The Sea Marge is open all the year round and offers a quiet location on the tops of the cliffs, it is great base for a touring holiday. You can explore both the North Norfolk coast and the Norfolk Broads.
For more details about the hotel and to check availability click here.

It was a Banker Sir Edgar Speyer and his American wife who commissioned this large mock Tudor hall in 1908, which they named the Sea Marge. Sea Marge means land that borders the sea or seashore. Their intention was to create a seaside residence for themselves on the coast in Norfolk. They joined the ever increasing ranks of other famous residents in the village of Overstrand. 

This Norfolk fishing village became known as the Village of Millionaires in the later part of the 19th century.  The term was coined because of the large number of famous people who brought property in the area after the region had been made popular by Clement Scott.  By the turn of the century no less than six millionaires had houses in Overstrand. Even Winston Churchill's father Lord Randolph owned a house in the village - Pear Tree Cottage.  From where he mobilised the Navy for the First World War as First Lord of the Admiralty whilst staying there.

Sir Edgar Speyer was born in New York of German parents, becoming a British subject in 1892 and was knighted in 1906. He was responsible for rescuing the London underground company from liquidation at considerable personal expense (in the order of £175,000.00). His reward was to be denounced by a spiteful MP called Pemberton Billing who accused Speyer of treachery during World War one simply on account of Speyer's German ancestry and his friendship with the Kaiser.

Some of the rumours included the use of the Sea Marge as a signalling point for German submarines. So Sir Edgar was stripped of his knighthood and British nationality on the grounds of disloyalty to the king and unlawful communications with the enemy. He left these shores in 1916 and returned to his birthplace in North America.

Sir Edgar was a man of eclectic tastes and many of the artefacts and architectural features in the Sea Marge pre-date both the house and it's design. Hand painted Delft tiles were commissioned for the bathroom walls and large Edwardian cast iron baths and commode lavatories were installed. Formal and ornamental gardens were laid between the house and the cliff top and Italian sculpture was used to enhance the overall design. Upon Sir Edgar's death the Sea Marge was sold and in 1935 it was opened as a hotel, twenty years later it was turned into an old peoples home by the County Council this closed in 1990 and in 1998 the property was restored and converted back to a hotel.

Nowadays, the Sea Marge with its gothic half timbered exterior, perches on the cliffs at Overstrand enjoying fine views out to sea.  It's interior is very much in keeping with the ambience of this fine Edwardian building.

The Francis Frith collection has some old photographs of the Sea Marge and the surrounding area.