Godwick sits in a fold of west Norfolk countryside that has been left largely alone for four centuries, and you feel it the moment you turn off the lane. The Great Barn is a Grade II listed building raised in the closing years of the 1500s, and its original brickwork and vast oak roof are still doing the job they were built for. Inside it is one long, generous, light-filled room, with soaring beams at the northern end — the end most couples choose to marry in, because those timbers do all the decorating for you.
What makes Godwick genuinely unusual is what surrounds it. The barn stands on the deserted medieval village of Godwick, recorded in the Domesday Book and now a scheduled ancient monument, and the parkland around it has never been ploughed, so the humps and hollows of the vanished village are still legible in the grass. A ruined church tower, later turned into a folly, rises out of the middle of it all and makes a backdrop no amount of styling could buy. A tractor will carry you out to the ruins for photographs, and there are firepits and floodlighting to keep the place alive once the light goes.
It is also, happily, a very well-run barn. Godwick Hall and the Old Stables sleep around 26 between them, with shepherd’s huts and bell tents added over the summer, a sauna and a heated outdoor pool; the barn itself has underfloor heating, fans in the rafters and a recent roof, so it works in February as readily as in July. You bring your own caterer, there is no corkage on your own wine through the day, and hire is exclusive — the barn, the courtyards and the immediate grounds are yours and nobody else’s. Up to 150 sit down to eat and 200 come for the evening.
Where the band sets up
Bands generally take the end of the barn furthest from the ceremony, with the dancefloor filling the middle so that nobody ends up stranded at a distant table. It is a big, high, hard-surfaced room and it is flattering to live sound — brass and vocals carry beautifully under that roof — which means a four- or five-piece with a decent PA will fill it without having to be pushed. There is no permanent stage, so it pays to agree a footprint with the venue early on, and to decide whether you want your band framed by the old beams or by the open barn doors.
How the evening runs
Access from noon the day before makes setting up unhurried, and load-in is about as easy as barns get, with a drop-off point at the barn entrance, hard standing for parking and a meadow for the overflow. Evenings here run to around midnight, the licence stretching a little beyond that on Saturdays, so a band starting after the meal has room for two full sets and a proper encore before your guests drift back towards the shepherd’s huts. Live-music finish times can sit slightly earlier than the bar licence, so it is worth confirming your own when you book and briefing the band to match.
Bands available in Norfolk and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Norfolk.
- Norfolk Wedding Bands
- Norfolk Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Norfolk
- Wedding DJs in Norfolk
- Corporate Entertainment in Norfolk
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.