The Norfolk Coast
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| The Norfolk coast consists of
nearly 100 miles
of spectacular landscape - from soft, sandy cliffs to
salt-marshes and from shingle banks to sand dunes.
Starting at Hopton,
just south of Great Yarmouth, it sweeps northwards
embracing many popular seaside resorts such as Mundesley,
Cromer,
Sheringham and
Holkham. It ends at King's Lynn and the Wash
where Lincolnshire takes over. Here is quote
from Peter Sagar:
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| 'What a coast this
is, with its salt marshes and lavender, its channels,
dunes, bays and crumbling Ice Age cliffs, lonelier and
wilder than its Suffolk neighbour, Arctic, melancholic,
beautiful, treacherous, with sandbanks and quicksands,
storms and floods, and never-ending erosion.' |
Much of the Norfolk coast is threatened by coastal
erosion - especially at locations such as
Happisburgh
where the soft cliffs are continually being undermined.
Waves at high tide erode the foot of the cliff causing
the face to weaken and slip. At the next high tide, the
collapsed material is removed and the process begins
again.The 12th century church of St. Mary's at Happisburgh is perched
perilously close to the cliff edge and will, one day, suffer the same fate as St. Mary's Church at nearby
Eccles. (Eccles-on-Sea is
now often referred to, in a typically humorous Norfolk fashion, as Eccles-in-the-Sea.) |
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Coastal Erosion at
Happisburgh |
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Over the centuries the
Norfolk coast has inspired many writers including:
Daniel Defoe, Clement Scott, A. C. Swinburne,
Anthony Thwaite and Kevin Crossley-Holland. Defoe used
the treacherous coast off
Winterton as the location for Robinson Crusoe's
shipwreck. Crossley-Holland, on the other hand, has
successfully captured the muddy creeks and saltmarshes
of Burnham Overy
Staithe.
Cliffs at Hunstanton
L.P. Hartley used the famous layered cliffs at
Hunstanton as the backdrop
for some of the scenes in his novel The Shrimp and
the Anemone.
The ever changing interplay of
light between sea and sky and land has made the Norfolk coast an inspirational place.
There is also the inescapable sense of standing on the edge of England.
Here is a lovely poem by Frances Cornford entitled: The
Coast: Norfolk. Cornford was one of Philip Larkin's
favourite poets. |
As on the
highway's quiet edge
He mows the grass beside the hedge,
The old man has for company
The distant, grey, salt-smelling sea,
A poppied field, a cow and calf,
The finches on the telegraph.Across his faded back a
hone,
He slowly, slowly scythes alone
In silence of the wind-soft air,
With ladies' bedstraw everywhere,
With whitened corn, and tarry poles,
And far-off gulls like risen souls. |
Links:
Norfolk
Coast (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) |
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism