Wednesday – Friday 10 – 12 September 2025

A little trip to the outskirts of Norwich and then to Attleborough on Wednesday and then tacos for dinner. Pretty good actually. Been a while since we cooked tacos. Thursday, Lady P wanted to go to Holkham. This is the ancestral home of the Cokes. Lord of Leicester his good self. There is a close connection with Lady Tennant (one of the Coke girls) and the Ogilvy’s, so you get the picture. Off we go.

Well, it is a 400 year old estate of 25,000 acres. Now, that’s bloody big for England. Flashy met a girl once back in the day, who came from a farm. “How big’s ya farm, love?”, he says. “60,000 acres she says.” A big fella near by says, “If ya gotta measure it in acres, sweetie, it's pretty small. We’re on 23,700 square kms!” (That’s 5.8 million acres). We nicknamed her ‘Acres.’

Anyway, Flashy was pretty impressed with Holkham’s grand buildings, walled gardens and stunningly mowed fields. They even had a heard of deer and they had 40 bird shoot days a year. Fascinatingly, Holkham was the first estate to develop driven shoots for pheasant and still dresses its game wardens in traditional tweed plus fours and Coke hats. How about that.

The Bowler hat was invented by Thomas and William Bowler in 1849 for Edward Coke, who commissioned it from Lock & Co. hatters, to protect gamekeepers' heads on Holkham estate. The hard, low-crowned hat was a durable alternative to the flimsy top hats worn by gamekeepers, which were easily knocked off by low-hanging branches and aggressive poachers. 

Google took us home via an adventurous route (according to Lady P) and to our GnT’s and an old fashioned, wood fired Weber BBQ of rump steak. This occurred in a violent thunderstorm. Lady P suggested a) since Flashy was holding metal tongs; b) the BBQ was made of metal and; c) the lightening was pretty close, that perhaps he should retire inside for a while. He lives to tell another tale.

Friday is sunny, 18c but cold with strong winds. A stay at home day is planned.

Holkham Hall.
Fallow deer.
BBQ in the storm.

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