Winter in the Little Gun House on the Norfolk Broads

Moving to the UK for two years, from our home in Southern Spain, we have planted ourselves in the flatness of the Norfolk Broads. The house you can see in the photograph is a renovation and development of a World War 11 gun house – many of which were erected during the war when the threat of a German invasion hung in the air. Preferred locations were on rivers along the East coast, and in places where they could be easily hidden from approaching soldiers. Our converted bunker sits on the River Bure.The Bure is the longest, and in places the busiest, of the Norfolk BroadsRivers. It rises near Aylsham which was the original head of navigation, (today, the head of navigation is 10 miles downstream at Coltishall), and flows into the sea at Gorleston. I discovered recently that up until quite recently, large wherries would have sailed right passed the house, but unfortunately this spectacle came to a sad end when they built a bridge over the river right here at the Mill, thus ending the role of the Bure as a major transport artery.

The area is popular with a range of wild fowl, swans and heron. Apart from in winter, willow trees act as curtains in front of the house and sadly, we had to cut down another one, in order to bring any sunlight into the rooms! It’s very quiet here – and, as city creatures – we thought we’d never get used to the total calm. (We used to live in an apartment in the centre of Paris - with an American saxophone player living above. He practised a lot, and never seemed to improve). However – the house – whilst not old – has a special charm, and we have been completely seduced! We love decorative pieces – old French china and furniture gathered from years of living in Paris but also Persian glass, rugs and textiles (my husband is from Tehran), guitars and one graceful and elongated teaspoon of a setar I have yet to fully learn how to play.

Whilst advised to knock down the solid concrete bunker, we decided to keep it as our bathroom, and then added rooms around as needed; we had to bring in a bulldozer for one portion of four foot thick reinforced concrete – in order to create space for a hallway and front door on the other side of the house. The little window on the ground floor, in the middle of the house, is an original, unchanged, gun hole, and we have another one visible inside the bathroom – and use it today to store our toiletries! One builder – not recognising the place as a bunker, thought the gun holes might have been prayer niches!

With the war over, and not one German having rowed up river, the bunker was re-equipped as a cafe, and a second floor added to it, with a staircase leading up, made from old railway tracks. It was finally converted into a very simple dwelling in the 1970s, and when we bought it a few years ago – it was damp and very much in need of attention. We searched local scrap yards for materials salvaged from local mills and stables, and the crowning glory is the large, arched row of windows we found in a yard in Burnham Market – a perfect fit and allowing us to open up a river-facing wall and really bring the light into the room. Recently, a local newspaper wrote a double page feature on the house – describing it today as a New England style loft house, full of colour and light – if that conjurs any pictures for readers! For us, it provides a simple lookout onto spectacular scenery – allowing my younger photographer son plenty of scope for his camera (see Shahram saadat’s hub) - and on days when the sun shines onto the river, each room sparkles and shimmers with fluid reflections. We need to build one more room – over the single story section to the right of the photograph. Then there will be just enough room for everyone to do what they like to do. In the summer, access to the river is direct, and the Broads and their secrets can be explored in canoes and flat bottomed rowing boats. I like to bring out the hammocks and tie them under the willow trees. Our older son comes to visit from Seville, and flamenco guitar practice goes on for much of the day. (see You-Tube – Anoush Saadat). It’s a really satisfying coming together of our missed life in Spain, and the temporary and special one we have created in the UK.