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Heacham, a couple of miles south of Hunstanton, is a deceptive place. It’s one of the largest villages in the region, with a population of around 5500, yet you’d hardly realise it’s there at all, by-passed as it by the busy A149.
Although large, Heacham is quiet and laid-back, its streets of sensible, brick-built houses obscuring the fact that this is a popular family seaside resort with two excellent beaches, a past spanning five millennia and a part in Anglo-American history.
The first settlers arrived here around 3000 BC, attracted by the river which provided fresh water, the sea which gave them fish, and the surrounding woodland where deer and other game were to be found. Artefacts from the Stone Age and the time of the Romans have been found. The Normans’ legacy was the Church of St Mary the Virgin, dating from 1230 and the oldest building in the village, which gained its name in the 12th century from Geoffrey de Hecham, a Norman overlord.
The safe west-facing sandy beaches – North Beach and South Beach – remained wild and unspoilt and accessed by a wooden footbridge over the Heacham River until 1887 when a new bridge was built to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. Still in use today, the Jubilee Bridge also marked the beginning of Heacham’s development as a peaceful resort without the brash amusements and entertainment found in some seaside places.
Heacham’s greatest claim to fame is hinted at in its village sign, which bears the portrait of a young dark-skinned woman in fashionable Elizabethan costume. This is Pocahontas, the Native American princess who married John Rolfe, the 17th century English settler who organised the proper cultivation of tobacco in Virginia. Rolfe’s home in England was at Heacham Hall.
Pocahontas had earned the respect of the Jamestown colonists in 1607, when, at the age of around ten, she had intervened to save the life of Captain John Smith, who had been sentenced to death by her father, Great Chief Powhatan. In 1612 she was taken hostage by the colonists to guarantee her people’s good behaviour, and a year later, after converting to Christianity, she married John Rolfe.
Pocahontas gave birth to a son, Thomas, in 1615 and in 1616 the family sailed to England, where the princess was received by King James I and feted at banquets in London. An ancient mulberry tree in the grounds of Heacham Hall is said to have been planted to mark Pocahontas’s visit there. The hall itself burned down in 1899.
John Rolfe was appointed Secretary and Recorder General of Virginia, and arrangements were made for him and his family to return to Jamestown. While waiting at Gravesend, Kent, for their ship to sail, Pocahontas, in her early twenties, succumbed to fever and died in March 1617. A tablet commemorating the American princess can be found in Heacham parish church.
Heacham’s major tourist attraction is Norfolk Lavender, which brings thousands of keen gardeners and tourists to Caley Mill, on the edge of the village. The enterprise began in 1936 when bunches of lavender were sold from a roadside kiosk. Now lavender plants are farmed on 100 acres of land and there are herb and rose gardens and a fragrant meadow garden, as well as the National Collection of Lavenders and a distillery where lavender oil is extracted.
Visitors will also find a conservatory shop, gift shop and tea room. Guided walking and mini-bus tours are available during July and August when harvesting takes place.
Norfolk Lavender Ltd, Caley Mill, Heacham, Norfolk PE31 7JE; tel: 01485 570384; e-mail: admin@norfolk-lavender.co.uk. Open daily 10.00-17.00 (closed Jan 1, Dec 25-26). Admission free; charges for guided tours.
