www.norfolkpubs.co.uk records the following story about the Castle Inn, also known as the Castle Hotel, Wroxham:
It is said that at a drinking competition held in Wroxham in 1810, one contestant drank 44½ pints of porter in 55 minutes. His opponent defeated him by supping 52½ pints in the same time. The winner then took 2 more pints to his rowing boat, to assist the 6 mile river journey home.
The Castle Inn stood on Norwich Road, 300 metres from the River Bure, from at least 1794 when Faden’s Map was surveyed – it is shown as the ‘Castle Ale House’. In 1809 the death of “Mr Edward Clarke of the Castle Inn” is recorded in the British Register. It survived until the 1990s when it closed and was turned into private houses.
The only place for a drink in Wroxham now is the Shed. However, over the bridge in Hoveton, opposite Roys of Wroxham department store, is the large King’s Head hotel, dating from the 18th century. To the right of it stood the Horseshoes, a 19th century pub, rebuilt in the 1960s and now a boarded up building that closed around 1980. Hotel Wroxham, by the bridge, has a Waterside Terrace bar, with Adnams often available.
