A trip by train to Ely, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Ipswich
In 2021 we visited East Anglia and we returned in November 2025, this time with our friend Nick, who knows the area well. For Ted and I this was a chance to do a little trackbashing, completing our coverage of the Greater Anglia railway lines and, of course, to sample a few of the pubs and beers of the region.
As in 2021 we began the trip in Peterborough, travelled to Ely and spent the first night there. See East Anglia 2021 for the 2021 trip. This time we stayed in the same hotel and visited most of the same pubs. On the following morning we journeyed by train to Norwich and it is from there that we were in new territory. Rather than repeat ourselves we’ve made a few updates to the 2021 account, and this account of our 2025 journey begins on our second day with the train from Norwich to Great Yarmouth.
After a brief stop in the Coach and Horses near the station for an early pint we caught the 1135 across the Norfolk Broads to Great Yarmouth via Berney Arms. There are only two daily trains each way via this route (Mon-Sat – there are more on Sundays, presumably to cater for walkers and bird watchers) and the 1135 is the final departure of the day. It provided the opportunity to travel on the line from Berney Arms to Great Yarmouth for the first time.
Back in 1997 we walked to Berney Arms, across the marshes from the village of Acle, then returned to Norwich by train. It was an isolated pub, only accessible by foot, boat, and train. We enjoyed our visit but unfortunately the pub closed a few years ago, so this time we didn’t stop. and carried on to Great Yarmouth, a town we had never previously visited. We travelled via Brundall, Cantley, Reedham and Berney Arms across the Broads, part of the route being below sea level, protected by dykes. Much of the area was underwater after recent rains. We passed cattle grazing in the fields but the ground is too waterlogged to grow crops. There is little in the way of human habitation, except on slightly raised areas and the main sights are windmills and the large sugar beet factory at Cantley. After about forty minutes we reached Great Yarmouth, found our way to our hotel along pedestrian-unfriendly roads, had a rest then set out to explore.
Today Great Yarmouth is a town of about 30,000 people on a spit of land between the River Yare and the North Sea. It was mainly a fishing port and a seaside resort. Looking at photographs the seaside area and beach look impressive, but we didn’t visit it on a cloudy November day. Fishing and other traditional industries have declined and the main part of the town appears very depressed and in need of investment. There are older buildings including the remains of the Town Wall, the Minster and an impressive Town Hall. There remains some old areas of housing and shops in the many back lanes, known as rows. However, the town was badly bombed during World War 2 and much of the old town was replaced by 1950s housing estates.
However, there are a couple of fine pubs. The Tombstone Brewery and Saloon Bar provided a tasty pint of Amarillo direct from the cask. Our favourite was the Blackfriars Tavern, CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year – an excellent friendly pub. We also paid a visit to the Mariners and had a meal and a pint in the Kings Arms, where the beer was Lacon, a local brewery taken over and closed in 1968 but now revived as an independent brewery.
Our third day took us from Great Yarmouth to Ipswich, stopping off along the way. Our first train took us to Brundall along the route to Norwich via Acle. As far as Acle this was a second new stretch of track for us.
By Brundall station is the White Heron (pictured), where we stopped for an early pint – it is mainly an eating place but has several cask ales and opens at 1000. It is situated next to a large boatyard on the River Year and you can watch all the activity from the pub.
We crossed the level crossing to the eastbound platform and caught a train to Lowestoft. As far as Reedham this was a stretch we had travelled yesterday. After there we journeyed through more of the Norfolk Broads National Park then alongside busy Lowestoft harbour and into the station. On the station concourse is a shop where the Community Rail Partnership have a shop cum tourism information centre (pictured). There are lots of transport books for sale as well as a selection of gifts and I was able to purchase our souvenir tat for this trip.
Lowestoft, the most Easterly settlement in England, is another town which has seen better days and deserves better. It was a seaside resort and fishing port and centre for North Sea oil and gas exploration and now a base for renewable energy industries. We had limited time so walked along the High Street in search of the Triangle Tavern. However, it didn’t open until later, so we made our way to the Oak Tavern – Good Beer Guide listed and fairly basic but with good beer and atmosphere. Ted and I visited Lowestoft (and nearby places such as Aldeburgh and Southwold) on our 2014 Bus Trip round south east England – see The Bus Trip.
