Now I don’t know about you but every time I go to Holt I have mixed feelings. I can’t quite work out whether I think it is a quaint historic Norfolk Town or something slightly pretentious. Probably the former just wins over the latter.
There are lots of art galleries in Holt that sell overpriced paintings. There are lots of gift shops in Holt that sell overpriced gifts. But it’s not all bad. I found a book by historian Alison Weir in a charity shop for £1.50. The same book in the café/library shop in Kelling was £8. Mind you they were selling one of the Peter Ackroyd’s history series books for £12 (second hand) when you can get them off Amazon for £3.99.
Anyway back to Holt. There are gems to find if you poke round the backstreets. Which leads me to talk about chips. There’s a chip shop in Holt in Albert Street that is one of the best – they even proudly boast a certificate for outstanding service to the town during lockdown.
Well their chips are excellent. All too often when it comes to chips you end up buying a potato mess full for fat with the chips clinging together. There is an art to frying chips (my favourites are still those from Great Yarmouth market). But Albert Street in Holt serve good chips. Good chips are ones that are individual and stay apart from each other.
Frying fish and chips is an artform. The best are great but the worst are awful – just like pizzas, burgers and much more. When they are good they are very very good but when they are bad they are very very bad.
Then we came across the Cross Street Union coffee shop. This is a tiny shop that sells very good coffee and good sweet stuff. There is a small bar and some stools outside on which we perched just before it started hammering down with rain. So up went the umbrella as we drank our coffee in the rain. The owner came out and asked our permission to take a photo: “Only if you can assure us it will go on social media,” I replied.
As you know I have this thing about fame and like to behave in the opposite way to what I am expected. So rather than say ”yes you can take our picture as long as it’s not used anywhere public” I say the opposite. I await to see if we do appear online but many thanks to Danny Skipper for sending us the photo which I will publish in my blog in a few days time. In the meantime included here are just a few of our Holt pics including a couple of the Cross Street Union.
As a final comment I would like to thank the two drivers who drove through Holt with their windows fully down, thus giving is the opportunity to enjoy their music. Thanks for sharing with us you muppets.
Prior to going to Holt we popped into Letheringsett Mill where they were selling pies and cheesecakes. Bought a couple before we realised how much they cost. At the price we paid (which I will divulge once we have tried them) they had better be good.