Episode 37 - A Broad Church

Episode 37 - A Broad Church

🏞️ More Than Words – Stage 37: A Broad Church 🏞️ From Norfolk’s flatlands to its theological, agricultural, and occasionally explosive history, this stage is basically a guided tour of a county that wakes up every morning and chooses eccentricity. Featuring: 🧀 The Full Fondue — the only triathlon you’ll ever need  🌴 Sharm el‑Sheikh backroads — walking laps like a tourist trapped in a screensaver 🍺 Little Fransham — a pub named after football teams and a font that predates most modern plumbing 🛕 Wendling — medieval monks, WWII bombers, and turkey sheds; the Norfolk Circle of Life 🦌 Dereham — deer in the name, miracles in the well, poets having a full emotional reboot ⛪ Hockering — medieval church, RAF bomb stores, and trees attempting a coup d’état 💰 Honingham — Boudicca’s emergency savings account, still unclaimed 🚜 Easton — agricultural Glastonbury: prize bulls, neon slushies, and tractor choreography 🐄 Bawburgh — barefoot saint, miraculous oxen, and a church wall that said “nope” 📜 Little Melton — medieval gossip murals and the only Norfolk school the Luftwaffe actually hit 🌉 Cringleford — a bridge that’s carried queens, rebels, and now people furious about cul‑de‑sacs 📚 Norwich — medieval literary influencer energy; Julian of Norwich walked so Partridge could run It’s travel with saints, rebels, bombers, hoards, miraculous livestock, agricultural festivals, and a bridge that’s seen more drama than most capital cities. Equal parts historic, eccentric, and quietly unhinged.

Episode 36 - Coast of Living Crisis

🐳 More Than Words – Stage 36: Coast of Living Crisis 🐳 From whale-powered bone mills to a medieval pedlar who dreamed his way to a pot of gold, because Norfolk’s tourism strategy is apparently “flat horizons, Viking place names, and a surprising amount of whale fat.” Featuring: 🌊 Sutton Bridge: three attempts at crossing the same river 🦅 A man who shot wildfowl for sport, then had a change of heart so dramatic it needed a seatbelt 🐳 Whale carcasses hauled upriver to become fertiliser — remote location chosen specifically so the smell was someone else’s problem  ✈️ RAF Narborough: once Britain’s largest airfield, later a barn 💀 King’s Lynn: Hanseatic powerhouse, medieval port, and the town that produced two men who signed a king’s death warrant 🏺 The man who found Tutankhamun  🍺 A village that: lost its last pub, formed a committee, and got it back — rural Norfolk draws the line at not being able to walk for a pint It’s travel with dyed pigeons, medieval barns, RAF ghosts, whale mills, and landscapes so flat they could double as spirit levels. Equal parts scenic, surreal, and agriculturally stern.

Episode 35 - Only Fens

🌾 More Than Words – Episode 35: Only Fens 🌾 From Pennine reservoir punishment to Fenland flatness so extreme it questions the Earth’s curvature, Episode 35 is what happens when geography gives up halfway through. Featuring: 🐕 Dexter: convinced all dogs are beatable (situationally incorrect) 💈 Barber trips: now classified as endurance sport 🥧 Tebay Services: farm shop or organised financial ambush 🌧️ Keswick: outdoor shops with a town attached 🌾 The Fens: land on loan from the sea 🐑 Ropsley: sheep-washing infrastructure, peak innovation 👑 Threekingham: three kings, or just one bloke called Tric ⚓ Matthew Flinders: mapped Australia, missed all the credit 💣 Holbeach: dog walking, but with live bombing practice 📏 A17: straight, bleak, and morally opposed to corners It’s travel with windburn, medieval admin, lost treasure, aggressive flatness, and a landscape held together by pumps and optimism.

Episode 34 - Angels and Demons

🌗 More Than Words – Episode 34: Angels and Demons 🌗 From haunted halls to cold medieval service stations, episode 34 is what happens when English history quietly loses the plot. Featuring: 🏚️ Clifton Hall: ghosts, stains, and a man who repossessed himself ⚰️ Wilford gazebo: scenic views, optional corpses 🍖 Captain Deane: butcher → cannibal → Russian navy → retiree 📬 Gamston: cc’d into a 12th-century papal email chain 📏 Fosse Way: Roman road, still aggressively straight 🔥 Bingham: surgeon arsonist, then 30 years in a shed 🧙 Bottesford: witchcraft, sorcery, and England’s bleakest bake-off 🎭 Laurel & Hardy: Christmas in a Vale pub, obviously 🐝 Grantham: Newton, Thatcher, and a pub that can sting you 🥶 Cold Harbour: medieval Travelodge, but worse It’s travel with ghosts, cannibals, witch trials, economic policy, and a final stop that legally counts as shelter. Equal parts historic, unhinged, and mildly frostbitten.

Episode 33 - The Goat and The Bat

🦇 More Than Words – Stage 33: The Goat and The Bat 🐐 From antique museums that open less often than Halley’s Comet to a village that inspired Batman by pretending to be mad — welcome to the Midlands, where the history is deep, the yew trees are older than most religions, and Derby casually invented the factory and the jet engine like it was nothing. Featuring: 🕰️ Beamhurst Museum: open less days than a Leap Year February  ☔️Samuel Johnson and the world’s most intense apology 🌲 A 1,400‑year‑old yew with added Robin Hood 💃 Mr Darcy’s brooding corridor, and aristocrats quietly combusting over the children’s mirror ball 👻 A ghost that acts live a livestock alarm clock 🛠️ Derby: essentially showing off 🦆 A canal jacuzzi for ducks 🦇 Gotham: the original one — no skyscrapers, no Bat‑Signal, just medieval villagers gaslighting a king It’s travel with antique hoards, biscuit‑scented market squares, stately homes having identity crises, canals that burble ominously, and a finale in the village that accidentally birthed Gotham City. Equal parts historic, heroic, and mildly unhinged.