We returned to Lowestoft station in time for the next train to Ipswich. From Lowestoft to the first station en route, Oulton Broad South, was our final stretch of new trackbashing on this trip. I’ve no memory of why I was there before – it must have been a totally uninteresting work visit. We soon left the Broads and the remainder of the journey was through attractive, mildly rolling countryside. We passed though Halesworth and Saxmundham, two stations between which we caught a train on our 2014 bus trip due to lack of a suitable bus connection. Around Saxmundham there was lots of preparatory work by the railway in connection with the construction of the new Sizewell nuclear power station. After about an hour we arrived at our next stop – Woodbridge.
Woodbridge is an attractive small town on the Deben estuary much frequented by boating enthusiasts – the harbour is adjacent to the station. We had hoped to explore the town with a walking group but a combination of limited time and grotty, wet, cold and windy weather meant that we settled into the Anchor Inn (pictured) across from the station for a couple of pints of Wadsworth’s 6X before catching our final train for the short journey on to Ipswich.
The same weather and time constraints (in particular an early start the next morning) meant that we didn’t see much of Ipswich. The area around the station and the River Orwell isn’t particularly attractive, but it may not be typical of the town. we confined ourselves to a couple of drink and food in the excellent Nelson pub – with its fine selection of cask beers (pictured). We said goodnight and goodbye to Nick and retired for the night.
The following morning we caught an early train to Peterborough – this is a route we took after our visit to the branch lines of Essex (see Trains and Beer in Essex ). From there we returned to Durham through icy countryside. Another good trip over – and we may return in future to see more of Woodbridge and Ipswich. The landscape is interesting – particularly with Nick’s local knowledge – it may be very flat in places but it isn’t boring when you understand how it has been developed over the centuries.
Practicalities
Trains
This is an easy area of the country to travel around by train. Services are operated by modern trains and are fairly frequent, with the exception of the limited service on the Reedham – Berney Arms – Great Yarmouth line. Through direct trains from Ipswich to Peterborough are only every two hours though there are additional services between Ely and Peterborough.
Hotels
The hotels we used were: Ely – The Lamb, 2 Lynn Rd, CB7 4EJ, old coaching inn, central ; Great Yarmouth – Premier Inn Great Yarmouth West, Runham Vauxhall, N. River Rd, NR30 1SH, standard Premier Inn, close to railway station but a bit of a hike to and from the town centre ; Ipswich – Novotel Ipswich Centre, Grey Friars Rd, IP1 1UP, good quality Novotel between the station and the town centre.
Pubs
The pubs we visited were: Peterborough – Brewery Tap, 80 Westgate, PE1 2AA ; Ely – see East Anglia 2021 ; Norwich – Coach and Horses, 82 Thorpe Rd, NR1 1BA. For other pubs in Norwich on our 2021 trip see East Anglia 2021 ; Great Yarmouth – Tombstone Saloon Bar, 6 George St, NR30 1HR, Blackfriars Tavern, 94 Blackfriars Rd, NR30 3BZ, Mariners, 69 Howard St South, NR30 1LN, Kings Arms, 229 Northgate St, NR30 1BG ; Brundall – White Heron, Riverside Estate, NR13 5PL ; Lowestoft – Oak Tavern, 73 Crown St. West, NR32 1SQ ; Woodbridge – Anchor Inn, 19 Quay St, IP12 1BX ; Ipswich – The Nelson, 81 Fore St, IP4 1PZ.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Nick Atkinson (pictured below with Ted in the Prince Albert, Ely) for organising the trip, for providing lots of background information as we went along and for his company on the journey.
Copyright. Text and Photos are and Copyright © Steve Gillon, 2025, except for the photos listed below.
The following photos were sourced via Google Images: The Greater Anglia train in the heading is from Rail Magazine, the White Heron at Brundall is by CAMRA, the Lowestoft station shop is from the Lowestoft Central Project Facebook page, the Oak Tavern, Lowestoft, the Anchor Inn, Woodbridge and the beers at the Lord Nelson, Ipswich are from CAMRA, and Ipswich station is from Wikipedia.
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