The Crown Inn

Catfield is a perfect base for your North Norfolk holiday it is close to all the attractions but just far enough away to still be fairly quiet. We have a post office with shop and our pub. All Saints Church, most of the building dates from the 14th century. On the road screen there are 16 paintings of kings. On the north wall of the sanctuary there is a tablet by the sculptor William Graves depicting a peepul tree at the top and a sheated sword below dedicated to Lt Thomas Cubitt who died in 1848. Cubitt, who was a soldier died in his country’s cause before Multan,, a town in the Punjab, India. The church is a grade 1 listed building.

We also have a butterfly conservation at Catfield Fen which is part of the Broads and Marshes National Nature Reserve (NNR) which covers much of the floodplain of the middle Ant Valley. The NNR is one of the largest remaining areas of fen habitat in Western Europe. The area is a stronghold for the Swallowtail butterfly.

Catfield Fen has been cut for reed and sedge for thatching for many years. BC Norfolk Branch purchased the reserve in 1992 and has managed it ever since and now since 2012 in collaboration with RSPB. The reserve is a typical fen mixture of open water, reed, sedge and corr woodland. The reed is cut on a 1-2 year cycle and sedge on a 3-5 year cycle, this is used for thatching and produces an ideal range of vegetation structures for a great diversity of wildlife. The Fen has a long history of management which also depends on the careful control of water levels. Many uncommon and rare plants and animals are found on the reserve, including milk parsley and crested buckler fern and dragon flies such as the Norfolk Hawker. The dykes and ditches support rare plants such as frogbit and stoneworts. old peat cuttings on the reserve provide a special range of conditions for water beetles and Catfield Fen is one of top national sites for them. The reserve is also the only site from which Trogus lapidator, the lchneumonid wasp parasite of the swallow tail has been recorded in the UK. The reserve is just over one mile west of Catfield Village, down Fenside Lane. As a wetland there is only limited access. Even in the summer the reserve is very wet, it has hidden ditches, vegetation ‘hovering’ over water holes and soft sides to banks and dykes. This unfortunately makes it too unsafe to allow open public access. There is an open day once a year when reed and sedge cutting is usually demonstrated. The footpath along the Rond, the raised bank around the boundary dyke enclosing the western and southern sides of the reserve, does however provide safe access right into the Fenland, from its vantage the reserve and surrounding habitat are more easily viewed as are the swallowtails:- they visit the Rond for nectar and to lay eggs on the milk parsley growing there. As well as the annual open day there are winter work parties, when more volunteers are always welcome.

For accommodation pricing and availability, please call us on 01692 580128 or email [email protected]