the Roundwell Medical Centre is on the left, immediately before the lights).
Towards the lower end of Longwater Lane the “traffic calmed” area starts – 20 mph, speed bumps, and pinch points.
Longwater Lane ends at a T-Junction – turn left onto West End and follow it through to the end of the speed restrictions. Beware that there a couple of small, very discreetly positioned speed cameras to enforce the 20 mph limit; these are a new design that you may not have seen before (but they are yellow).
Immediately after leaving the speed restrictions and the “traffic calming”, turn right onto Taverham Lane. This is through trees and is a bit twisty in places.
The road crosses the river Wensum – be careful as the bridge is not too wide. The road becomes Costessey Road.
A couple of hundred yards later, at the mini-roundabout (with the church set back to your right) turn left onto The Street, which becomes Ringland Road. This section has a 20 mph limit and is a bit twisty.
At the top of the “hill”, turn right at the T-junction, onto Beach Avenue.
After a few yards (or metres, if you must), turn into the long drive for the Wensum Valley Hotel, Golf and Country Club. There is a sign for the hotel entrance but be careful not to take the entrance into the small industrial estate which is *immediately* before it (it’s not the clearest of entrances).
The distance from the A47 to the hotel drive is about four miles.
By Train
- London: 2 trains an hour from Liverpool St, journey time 1h45
- Cambridge: 4 trains an hour (1 direct), journey time 1h20
- Stansted: 1 train an hour, journey time 1h52
- Peterborough (for points on the East Coast Main Line): 1 train an hour, journey time 1h30
- Manchester (direct (same train as above), stopping Sheffield, Nottingham, Grantham among others): 1 train an hour, journey time 4h30
- Birmingham: 2 trains an hour (either via Peterborough or London), journey time 4h00
If you are going to be arriving in central Norwich by train or bus and would be interested in a taxi share, please email the committee - contabile36@gmail.com - with an expected arrival time and permission to share your email address with other filkers aiming to arrive at around the same time.
By Bus
- Heathrow, Cambridge, Stansted: National Express 727 – 4h20
- London (Stratford) direct: National Express 490 – 2h45
From central Norwich, there is a bus (Yellow Line – 28/29/X29) which stops around a 15 minute walk from the hotel. To get the bus, our intrepid explorer reported that the easiest stops are along Castle Meadow or Tombland, just beyond the top end of Prince of Wales Road, and that it is around a 10 minute walk from the train station to either of those (thank you, Sue!).
Bus numbers 28/29/X29 all stop at Fakenham Road, near Beech Avenue, which appears to be the last stop in Taverham. This bus stop is a 10-15 minute brisk walk from the hotel door (it doesn't seem to have occurred to the hotel that anyone might arrive on foot, as there is no pedestrian route other than the driveway!).
The 29 bus would have gone along Beech Avenue with a stop outside the High School, which may be slightly closer, but they seem to be much less frequent than the X29 (at least at time of writing).
The map on the leaflet/timetable linked to below will allow you to keep track of how far the bus has gone, with the supermarket names and pubs being useful landmarks if arriving after dark!
Bus route overview: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/norfolk-suffolk/routes-and-maps/network-norwich/yellow-line-2829x29
By Air
Direct flights to Norwich Airport from Manchester, Exeter, Aberdeen, Amsterdam
You might prefer to fly into Stansted (as usual for some). In the latter case, there are both train and coach connections to Norwich.