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Northwold
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John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), the eldest of the Powys
brothers, used to spend his summer holidays with his
grand parents in the rectory at Northwold. The Breckland
landscape provided him with the setting for the start of
his famous novel A Glastonbury Romance (1932).
John Crowe arrives at Brandon station in order to attend
the funeral of Canon William Crowe (a thinly disguised
version of his grandfather) - who is rector at Northwold.
The novel also contains a beautiful description of the
River Wissey - a chalk stream which flows out of Norfolk
and onto the fens where it eventually joins the the
Great Ouse:
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'The river weeds below the tide that bore them on,
gleamed emerald green in the warm sunshine. Across and
between the weeds, darted shoals of glittering dace
their swaying bodies sometimes white and sometimes
slippery black as they turned and twisted, rose and
sank, hovered and flashed by. Beds of golden marigolds
reflected their bright cups in the swift water; and here
and there, against the brownish clumps of last years
reeds, they caught passing glimpses of pale,
delicate-tinged cuckoo flowers.' |
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Links:
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism