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Happisburgh
Happisburgh (pronounced 'Hazeburrer' or 'Hazebruh') lies on the
Norfolk coast between Walcott and Sea Palling. It is
famous for its red and white striped lighthouse. The
name is derived from 'Haep's Burgh'.
Happisburgh village sign
Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the
Hill House Hotel while on a motoring holiday in the
county at the beginning of the 20th Century. While
staying in the hotel, the landlord's son Gilbert Cubitt
showed him a signature he had developed using pin men.
This inspired Conan Doyle to write the Sherlock Holmes
story The Dancing Men.
The Hill House Pub In the story, Holmes and Watson are called to
Norfolk by Hilton Cubitt, the local squire, to
investigate a mystery. Holmes eventually solves the case
by cracking a code which consists of little dancing
figures - like those of Gilbert Cubitt. As can be seen,
he also took the name Cubitt from his visit. Another local link is that Cubitt lives in the
village of Riding Thorpe - which is almost certainly a
composite of local villages Ridlington and
Edingthorpe. Conan Doyle
may have written the story in the Green Room of the old
Boarding House which overlooked the bowling green. |
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Plaque on Hill House
Pub |
Plaque on Hill House
Pub |
The Hill
House pub has two plaques on the wall commemorating Conan Doyle's stay.
It also holds a rather fine 'summer solstice' beer
festival every year. At the back of the pub is an
interesting building which was originally a signal box
for a railway line that was never built. |
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William
Cowper Next to the pub
stands the stunning church of St. Mary's - literally
yards from the North Sea. The poet and hymnodist William
Cowper used to visit the church when he was a child
staying with his uncle and aunt Donne at
Catfield Rectory.
St. Mary's Church At the end of his life, while lodging with his cousin
the Rev. Dr. John Johnson at
Mundesley,
Cowper made two visits to Happisburgh. Here are some
extracts from Rev. Johnson's journal recording those
visits:
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Aug. 31st, 1795. Walked to Happisbugh by the edge of the
sea all the way. Dined in a Lodging House, where I
borrowed a room for the purpose, to avoid the noise of
the Public House and after dinner returned to Mundesley.
This was the only instance of Mr. Cowper's ever eating,
as he told me afterwards, with anything like an
appetite, in Norfolk; and to be sure, he did eat very
heartily, though of very ordinary food, for the only
things he would touch were Beans and Bacon, which were
very old, and apple pye, the worst I ever saw. He ate,
however, with a most complete relish of them all. I
never knew him to enjoy a dinner anything like it after
that, to the day of his death.
June 7th, 1798. I coaxed him to day into a boat in which
he and I and our servant were rowed to Happisburgh. He
went with me to see the Light House and appeared to
enjoy in some measure looking thro' a telescope from
that very lofty building, at the ships in the offing.
After dining at the Public House on the Hill, we walked
home - the sea being too rough for us to venture in the
boat.
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However, living close to the sea irritated Cowper's eyes
(as he records in one of his letters to Lady Hesketh)
and ultimately he decided to move inland. Some
commentators have also suggested that it was the sea at Happisburgh which
inspired his famous lines from the Olney Hymns:
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God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footstep on the sea,
And rides upon the storm. |
P.D. JamesHappisburgh lighthouse also features in P. D. James' 1989 crime
novel Devices and Desires. Dr Alex Mair, who is
the director of the fictional Larksoken nuclear power
station often sees the beam from the lighthouse while
working late in his office. In the novel Commander
Dalgliesh - who initially comes to Norfolk on holiday -
finds himself embroiled in the hunt for a serial killer
called the 'Whistler'. |
John BetjemanThe poet John Betjeman
visited Happisburgh church in 1974 when he was making a
BBC documentary about Norfolk churches. He was impressed
by the window of St, Mary's and also noticed that the
tower was out of alignment with the nave.
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Happisburgh Lighthouse
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Joan Barton The poet Joan Barton wrote a moving
poem about Happisburgh called Thoughts at Happisburgh.
Barton, who was a bookshop owner for much of her life,
was born in 1907 and her poetry has echoes of Philip
Larkin and John Betjeman. Here is the first verse of the
poem:
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Remember the long combes tunnelling into summer
Cumulus tossed into towers and keeps above,
The trampled cliff paths sweet with gorse and bracken
Around each known, each named, particular cove,
And by this touchstone from the years of promise
Happisburgh cracks in dry impersonal pieces -
The reeds, the marram grass, a north wind whipping
The anonymous flat sea margins, the huts, some caravans,
And over it all the sky enormously drifting
In endless thin layers of cloud: undesired
Featureless landscape where the intruding figures
Loom up too large and loud.
Read
complete poem |
Today, Happisburgh is under great threat from coastal
erosion. Both St. Mary's Church (a grade 1 listed 12th
Century building) and the Hill House pub are in danger of
disappearing over the cliff. Many properties have
already been lost to the sea and others, close to the
cliff-edge, have been abandoned or have become
unsaleable.
Links:
More Happisburgh Photographs
Happisburgh Village Website
Sherlock
Holmes Society
St. Mary's Church |
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism