| Town of Sheringham
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| In North Norfolk
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| Geography
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| Status: |
Town
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| Government Region: |
East of England
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| Administrative County: |
Norfolk
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| Local Administration: |
North Norfolk District Council
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| Admin. HQ: |
NNDC Cromer
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| Grid reference: |
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| ONS code: |
33UF
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| Demographics
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| Population: |
7143 (2001 census)
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| Ethnicity: |
No Figures
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| Politics
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| MP elected in the UK general election, 2005: |
Norman Lamb
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| Party: |
Liberal Democrat
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| Post Office and Telephone
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| Postcode: |
NR 26
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| Dialling Code: |
01263
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| Communications
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| Railway: |
Bitten Line, Sheringham to Norwich via Cromer. North Norfolk Railway(Poppy Line) Sheringham-Weybourne-Holt
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| Bus: |
Coastliner, Sanders Bus Co, First Bus Co.
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| Road: |
Situated on the A149 Coast road
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Sheringham is a seaside town (population 7143<ref>Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council, 2001. “Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes.”</ref>) in Norfolk, England, west of Cromer.
Historically, the parish of Sheringham comprised the two villages of Upper Sheringham, a farming community, and Lower Sheringham, which combined farming with fishing.
The industry was at its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the coming of the railways made it possible for fish to be transported more efficiently to market. Through the 1900s the focus of the fishing, as all along the north Norfolk coast, began to be on crabs, lobsters and whelks. The crab and lobster fishing made the local fishermen major suppliers to the London fishmarkets. Long lining for cod and the catching of herring began to become less important in the second half of the century, as did whelking, and today from a peak of maybe 200 boats, Sheringham now has eight boats operated single-handed.
The current town of Sheringham was once Lower Sheringham, a fishing station for the main village, now known as Upper Sheringham. It is a railway town that was developed with the coming of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line in the late 19th century. Most of Sheringham’s range of buildings and shop come from this period and the early 20th century. It has a particularly interesting range of buildings using flint, not normally in the traditional Norfolk style but in a variety of techniques.
The Town Today
Sheringham today has a thriving town centre unlike a lot of towns. The Main shopping street still has two Butchers, two Bakers, three Greengrocers,one Ironmonger, several newsagents, and many other types of shops, on Saturday there is a very popular market on the Car Park at the top end of the town which attracts a large crowd to the town even out of the holiday season. The town also has a good selection of specialist shops such as second-hand books, antiques and bric-brac, fishing tackle and bait, model shop and arts and craft shops. The Sheringham Little Theatre is a real gem and has a wide range of productions on throughout the year including a popular pantomime at Christmas time, in the foyer is an excellent coffee shop and there is nearly always a display of Art work going on there, very often by local Artists. There is a good selection of food outlets and some excellent pubs,restaurants,and a youth hostel.
Sheringham Museum
Sheringham Museum is located in converted fishermen’s cottages and washhouse’s in the heart of the town. The entrance to the Museum is up the alley next to a Dry Cleaners, half way along Station Road. The Museum has, as part of its information on the local Fishing industry, a collection of original boat building tools dating back to the 1880’s. Sheringham became famous for its boatbuilding with Boat builders like Lown, Johnson and especially Emery being kept busy in the town. These skilled shipwrights built boats for Sheringham, Cromer and other fishermen further a field. The Display in the museum are of Emery’s original bench and tools. Fishing is the foundation of which Lower Sheringham developed with a small, tightly knit community developing on the cliffs and launching their boats from the flint beaches. During the mid 19th Century there were over 200 boats fishing off the shore. The fishermen were real characters going by nicknames like Downtide, Bounce, Squinter, Spider, Butter Balls, Bread-alone, Pongo and Teapot. Also on display are models of lifeboats, a Roman kiln, the original settlement of Upper Sheringham, and photographs showing how this popular holiday resort has grown over the years. One of the newest displays shows pieces of elephant bone that have been coming out the cliff to the west of Sheringham. Significant because no-one expected any such finds to be made here. The pieces of bone on display have been dated back some 1.5 million years. These giant animal roamed the world at a time when what is now the Norfolk coast, although then much further north, was enjoying an almost tropical environment. The museums display tells the story of these remarkable animals and traces there migratory journey from continent to continent. Linked with this is a display on the geology of the beach and information as well as a display of the most common fossils you will find on the local beaches. There is a displays covering the war years at the museum. On 19th January 1915 Sheringham became the first place in Britain to have a bomb dropped on it by a Zepplin. The story and part of the bomb is on display in the Museum. Sheringham was a front line town during the 1939-45 war. Barbed wire surrounded the beaches from fear of invasion and the cliffs often reverberated from the pounding of large guns practicing at the close by Weybourne Camp. A displays called the ‘ Misfortunes of Peace and War’ has displays of debris of planes, ships, other items found on the beaches of North Norfolk. Another display allows you to take a peep into an old pharmacy, and there are other unusual objects such as a pig’s bladder used as a fisherman’s float, a Victorian fly trap. Visitors can also learn about the discontinued practice of flint picking off the beaches.
