Holkham

The county of Norfolk, England is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country.  It is also the home of Holkham, a village and civil parish that is located on the coast road (A149) and lies in the middle of a national nature reserve.  The population of Holkham is approximately 236 people.  Like many of the villages and towns along the eastern coast, Holkham once had its own harbour landing thanks to a tidal creek that ran into the town of Wells-next-the-Sea.  Eventually this disappeared as the estate of Holkham Hall began to use the land for agriculture.  When the seawall at Wells was completed the rest of the creek dried up.  This small village is basically the main entry to the Holkham estate and nature reserve.
The current Earl of Leicester still resides at Holkham Hall, one of the first Palladian styled homes to be built in England.  The nature reserve completely surrounds the estate and there is a lake on the property that was probably formed during the reclamation of land around the creek that led to the North Sea.  The park is filled with fallow deer, boasts monuments and drives, and even has its own church.  The Earl has opened his home and the park to visitors and collects a toll fee from Lady Anne’s Drive.  This road connects the A149 to the town and leads across the salt marshes to Holkham Gap and the lovely beach at Holkham Bay.  The Gap leads between a pine forest to a section of sand dunes that eventually makes way to an uninterrupted beach that runs from Wells to Burnham Overy Staithe.  The western edge of the beach is the nudist section.
Holkham Beach and Holkham Gap have both been featured in films and television shows such as ‘The Eagle Has Landed’, ‘Shakespeare in Love’, and episodes of the television show ‘The Avengers’.