Cromer

Cromer lies on the North Norfolk coast between Sheringham and Overstrand and has been a popular seaside destination since the late 1700s. Today, Cromer has an air of decayed grandeur but it is still pulling in the visitors. Many come to walk along the pier or to sample some of its famous crabs.  The town also boasts the tallest church tower in Norfolk - as well as being the home of Henry Blogg - the coxwain of the local lifeboat who served for 37 years and saved 518 lives.

Photo by Sinead Kent

In 1622 John Taylor, the Water Poet, was forced to land at Cromer due to bad weather; he was undertaking a 'wagering journey' from London to York. Unfortunately the town's folk of Cromer mistook him and his crew for pirates and called the constables. Taylor, later recorded the whole incident in verse. In the same poem he also records how Cromer, like most of the Norfolk coast, was even then under threat from erosion:
 

Defoe visited Cromer on his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain but wasn't over impressed by what he found:
 

Jane Austin (1775-1817)

In Emma - Emma's father tells her, when discussing sea-bathing that:
 

The Victorian theatre critic did much to popularise Cromer and what he called 'Poppy-Land'. He visited in 1883 and then subsequently wrote a letter to the The Daily Telegraph which spoke of  'a blue sky without a cloud across it, a sea sparkling under a haze of heat, wild flowers in profusion'.

His enthusiasm for the area inspired a number of famous Victorian poets to visit - such as Oscar Wilde, A. C. Swinburne, Theodore Watts-Dunton and Alfred Tennyson.  Scott later rented Mill House in Sidestrand.

There is a memorial fountain to Clement Scott at the junction of the Northrepps Road and Overstrand Road in the town.

It was in Scott's poem the Garden of Sleep that the term 'Poppy-Land' first appeared. The tower mentioned in the poem was Craske's Tower located at nearby Sidestrand. The tower, which was a famous Norfolk landmark for many years, finally fell into the sea in 1917. The graveyard attached to the church also toppled into the sea.

Norfolk has lost a number of its churches to the sea - most famously at Eccles - and it was not uncommon for human bones to wash up on the beach.
 

The Garden of Sleep

On the grass of the cliff, at the edge of the steep,
God planted a garden - a garden of sleep!
'Neath the blue of sky, in the green of the corn,
It is there that the regal red poppies are born!
Brief days of desire, and long dreams of delight,
They are mine when Poppy-Land cometh in sight.
In music of distance, with eyes that are wet,
It is there I remember, and there I forget!
O! heart of my heart! where the poppies are born,
I am waiting for thee, in the hush of the corn.
     Sleep!     Sleep!
                   From the Cliff to the Deep!
                                 Sleep, my Poppy-Land,
                                                Sleep!

Read complete poem

It is likely that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used Cromer Hall as the inspiration for 'Baskerville Hall' in The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is also likely that he drew inspiration for the book from the Norfolk legend of Black Shuck - the terrible hell-hound with the fiery eyes. However, he eventually located the novel - to chilling effect - on Dartmoor.

Here is Conan Doyle's haunting description of Baskerville Hall:
 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
 

Wrote a famous limerick about the town:
 

The journalist and broadcaster Keith Skipper lives in Cromer and for many years has championed Norfolk and the Norfolk dialect. He has published over 30 books celebrating the county - including a tribute to The Singing Postman. In 1999 he helped to set up Friends of Norfolk Dialect (FOND) - an organisation dedicated to preserving the vernacular. It also fights the spread of of what he terms 'Mummerzet' - namely the inaccurate rendering of the Norfolk accent in film and TV. In 2007 he was awarded the MBE.
 

Links:

Cromer Pier

Cromer Lifeboat

Sherlock Holmes Society