Lifeboats
Sheringham is the only place in the world to possess four of its original lifeboats. The Sheringham Museum Trust owns three of these
JC Madge (1904 1936) pulling and sailing.
Foresters Centenary (1936 1961) the towns first motorised lifeboat.
Manchester Unity of Oddfellows (1961 - 1990) an Oakley Class lifeboat, Sheringham’s last offshore boat. Within the next 2 to 3 years Sheringham Museum Trust plans to have an extended Museum to house this unique collection together with three crab boats and general lifeboat and fishing industry ephemera.
Todays lifeboat and Fishing Industry
The town has no harbour, so the lifeboat has to be launched by tractor, and the fishing boats are hauled up the beach. An old sail-powered lifeboat is preserved in the former lifeboat shed and the three other Preserved RNLI lifeboats are kept in another centre.
Railway
The railway line to Cromer and Norwich remains open as the Bittern Line. Beyond Sheringham, the line has been preserved as the North Norfolk Railway as far as Holt,
The Oddfellows Hall
After years of standing idle, October 2007 saw the re-opening of a rather neglected old building from Sherigham’s past. The Oddfellows hall<ref> Sheringham Independant No:227 6th October 2007</ref> on the Lifeboat Plain has been completely refurbished at a cost of £250,000. The hall was built in 1867 and was the original RNLI Lifeboat station and gathering place for fishermen and boat builders, and has over the years been used as a Craft centre, used to exhibit a model railway, and to display a model village. The hall was also used as a shoe factory, amongst other things. A collection of Organizations such as EEDA<ref>East of England Development Agency</ref>, North Norfolk council, Sheringham plus Community Partnership and other interested party’s have all worked together to facilitate the refurbishment of the hall and bring it back to us as a building for the community to use again. Local groups and businesses will be able to hold meetings or exhibitions in the building. The inside of the building is as impressive as it’s outside. There are large airy open rooms and from the upstairs there are spectacular sea views.
Sheringham Park and other prominent property
- In 1811, the Sheringham Estate was bought by Abbot and Charlotte Upcher.
They asked Humphry Repton to design Sheringham Hall. The Upcher family also built a school. The Hall is still privately occupied, but Sheringham Park is in the care of the National Trust and open to visitors.
- The Dales, formerly the residence of Henry Douglas King, M.P., and later Major William James Spurrell, D.S.O., M.C., is now a hotel (The Dales Country House)[1].
- Sheringham watermill was mainly known as a papermill that operated from around 1750 to about 1865, although it quite possibly started life as a corn mill. The watermill had an overshot waterwheel, which seems quite remarkable when considering the surrounding terrain and the fact that the mill was only supplied by the small Beeston Beck. A Blue plaque is on the wall of a cottage marks the location of the mill in Beeston road which was then called Paper Mill Road.<ref>http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Watermills/sheringham.html</ref>
Beeston Bump
Sheringham nestles under the nearby hill of Beeston Bump which was the site of one of the World War II secret Y-stations. The Bump can be climbed using the Peddars Way and North Norfolk Coastal Path from either the East or West
Twin towns
List Of Public Houses in Sheringham
- The Crown, East Cliff, Sheringham.
- The Lobster, 13 High street, Sheringham.
- The Robin Hood Tavern, Station Road, Sheringham.
- The Two Lifeboats, Sheringham.
- Dunstable Arms, Cromer Road, Sheringham.
- Sherry ‘n’ Ham, Beech Avenue, Sheringham.
- Wyndham Arms, Wyndham Street, Sheringham.
- The Red Lion, Upper Sheringham.(Closed)
External links
- Sheringham webcam
- Sheringham Cricket Club
- Experience Sheringham
- Sheringham Little Theatre
- East of England Development Agency
- Sheringham Youth Hostel
References
Resources