Norfolk Tourist Attractions Brochure Launch

Norfolk Tourist Attractions’ Association (NTAA) Chairman, Peter Williamson celebrated the publication of NTAA’s 2010 brochure on Wednesday, February 3, at the association’s newest member, The Woad Centre, Beetley near Dereham, with owners Ian and Bernadette Howard.

Pcuured left to right are Lydia Smith, Norfolk Tourism Director, Peter Williamson, Ian and Bernadette Howard.

The Howards are the only woad producers in the UK and have revived a traditional industry that died out in the 1930s. Woad’s indigo pigment has a historical East Anglian link with Boudicca and the Iceni tribe who used it as war paint. But today the Howard’s pigment is at the heart of environmentally friendly woad-dyed yarn and textiles. They are also involved in a project investigating the medicinal benefits of woad and are working with William Kroll, a young London-based entrepreneur, who is launching a woad-inspired clothing label called ‘Tender’, which has had good reviews in the USA.

Some 500,000 NTAA brochures promoting the county’s top attractions will be distributed to more than 3,500 outlets throughout the East of England. Founded in 1991, the association currently represents 106 attractions in Norfolk and North Suffolk.

Copies of the NTAA brochure can be ordered/downloaded via http://www.norfolktouristattractions.co.uk/ or http://www.visitnorfolk.co.uk/.

The Woad Centre, http://www.woad-inc.co.uk/, tel. 01362 860218 is open at Easter and from May 1 to Christmas, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Bank Holiday Mondays 10am to 4pm; daily dyeing demonstration at 2pm, woad production exhibition and shop. Half-day workshops on woad production and indigo-dyeing techniques run on the third Saturday of the month from May to October.