Cromer, Norfolk

Historical Description

Cromer, a small town and a parish in Norfolk. The town stands on the coast, 22 miles N of Norwich, and 130 from London, and is a terminal station of a branch of the G.E.R., and also of the Eastern and Midlands railway from Norwich. Cromer is now notable chiefly as a fashionable watering-place. It stands chiefly on cliffs, with full view to the sea, and is environed by an amphitheatre of wooded, beautiful, romantic hills. A former town of the name of Shipden, which stood on lower ground seaward, was destroyed by the sea in the time of Henry IV., and has left no traces except some masonry supposed to have belonged to its church. Parts of Cromer itself have fallen into the tide within the memory of living persons, large portions of contiguous cliffs were undermined and overwhelmed 1 in 1825 and 1832, and a jetty which gave the only harbour accommodation was washed entirely away in 1845. The-sea during northerly winds breaks here with a force unchecked by anything nearer than Spitzbergen, and the approach for vessels is then so tremendous as to be called by mariners " the Devil's throat." But in 1847 a sea-wall with esplanade, and a new jetty and breakwater were constructed at a cost of nearly £10,000, and they have prevented any further serious damage by the waves. The town is a coastguard and lifeboat station. It is governed by a local board of nine members, is well drained, and haa an excellent supply of water. It offers good hotels, good lodging-houses, and an excellent beach to summer sea-bathers. It carries on a considerable fishery in crabs and' lobsters, and it has a head post office, a parish church, Wesleyan and Free Methodist chapels, an endowed school, and a pleasure fair on Whit Monday. The church is Later Englisli of the 15th century, is built of flint and freestone, and has a tower 159 feet high. A lighthouse stands at a short distance, within Overstrand parish, with a revolving light 52 feet in height and 250 feet above the level of the sea. Bacon, the discoverer of Iceland, was a native. The parish comprises 974 acres; population, 2197. Cromer Hall, Colne House, Cliff House, and New Haven Court are chief residences. Cromer Hall is the seat of the Cabbell family, and Colne House of the Buxton family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich; net yearly value, £173 with residence.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Norfolk Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers for Norfolk online.

Findmypast, in conjunction with Norfolk Record Office have the following parish records online for Cromer:

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Cromer from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Cromer (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Maps

Online maps of Cromer are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Norfolk newspapers online:

• Norwich Mercury
• Norfolk Chronicle
• Diss Express
• Thetford & Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal
• Norfolk News

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Norfolk 1563, 1589, and 1613 is available on the Heraldry page.