Cycle through centuries of West Norfolk history on this relaxed 15 mile route round Sandringham and its pretty surroundings. First stop, Castle Rising across the Babingley River. It’s said that while on his mission to bring Christianity to East Anglia in AD 615, St Felix of Burgundy was shipwrecked on the Babingley. As luck would have it, he was rescued by some passing beavers so in thanks Felix made the chief beaver a bishop. As you do. Which is why there’s a beaver in a bishop’s mitre on the charming village sign.

Speed on to the 1150s and the building of the Church of St. Lawrence and Castle Rising’s famous Norman fortress. In the 13th century the castle was home to notorious ‘She-Wolf’, Queen Isabella, who may or may not have murdered her husband, King Edward II. We couldn’t possibly comment.

Castle Rising’s other buildings date from the 1600s, include cottages at 20 and 21 Low Road and the almshouse Trinity Hospital. Back at the Sandringham Estate you’ll pass the Norwich Gates, originally constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1862, the same year the Estate was purchased by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. Sandringham House was built shortly afterward and the coastal heathland of gorse and heather transformed by the planting of Royal woods and parkland, providing local employment for generations.

Looping out past West Newton and Anmer churches, this gentle cycling route brings you back past the War Memorial through the heart of the Estate.