Bike Security. (Old Railway Station at Kerri's Farmhouse Pine - Reepham)

Old Railway Station

Under new management 

See Egg Hunt

Reepham has two old railway stations, one to the south (Whitwell) and one to the North. It is hard to see how a town of this size would ever have needed this much transport infrastructure, unless it was planning to bid for a major sporting event, and I have no recollection of the Reepham Olympic or world cup bid. However the good news is that there is now a cafe at both disused stations and they are both on the Marriots way cycle route from Norwich. Myself, with today's guest Big George, decided that for this ride we would go to the Old Railway Station at Kerri's Farmhouse Pine just to the North of Reepham. It was too muddy to take our road bikes down the Marriots way so we did a 40 mile on-road loop instead.

Big George claimed he had been poorly this week so we had to take it easy. I did notice he kept needing to adjust his bike every time we got to the top of a hill (so he could have a breather me thinks) but we did eventually get to the venue.

Old Railway Station - Reepham

To make the day even more exciting I had my new Alamio security lock to try. The Alamio combines a bike lock with a piercing 100 decibel car type alarm. I enthusiastically wrapped it round our bikes and set the security system up safe in the knowledge we had thwarted bike crime in Reepham for the day.

We entered the Cafe (which also combines a gift shop featuring an array of jams and relishes) and found the cake counter in front of us. This was good as I could immediately decide on the effective cake selection (ECS) rating. There were a number of cakes and biscuits but only the cheese scone and chocolate cake stood out so I awarded an average ECS score. I went for my normal hot chocolate and a cheese scone. Big George went for a Cappuccino and Fruit scone.

It was too cold for the outside seating area so we sat inside through the back of the cafe overlooking the old platform. We were now some way from our bikes making me worry that we would not hear the alarm if the criminal fraternity of Reepham decided to pounce.

I could no longer concentrate on any further cafe rating and decided I would have to test the alarm effectiveness. I went back outside and started to tamper with my Alarmio. I eventually got it to go off and it did indeed have a loud 100 decibel car type alarm noise. This not only startled me but all the customers and staff at the cafe and pine shop as well. 

Acting like a criminal by testing Alarmio - nearly causing a major crime incident

There are times in life when you wish you had read the instruction before trying something new out and this incident would feature high on that list as I realised I didn't know how to switch the alarm off. I desperately fumbled with the lock but to no avail. At any moment I expected to hear screeching cars, see helicopters overhead and armed marksmen appear in the trees as the Reepham special branch descended on a potential major crime scene. Fortunately before they managed to assemble I figured out how to switch it off and the armed response unit were probably stood down ( I shall, however, be writing to the Mayor of Reepham suggesting his police force sharpen up their reaction times).

Big George confirmed he could hear the alarm at our table and we could therefore safely continue our beverages. Our drinks were both OK but nothing special and scored accordingly, however my cheese scone was infeasibly large and looked really good.

Infeasibly large cheese scone

I hoped it tasted as good as it looked as cake size is not always a good indication of cake quality however on this occasion it was and I have to say it was one of the finest cheese scones I have had. On the other hand Big Georges fruit scone was only average and had been warmed up (which I think is fine for cheese but wrong for fruit scones) so it pulled down the overall cake quality score.

I enjoyed my visit to the old station at Reepham and am keen to go there again in the future with some of my other cycling chums. I even managed to look round the large selection of jams and relishes to see if they had lemon curd (which they did and made me think that I could start a lemon curd based blog in the future).

Big George did think I looked far to comfortable around the jams and relishes so we agreed we would not speak of it again and we only talked about manly things on the ride back.

Ratings for Reepham railway station based on 2 visits.

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	5.0	5.75	8.0	7.63	6.48

Route

Click here to download 35 mile Norwich Reepham loop gpx to your GPS