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A visitors guide to the popular seaside town of Cromer located on
the North Norfolk Coast. In its cliff-top setting, Cromer is an
Edwardian family seaside town famous for its succulent Cromer Crabs and
impressive summer carnival. It has long sandy beaches, landscaped
cliff-top gardens, Edwardian style promenades, a boating lake, a
mini-funfair, putting greens, bowling green, pitch and put and of course
great fish and chip shops, Cromer has a lot to attract the visitor.
The writer and poet Clement
Scott who thought up the name ‘Poppyland’ was responsible for
making Cromer and the surrounding area a fashionable place for holidays
in the late 1800s. Notable names included Edward VII and Lillie
Langtry who performed at the Town Hall theatre during the summer of
1906.
The annual carnival held in August each year is extremely popular with
summer visitors. Some of the events include:- displays by the Red
Arrows; parachute and motorcycle displays, parades, Antique Fairs, Bonny
Baby and Glamorous Grandmother competitions, clowns, stunts, treasure
hunt, torchlight processions and much much more.
Cromer also remains special because it still has an authentic
end-of-pier show held in the Pavilion Theatre on the pier. In
addition to the Seaside Special, there are regular one off shows, often
on a Sunday night or at the beginning or end of the holidays season.
The pretty gardens along the cliff are well stocked. Here you will find
the pitch and putt and bowling green. Cricket fans can enjoy the
facilities at Cromer Cricket Club and for golf the Royal Cromer Golf
Club. The fine medieval church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the centre
of the town is a symbol of early prosperity its great tower, 160 feet
tall, served as a lighthouse for coastal shipping until 1719 when the
first lighthouse was built. Cromer has a very good range of shops
and the town also has the benefit of a cinema and train station.
Read about one of Cromer's famous
personalities. The writer Arthur Conan Doyle also spent time
at Cromer and is said to have been inspired to write one of his most
famous stories by a Norfolk tale
that he learned of during one of his visits.
"Custom has established a certain
fashion at this pretty little waterside place and it is religiously
obeyed: it is the rule to go on the sands in the morning, to walk on one
cliff for a mile in the afternoon, to take another mile in the other
direction and at sunset to crowd upon the little pier at night".
Written by C. Scott 1886.
Bathing
byelaws 1898 - Strict byelaws on public
bathing were issued by the order of P.E. Hansell - Clerk to the District
Council in April 1898, after complaints were received that men and women
were bathing together in the same area. It was therefore decreed that
women only were allowed to bathe before the hour of 8am in one area and
men in another area.
However, it appears that after 8am Mixed Bathing was allowed, on the
condition that gentlemen wore suitable costumes that covered them from
neck to knee. These were the days of bathing machines, which were pulled
into the sea by small boys on horses.
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