A Coronation Camping Picnic, Kelling Heath, Norfolk - 6th May 2023

We return to Kelling Heath - one of the best-set-up campsites anywhere - for the long weekend of the coronation (or coronating) of Chazzy W, marking the start of the third Carolean era. The weather forecast isn't great, but it mostly holds out, although there's a wet afternoon and a bit of rain around when we get the steam train up to Sheringham. It clears up just in time for fish-and-chips on the seafront and Sheringham's Coronation Street Party, where we happen to bump into former Qualcomm colleague Francis "F-dood" for a few minutes of shouty conversation over the noise of a loud backing track and singer.

next album: DesignerMakers' Fund-Raising Ceilidh, The Cornhall, Diss - 13th May 2023
previous album: The Heritage Steam Gala, Bressingham Steam Museum, Norfolk - 1st May 2023

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Our bit of campsite, before it fills up

Our bit of campsite, before it fills up

Harry outside the awning

The others have all pitched up

We scope out the food vans, where Harry gets pasta

Fred gives the pizza a thumbs-up

There's a band playing in the 'village square'

An outdoor beer marquee

Harry and some of the teens are hanging around

Grace has drawn an amusing 'Charles III as Gollum'

Tilly Dog roams around with her favourite toy

A bit of coronation watching occurs

A coronation picnic is set up outside

Time for a coronation picnic

Harry watches on the caravan's tiny TV

The steam train comes down the line from Holt

Class 9F Black Prince stops at Kelling Heath

Class 37 D6732 smokes its way up from Weybourne

The steam train is on the uphill leg

Harry gives us a Vulcan salute

It absolutely tips it down in the afternoon

Rain on the awning's plastic window

Harry watches Saiki K in the van

Harry in the clubhouse bar

Harry's doing story dice with Anna and Archie

Sophie and Fred are all about the thumbs

A small goose floats around on a mirror-like pond

Fred and the gang on the Kelling Heath halt

The entire camping group

Elsie, Soph the Roph, Fred and Alice

We wait for the next train

Our train stops

Isobel and Harry in a 1st Class Mark 1 coach

The others hang out in a Mark 1 TSO coach

A dispatcher walks the platforn at Weybourne

Isobel sticks her head out of the window

A Mark 1 guard's van

A derelict coach outside Sheringham

The gang pile off the train at Sheringham

Fred and Grace in the Black Prince's steam

92203 Black Prince shunts back to switch tracks

We walk past the Sheringham Little Theatre

A bit of a 1900s facade on a shop

Harry peers over the wall at the sea

Down on the seafront at Sheringham

The brutalist sea walls and promenade

The fishing boat Claire Marie

A drainage channel and the launch slip

Another fishing boat on the shore

Rachel and Andrew hang out by another chipper

Tables are set up for the street party

We wait for our fish and chips outside Straits

Our food order is assembled

Fred and Harry in the fish and chip shop

Fred and Grace on the promenade wall

Harry points at a mural on the wall

Sophie hugs a woolly mammoth for some reason

Under the 'Twixt sea and pine' sign

Harry and Isobel on the beach

Harry and Isobel on a sea of shiny sand

Someone adds to Sophie's 'Sheringham' in the sand

There's a little craft market going on

We stop for a bit of ice cream

Sheringham's street party has kicked off

Union Flag tables

Harry and Isobel roam around

Some crazy Mum dancing occurs

The mayor chats to someone

Harry finishes off his raspberry fruit ice

Sheringham's street party

The singer/guitarist wanders around

The scene on High Street

D6732 is back on the station at Sheringham

Class 37 D6732 gets its headcode changed

The Class 37 diesel is reattached to the coaches

D6732 is ready to haul the next service

The English Electric Company manufacturer's plate

Isobel takes a phone-photo through the window

Some dude waits on the platform at Weybourne

The view from the train

Harry peers out of the door

An M&GN lorry at Holt

Harry scopes out an impressive model railway

The Class 37 diesel is about to leave Holt

Isobel waves as she heads back to Kelling

Another steam train service pulls in to Holt

92203 Class 9f Black Prince

The firebox and footplate of the Black Prince

The Black Prince under steam

A view from the train