The Bridge Inn

Riverside Pub and Restaurant Acle Bridge Norwich, Norfolk, UK

The Bridge Inn has stood by the waters of the River Bure for many hundreds of years, serving sailors, smugglers and travellers and the villagers of Acle. The building that we see today is largely eighteenth century and originally a farmhouse.

Because of its site on the river, Acle is an ancient crossroads. A bridge has existed here since 1101. There was an Iron Age fort in the village, later to become a Roman camp.

Acle village stands on the west edge of the marshes, eight miles inland from Great Yarmouth; this area in the Roman period was a great estuary called Garienis and Acle had once been a port. This estuary slowly silted up and by 495 AD a sand bank appeared where we now find Great Yarmouth.

In the Doomsday Book, Acle is reported as having 23 villages, 38 small holders and three slaves. A causeway over the marshes to Billockby is recorded to have a bridge over the River Bure in 1101.