Burnham Market is one of those pretty, traditional Norfolk villages, with a green and plenty of shops ideal for browsing but few parking spaces and plenty of visitors. Even this weekend it took a little while to get a space on the green, which is somewhere I rarely get to park, especially in the summer months. As we arrived the blue skies turned dark, the rain that was threatening arrived and luckily a space materialised almost right outside the hat shop, which was the purpose of our visit.
This pretty village has one of the best hat shops I know, and the plan was to take a look to see what they had to get inspiration for my niece’s wedding in May. As it turned out, as you’ll have seen yesterday, I ended up buying one because it seems even wedding guests have a moment when they know it’s the one. We made quite an entrance into the shop as when the rain paused for a moment, that was so it could turn to hailstones instead. You’d never know it from the photo below though, taken not that much after.
With the unexpected hat purchase safely stowed in the dry of the car, we had a wander around the village to see what’s changed since our last visit, and to see what’s hot in Norfolk interiors. So off we went up an alley and into a small courtyard just off the main street where we found Boudicca Designs, with plenty of cushions and mugs which caught my eye.
THE MUGS TOP LEFT SAY: NORMAL FOR NORFOLK & BOOTIFUL… EXACTLY
While you might think those mugs are out of place, there was plenty of stylish and matching homewares. These orange background matching mugs and lampshade were a favourite, initially I thought they were foxes but looking again I think they’re more dog-like.
It was the settle though behind these that really drew my attention - which thanks to my new Salvage Hunters’ obsession, I know it’s a settle - isn’t it great? The colours, the material and while not authentic, it’s something that would work well in many country and even city properties.
In one of the newer shops, which I don’t seem to be able to find the name of now, there were plenty of muted colours with white prints and some light hearted quotes, bringing a smile to my face as surely life is better in flip flops? I’ve always said Norfolk has big skies and those cards would look great in a frame, I think.
I’m not sure about the wetsuit card though.
I’m sure though that there’s definitely Norfolk time. There’s most certainly Norfolk speed on the roads, it’s about 22mph and is quite alien coming from London where everything moves much faster than the speed limit, it’s hard to readjust and so you find yourself waiting where you could have pulled out.
I’ve found another Norfolk shop with some fabulous candles, who’d have thought Norfolk would be so candle rich?
Another shop that’s always worth a visit is Uttings of Burnham, it’s deceptively large and has a mix of functional and frivolous. From the outside it looks a traditional hardware shop, fronted with a fruit and vegetable shop. It’s full of wonders though, on this visit while we were looking at these gorgeous plates there was another lady in the shop was in there looking for loo rolls.
I fell for the Octopus plate, and it would look fabulous on my dresser. I didn’t even get as far as looking at the price before MOH chipped in with, where wouldI put it, I wouldn’t mind - but he liked it too!