Suechoccy
Well-Known Member
To save anyone disappointment and a wasted journey .... Holkham Hall Estate took the decision this summer to restrict horse box parking in AND horse rider access through Queen Anne Drive car park to Holkham Beach. You have to arrive between 6-9am and leave no later than 11am, or arrive between 4-6pm and leave no later than 8.30pm.
Riding on the beach is subject to tide times (can't ride at high or incoming imminent high tide) so to have the extra restriction of only being able to gain access to the beach for two periods per day will result in much disappointment as the access times are not going to necessarily coincide with safe tide riding times.
According to Norfolk Bridleways and Hacking Facebook page, even horse riders hacking over (e.g. from local horse holiday establishments) have been turned away if they arrive between the hours of 11am-4pm, not even allowed to ride along Queen Anne Drive to access the beach. There is a report that one family on a day trip drove 3 hours to get there only to be turned away without even being able to unload their poor horses for a rest before starting their 3 hour journey back home.
There is no other sensible access to Holkham Beach other than Queen Anne Drive. The only other access is the public access from Wells-next-Sea (no horse box parking) which necessitates riding your horse through Wells next Sea (a tremendously busy, popular holiday seaside town), a mile down the busy tarmac harbour-side road to the public beach by the lifeboat station, then riding along the absolutely busiest (human traffic) part of the beach past all the beach huts (I was told that horses are not allowed on this "town beach") in order to get to Holkham Beach. So that's a good 40-60 minutes hack to get you to the point at Holkham Beach as if you'd been able to use Queen Anne Drive).
You can't access Holkham beach from the Brancaster end either.
With being able to get on Holkham beach, there is no attraction to taking your horse on holiday to that area so this decision stands to disaffect many of the local small businesses who operate horse holidays too.
The afternoon time doesn't work at all for six months of the year as it will be dark/getting dark.
Holkham Hall is a massive estate, a massive business enterprise with zillions of hectares of land. There is plenty of room for accessing the beach, there's plenty of potential land alongside and across the road already owned by Holkham Hall whereby overflow carparks could be created, which would surely be a win-win situation as then as many people as want to access the beach can be comfortably accommodated and Holkham Hall makes more money out of parking fees too.
No other groups of people are being restricted from parking in Queen Anne Drive or using the drive to access the Beach.
Can BHS Central take this up please on riders and horsey holiday business behalves?
At the moment this seems like Designing Horseriders out of Existence.
Riding on the beach is subject to tide times (can't ride at high or incoming imminent high tide) so to have the extra restriction of only being able to gain access to the beach for two periods per day will result in much disappointment as the access times are not going to necessarily coincide with safe tide riding times.
According to Norfolk Bridleways and Hacking Facebook page, even horse riders hacking over (e.g. from local horse holiday establishments) have been turned away if they arrive between the hours of 11am-4pm, not even allowed to ride along Queen Anne Drive to access the beach. There is a report that one family on a day trip drove 3 hours to get there only to be turned away without even being able to unload their poor horses for a rest before starting their 3 hour journey back home.
There is no other sensible access to Holkham Beach other than Queen Anne Drive. The only other access is the public access from Wells-next-Sea (no horse box parking) which necessitates riding your horse through Wells next Sea (a tremendously busy, popular holiday seaside town), a mile down the busy tarmac harbour-side road to the public beach by the lifeboat station, then riding along the absolutely busiest (human traffic) part of the beach past all the beach huts (I was told that horses are not allowed on this "town beach") in order to get to Holkham Beach. So that's a good 40-60 minutes hack to get you to the point at Holkham Beach as if you'd been able to use Queen Anne Drive).
You can't access Holkham beach from the Brancaster end either.
With being able to get on Holkham beach, there is no attraction to taking your horse on holiday to that area so this decision stands to disaffect many of the local small businesses who operate horse holidays too.
The afternoon time doesn't work at all for six months of the year as it will be dark/getting dark.
Holkham Hall is a massive estate, a massive business enterprise with zillions of hectares of land. There is plenty of room for accessing the beach, there's plenty of potential land alongside and across the road already owned by Holkham Hall whereby overflow carparks could be created, which would surely be a win-win situation as then as many people as want to access the beach can be comfortably accommodated and Holkham Hall makes more money out of parking fees too.
No other groups of people are being restricted from parking in Queen Anne Drive or using the drive to access the Beach.
Can BHS Central take this up please on riders and horsey holiday business behalves?
At the moment this seems like Designing Horseriders out of Existence.
