A survey that looks at the approach
Not just the volume. The track, the lane, the turning space and the bridge heights, because in this county that is what decides the vehicle.
Removals across Norfolk
A county you drive into,
not through.
No motorway anywhere in Norfolk. Norwich is the largest city in England without one, and everything arrives on a handful of single-carriageway trunk roads. So we group the county by the road your move comes in on — because that, not the mileage, is what decides the plan.
Most often from London · Cambridge · Peterborough · Ipswich · Colchester · Chelmsford
Areas
Which road are you coming in on?
Norfolk is navigated by its A-roads because there are so few of them, and each one behaves differently enough to change how a move is run. Find yours.
A11
The A11 — Thetford to Norwich
From Cambridge, London and the M11
Thetford · Attleborough · Wymondham · Hethersett · Norwich
A47The A47 — King’s Lynn across to Yarmouth
From Peterborough, the A1 and the Midlands
King’s Lynn · Swaffham · Dereham · Norwich north · Acle
A140The A140 — Diss and the south
From Ipswich, Suffolk and the A14
Diss · Long Stratton · Pulham Market · Harleston · Loddon
A148The A148 — the north coast
From King’s Lynn and the A47
Fakenham · Holt · Sheringham · Cromer · Wells-next-the-Sea
A149The Broads and the east
From Norwich, the A47 and the coast road
Wroxham · Hoveton · Horning · Ludham · Stalham
The one fact that shapes everything
There is no motorway in Norfolk
Not a short one, not a stub — none. Norwich is the largest city in England without a motorway, and the county is reached entirely by single and dual carriageway trunk roads. Four things follow from that, and all of them affect your move.
- 01
Mapping tools get Norfolk wrong
A quote produced from a routing tool assumes average traffic on an average road. Long single-carriageway stretches of the A47 and a road like the A140 that passes through every village on it do not behave like that, and a loaded vehicle cannot use the overtaking that a car can.
- 02
Arrival is planned, not departure
Thickthorn, where the A11 meets the A47 outside Norwich, is the busiest piece of road in the county. We plan when a vehicle needs to be through it and work backwards, rather than setting off at a convenient hour and hoping.
- 03
Wind closes roads here
The Acle Straight and the open stretches west of Dereham are genuinely exposed. A high-sided vehicle in a strong crosswind is a safety decision. If it is blowing, the plan changes rather than the driver being asked to manage.
- 04
The last mile is usually the problem
Trunk roads are the easy part. What decides a Norfolk move is the farm track, the staithe lane, the coast village with no passing place — and none of that shows up on a route planner at all.
Backloads
Half of every Norfolk journey is empty
A backload is a move that rides a leg the vehicle was making anyway. It costs less than a dedicated run because you are not paying for the empty half of the journey — and in a dead-end county, a great many journeys have an empty half. The catch is that it travels when the vehicle travels, inside an agreed window rather than on a date you name.
- Norfolk → London and the south-east Our most frequent return leg, largely because so many moves come the other way.
- Norfolk → Cambridge and the M11 corridor Regular, and the easiest run out of the county.
- Norfolk → the Midlands via the A47 Less frequent, and worth asking about early if your dates are flexible.
- Norfolk → Suffolk and Essex Short hops down the A140 and A146, often the same week.
- Into Norfolk on any corridor Inbound is where the demand is, so inbound backloads are scarcer. Flexible dates help more than anything else.
Included as standard
What every Norfolk quote covers
Blankets, straps and floor protection
Standard on every job. There is no version of a removal where your furniture travels unprotected.
Dismantling and reassembly
Beds, wardrobes and anything assembled in the room. Fixings bagged and labelled to the item.
A shuttle where the lane will not take the lorry
Planned at survey, not improvised at the bottom of a track. Priced into the quote rather than added afterwards.
Flood-sensible loading on Broads properties
Where a ground floor has flooded before, we say what we would not stack on it and what we would raise. Tell us the history.
A written plan you keep
What is moving, which road we come in on, where the vehicle stops and what happens if the weather turns.
Customers
What people said
Two firms from outside the county quoted off a map. This lot asked which end of the A47 we were coming in on and whether the track had passing places. It does not, and they had already planned for that.
We moved to Holt at the height of the season, which with hindsight was optimistic. They staged at Fakenham and brought it in with a smaller van in two runs. No fuss, and no surcharge appearing afterwards.
The chap asked whether the ground floor had ever flooded. It had, twice. Nobody has ever asked me that before and it changed what went where.
Our beams are low and half our furniture is tall. They measured against the door heads at the survey and told us which two pieces were never going in. Sold them instead of moving them twice.
Got a backload going down to Essex because our dates were loose. Cheaper, and the only cost was waiting a bit longer to hear which day it was.
They cancelled the Acle Straight run because of the wind and moved us the following morning. Annoying at the time. Entirely right, in hindsight.
Why does it matter which road we come in on?
Because Norfolk has no motorway and the trunk roads behave very differently from one another. The A11 is dual nearly all the way; the A47 is single carriageway for long stretches; the A140 runs through the middle of every village on it.
A firm quoting off a mapping tool treats all three as the same kind of road, and they are not. Which one your move arrives on changes the schedule, and sometimes the vehicle.
Our lane is single track. Will the lorry fit?
Sometimes, and where it won’t we stage at a hard standing and shuttle in with a smaller vehicle. That’s a normal part of working here rather than an exception.
The important thing is that it’s decided at survey. A vehicle that commits to a track and then can’t turn at the bottom is a much worse problem than one that stopped at the top on purpose.
The ground floor has flooded before. Does that change anything?
Yes, and please tell us. It changes what we’ll stack directly on the floor, what goes in last, and whether anything is better raised on bearers.
It’s common enough on Broads and low-lying properties that we ask as a matter of course, and nobody should feel awkward about saying so.
What is a backload?
A move that rides a leg the vehicle was making anyway — so you are not paying for the empty half of the journey. In a county with no through traffic, a lot of journeys have an empty half.
It costs less than a dedicated run. The trade-off is that it travels when the vehicle travels, inside an agreed window rather than on a date you name.
Tell us where you’re coming in from
Both addresses, roughly how much there is, and — if it’s rural — a photo or a clip of the last half mile. That last bit is worth more than the postcode.