Ranworth tower
Almost all of our visitors love to climb the eighty-nine spiral steps and two ladders to the top of the flint-lined tower of St Helen’s Church.
The view is spectacular. Much of the Norfolk Broads river system is visible interlaced with boats that weave their way in a constantly changing pattern of light through farmland and marshes that grow traditional Norfolk thatching reed. A survey by Ray Martin of the West Midlands using a calibrated telescope lists nearly two hundred sites in the Cromer–Norwich–Great Yarmouth area, including 116 churches, numerous windmills and wind drainage pumps, Happisburgh lighthouse and even the top of Norwich Cathedral.
On a good day, one can see the impressive wind turbines of the wind farm at West Somerton; Norfolk is one of the windiest places in England.
View from Ranworth Church tower showing the thatched Broadland Conservation Centre and Ranworth Dyke leading to the River Bure
The weather vane on the top of the tower celebrates the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953
Ranworth Tower flints