Horsey

Horsey lies on the Norfolk coast between Winterton and Sea Palling. Just inland of the village lies Horsey Mere which is accessible by boat from the River Thurne via Heigham Sound and Meadow Dyke. In Arthur Ransome's Coot Club the children sail this route in the Teasel. While on Horsey Mere Dick sees a pair of marsh harriers.

In his novel Armadale (1866) Wilkie Collins transforms Horsey Mere into 'Hurle Mere' - and in so doing - succeeds in capturing the beauty and mystery of the Broadland landscape.

The poet John Betjeman used to visit the Norfolk Broads when he was a child and was familiar with Horsey Mere and the nearby coastline. In his poem East Anglian Bathe he refers to it specifically:

Oh when the early morning at the seaside
Took us with hurrying steps from Horsey Mere
To see the whistling bent-grass on the leeside
And then the tumbled breaker line appear,

Read complete poem

Horsey Gap is also one of the most vulnerable sections of the Norfolk coastline. If the sea breaks through the sand dunes here - as it last did in 1953 - then thousands of acres of low lying pasture land will flood. Such a salt water incursion would also be detrimental to bird life and freshwater fish stocks. Here is an anonymous rhyme which encapsulates the sea's threat (via Horsey) on the whole of the Broads system:

When the sea comes in at Horsey Gap
Without any previous warning,
A swan shall build its rushy nest
On the roof of the Swan at Horning.
And a bald headed crow, contented and merry,
Shall feast on the corpses that float by the ferry.

Links:

Horsey Drainage Mill

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