Overstrand

Overstrand lies on the North Norfolk coast between Cromer and Sidestrand. In fact, you can walk along the cliff top path from Cromer which takes you past the lighthouse.

Overstrand beach looking towards Cromer

George Barker, the poet, who lived at Itteringham set his poem In Memory of David Archer on Overstrand beach. Here is an extract:

I walk on Overstrand shore
and the crab at my foot
inscribes praise in the sand.
The wave bursts with glory
because it rises up like
angels out of the sea,
and the dead starfish burns
on Overstrand promontory.

Why do I hear them cry
out from the far side of life,
those forms and impulses
unborn beyond the sky?
Why should they hope and seek
above all else to be?
Tonight on Overstrand
I know for one moment why.

Winston Churchill used to stay at the Sea Marge Hotel in Overstrand and this may have provided inspiration for Jack Higgins' novel The Eagle Has Landed - which is set in North Norfolk (see Blakeney) and concerns an attempt by German paratroopers to assassinate the English PM.

R.H. Mottram used to spend his childhood holidays at Overstrand - as he recalls in his Autobiography with a Difference (1938).

Links:

Sea Marge Hotel

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