Coming to Norfolk…the end of an era as the A11 finally opens

Paul Thomas (Image: Archant)

And so the 'new' A11 is finally open – in its brilliant dual-carriageway entirety. And that sets me thinking about ages of access to this special county,,,

For many of us it represents the end of an era. As a Londoner I fell in love with Norfolk, thanks to the Broads and my parents bringing me here, 60 years ago. Then access really was like a country lane. 'On the way to nowhere but the North Sea' they used to say. Huh!

And 30 years on, in mid 1980s, as an established Norfolk (and London) businessman, I joked with the then Norfolk county council director of planning – when will road access be improved? He waved a finger, uttered the drawbridge warning to me, an immigrant, and threatened my visa!

He and I still laugh about that today. But it, and the final dualling of the A11, illustrates much of the charm of this wonderful county (dare I claim even 'our' wonderful county if I'm just about accepted now?).

This independence, and wish to stay 'different', even a little removed, covers our access in many ways, transport-related.

For years I travelled between the capital and city by rail. I started as a boy, loco-spotter at Stratford station, logging the great steam engines towing the Broadsman, Norfolkman and East Anglian from Liverpool Street to Norwich then called Thorpe, station.

One of the most wonderful experiences of my life was when an engine-driver (I always talked with them if I could) on a train my mother and I had taken from London to Norwich, offered me a return ride on the footplate that evening. At the tender age of 13 I leapt at it, thinking we would go a station or two – but, amazingly they took me the whole way (on Britannia 70006 Robert Burns) and I dismounted at Liverpool Street after three thrilling hours.

No rail officials batted an eye-lid at my blackened face as I left the station with the crew… I'd had the whole journey in the fireman's seat, enjoying his tea while he toiled away, shovelling coal and the driver keeping an eye on me as well as the track ahead. Imagine Health and Safety exploding at that today!

But one of the most telling moments was rumbling across Trowse bridge, single track – and still it is today, though planning at least foresees rail entrance to Norwich by dual tracks across our special river Wensum at last.

And rivers, the Yare and Wensum, also tell an access tale for Norwich and Norfolk, unique still today.

My introduction to the Broads all those decades ago, led to a lifetime involvement with boats, for recreation and work purposes too. And early this century, my wife and I, enjoying our own motor cruiser and international trips, targeted Caen, in Northern France.

Our reason of course was its links, ten centuries ago, with Norwich and the carriage of stone from Caen by sailing ships, up the North Sea and east coast to Yarmouth, then via the Yare and Wensum to the site of the building of the city's new cathedral.

We re-traced that journey by sea, albeit in a modern, fast motor boat – and speculated on the Norman Conquest – and all the slow, difficult journeys which achieved the numerous deliveries by sea of that stone – and the ultimate triumph of the wonderful cathedral we know today.

That passage also saw Normans and others arriving by sea into our county… and Norfolkmen leaving for a France, very different to today's.

And so back to 2014. For business and pleasure purposes, I still often drive to London. This week in fact, down a still single-laned section!

More than 40 years ago I drove it frequently, with no Newmarket by-pass, no dual carriage-ways for much of it. Working in then Fleet Street newspapers I came back to Norfolk once in a while – in the middle of the night after my shift had finished… and once got stopped for speeding at 3 a.m. on the notorious single-lane Six Mile Bottom. The journey was quick, albeit narrow at that time of night.

So the most recent years' relative sophistication of our M11 and, mainly, dual-carriage-wayed A11 road into Norfolk has proven to be the welcoming return back to our county. I always enjoy returning even more than heading into London. And in so many ways Norfolk is flourishing…

At last the miles of cones are gone. The A11 is dual carriageway all the 100-odd miles to our capital. And perhaps even more importantly… back into our great county.

May visitors driving in, quicker, more easily and in even greater numbers, respect and enjoy our county – and not tempt me to say, Norfolk-style like my dear old planning friend – 'What? Who are all these people? Pull up the drawbridge…'