Annie Tempest’s Guide to North Norfolk
14th May 2025
Annie Tempest, who has lived in Norfolk for over 30 years, calls herself an ‘artist with three minds’ – she’s a cartoonist, a sculptor and an expressionist/figurative painter. Here, she talks to Harriet Cooper about secret gardens, the best places for seafood and why she’s opening her Stibbard studio to visitors
I like Cookie’s Crab Shop in Salthouse. It’s quite small but they do delicious seafood and shellfish. You can eat so well there, but it’s wise to book as it is very popular (01263 740352). I’ll also have the mussels at The White Horse in Brancaster Staithe (www.whitehorsebrancaster.co.uk) and I love The Brisley Bell (www.thebrisleybell.co.uk). It’s an idyllic country pub whatever the season.
Algy’s Farm Shop is near me – they grow their own vegetables and they’ve recently expanded the deli. They do very good pies on a Thursday, but you must get there early as they sell out quickly (www.algys.co.uk). I also buy fish from Gurneys in Burnham Market (www.gurneysfishshop.co.uk). And I do like the food hall at Bakers & Larners – it’s like having a Fortnum & Mason in Holt (www.bakersandlarners.co.uk).
I’m not a shopper; I’m more into galleries. I particularly love the ceramics at Bircham Gallery in Holt, they’re unusual (www.birchamgallery.co.uk). And Mandell’s Gallery in Norwich is also very good (www.mandellsgallery.co.uk) – they have great sculptors, like Neal French, and modern artists doing impressive work.
I’ll go to Houghton Hall’s exhibition of sculptor Stephen Cox this summer. Their annual contemporary exhibitions are always amazing – I enjoyed last year’s Antony Gormley one very much (www.houghtonhall.com).
Photo: Pete Huggins © Houghton Hall
We Norfolk artists are a tribe, for sure. I love sculptor Rachael Long’s work (www.rachaellongsculpture.com) and Kate Giles is incredibly talented. She’s an oil painter and does very lively landscapes (www.kategilespaintings.com). And I also really like the colour work of an artist called Cornelia FitzRoy (@corneliafitzroy).
I’ve done North Norfolk Open Studios a few times. People arrive knowing me as a cartoonist, so they’re usually surprised at the breadth of my work – it looks like 28 different artists have been working here. I’m one hundred percent immersed in art. You can really engage with visitors at Open Studio; I’ve had some of the best conversations. I think people are beginning to relate to more emotional work that isn’t purely decorative (www.northnorfolkstudios.co.uk).
The North Norfolk landscape is my anchor. Having been born in Zambia, the flatness and the big open plains is exactly what I seek out, and these huge skies. I have been returning to Africa for years. I’m going next week with my sketchbook to Tangier.
I walk at Bintree Mill every day with the dogs – it’s like going to church for me, it’s heavenly. In fact, I had my son’s wake there, it’s my spiritual home. It is private land, but there is a road through it and there are Bintree Woods which you can walk in. It’s by a chalk stream, which is pristine. It’s just beautiful.
Elsing Hall has magical gardens [which are open through the National Garden Scheme on 7 June; www.ngs.org.uk]. The inhabitants do the garden largely themselves; they’ve got incredibly good taste and it’s beautifully kept. Corpusty Mill Garden, designed, built and planted by John and Roger Last, is exquisite; it’s full of incredible planting, grottoes and follies. It’s open to group visits by prior arrangement (www.corpustymillgarden.co.uk).
You can visit Annie Tempest in her Open Studio in Stibbard on 24 and 25 May, 31 May and 1 June, 7 and 8 June, 10am to 3pm; for more information, visit www.annietempest.com and www.totteringbygently.com
