A Grand Day Out

Last Saturday morning I was woken by an unnatural light in our bedroom. Peeking through the curtains, I saw, the sun rising in the eastern sky, uninhibited by the usual hazy cloudy layer. The sky was a perfect blue with promise of a lovely summer day ahead.

After breakfast, while we were lounging about reading, in the conservatory I had this urge to go to the coast so we jumped in the car and set off towards Norfolk. The coastal resorts along the North Norfolk coast have always been our favorite destination for a day out, winter or summer.

On reflection the first Saturday of the school holidays was not a good day to be heading for the coast and popular holiday destinations. However, after a few traffic delays on the A47 at Wisbeach and Lynn, which nearly saw us turning back, we found the road to be relatively busy but smooth running. When I think of the traffic and the nose to tail jams on narrow bottleneck roads running through tiny village we use to encounter when we were small impatient kids on a outing to the coast, Saturdays journey the journey along the bypass was a breeze.

Our first destination was going to be Cromer as it has been a good few years since our last visit but, we actually finished up in Wells Next the Sea, our favorite resort. This little fishing resort hasn't changed greatly over the years and all the restored, derelict or unused, buildings have only added to the character of the town.

This exgrain store on the Quay side once removed and store gain from the ships that navigated the deep sea Chanel up to the Quay Side port. After a period of unuse it has now it has been tastefully converted into luxury apartments.

On the front of the building near the main ground floor entrance to an estate agents office that occupies part of the floor, is two marks gouged into the old bricks. These marks denotes the height flood waters came to in the two serious spring tide flood surges at the height of a gale that flooded part of the town. During the last big flood one of the large ships that visited the port was grounded over the sea bank that runs along the edge of the channel to the sea. Now the town is protected by water tight gates that close the Quay side off from the town.

This old masted sailing ship moored at the Quay in the photo is now restored as a small restaurant and near by fishing boats sell their fresh catches from their boats .

The warm sunny day had brought many visitors to the town even so, although it was busy, it wasn't overcrowded. After a delicious fish and chip lunch, (the fish was freshly caught and not over battered,) we wandered along the quay side watching the families with small children fishing for the small green crabs that scuttle about the waters.

This is one of the activities our boys use to enjoyed on our camping holiday here many years ago.

At the end of the Quay we sat for a while soaking up the sunshine and watching some of the small boats coming and going. A good few of the holiday makers seem to have arrived by boat as there were quite a few moored up in the estuary.

I actually remembered to grab my sun hat at we left that morning. The little boy was determined to be in the picture, bless!
The narrow main shopping street is pedestrianised and full of small interesting little shops. We walked along it and up onto the Green where we stopped for a refreshing Shandy at the Crown Pub.

The beach at Wells is a lovely wide sandy stretch and just over a mile along the sea bank out from the town. We decided not to go today but saw many people walking along the bank to the beach. It is a lovely stretch of beach if you enjoy just lazing in the sun.

At about four o'clock we decided to move on along the coast and drove along to Sheringham another coastal fishing town. Sherringham is not so popular or as pretty as Wells. It's become less attractive over the years with the arrival of the 'Penny Arcade' games places. We were decidedly surprised to find many of the shops and cafes already closed and closing at five o'clock on a Saturday evening at peak holiday time. Eventually we found a small cafe to have a snack and a cup of tea.

The Beach huts here, are all set along the Sea front Promenade. When I was a teenager I came to Sherringham with a group of school friends and our two Art teachers for a sketching holiday we stayed at the now demolished Grand Hotel on the Cliff top. Very Grand to an impoverished teenager! In those days there was no sandy beach just quite large pebbley shingle right down to the water. Now the shingle is piled up along the promenade sea wall and a sandy beach runs down to the sea edge. The evening was lovely and warm although it was now decidedly hazy. Quite a few people had striped to bathing costumes and were playing and swimming in the sea.

Most of the boats looked as if they hadn't been to sea for quite a while and fishing is no longer a much of a source of employment in the town.
Dave just couldn't help doing a bit of beach combing although this was as far onto the beach as he ventured!

The pebbles here are all flints stones and all the older houses in most of Norfolk are built with flint walls. These days though the flint is mined from quarries not removed from the beaches. Some of the flint walls and made with napped stones and some constructed from whole flints.

This flint I picked up on the beach was broken reveling the shiny flint interior but the out side of the flint intrigued me It was beautifully mottled with these different colours not the dull grey stone that normally encases the flint.
walking back through the town to the car we came across this sweet shop with jars of old fashion sweet. Not a sight that is common today!

No humbug about today! and yes we had a grand day out.