| Sheringham | |
|---|---|
 Sheringham from Beeston Bump | |
  Sheringham Location withinNorfolk | |
| Area | 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi) |
| Population | 7,367 (2011 census)[1] |
| • Density | 1,842/km2 (4,770/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TG157430 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SHERINGHAM |
| Postcode district | NR26 |
| Dialling code | 01263 |
| Police | Norfolk |
| Fire | Norfolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
| 52°56′24″N1°12′47″E / 52.940°N 1.213°E /52.940; 1.213 | |
Sheringham (/ˈʃɛrɪŋəm/; population 7,367) is a seaside town andcivil parish in thecounty ofNorfolk, England.[2] The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District Council, isMare Ditat Pinusque Decorat, Latin for "The sea enriches and the pine adorns".[3]
The place-name 'Sheringham' is first attested in theDomesday Book of 1086, where it appears asSilingeham. It appears asSiringeham in 1174, andScheringham in theBook of Fees (Liber feodorum) in 1242. The name means 'the homestead of Scira's people'.[4]
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Historically, the parish of Sheringham comprised the two villages ofUpper Sheringham, a farming community, and Lower Sheringham, which combinedfarming withfishing.
The fishing 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 andwhelks. The local fishermen were major suppliers of crabs and lobsters to the London fish markets.Long lining forcod and the catching ofherring began to become less important in the second half of the century, as did whelking. Today, from a peak of maybe 200 boats, Sheringham 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 arailway town that was developed with the coming of theMidland and Great Northern Joint Railway line in the late 19th century. Most of Sheringham's range of buildings and shops 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.Sheringham Town Hall, the former headquarters of Sheringham Urban District Council, was completed in 1912.[5]
In theFirst World War, Sheringham was hit by two bombs from aZeppelin raid at 20:30 GMT on 18 January 1915, making it the first place in Britain to be attacked by Zeppelins from the air. No one was killed.[6]
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Sheringham town centre is centred on a traditionalhigh street with a wide range of privately owned shops. On Saturdays throughout the year there is a popular market in the car park next to the railway station which attracts large crowds even out of the holiday season. The town also has a good selection of specialist shops such as second-hand books,antiques andbric-a-brac,fishing tackle and bait, a computer shop, a model shop, and arts and craft shops. TheSheringham Little Theatre has a wide range of productions on throughout the year including a well-established summerrepertory season running from July to September, and a popularpantomime atChristmas; in thefoyer is a coffee shop with display of art by local artists. There is a selection of food outlets,pubs,restaurants and ayouth hostel.
On 15 October 2010,Tesco won a 14-year battle to open a store in the town. In a split voteNorth Norfolk District Council development committee chairman Simon Partridge used his casting vote in favour of the scheme.[7] The store finally opened on 24 October 2013.[8]
An annual Cromer and Sheringham Crab/Lobster festival is held in May,[9] and the town's Carnival is held at the beginning of August.[10]
Otterndorf Green is a small green space between the town's railway stations. It commemorates Sheringham'stwinning with the German town ofOtterndorf.[11]
TheChurch of England Parish Church of St Peter was consecrated in 1897.[12]
The town's museum now known asThe Mo includes a collection of old lifeboats, various displays, a viewing tower and houses theSheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm visitor centre.[13]
Sheringham is reputed to be the only place in the world to have four of its original lifeboats.[14] The Sheringham Museum Trust owns three of these:JC Madge (1904–36) pulling and sailing.Foresters Centenary (1936–61) the towns first motorised lifeboat.Manchester Unity of Oddfellows (1961–90) an Oakley Class lifeboat, Sheringham's last offshore boat. Within the next two to three 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. The town has noharbour, 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.
Sheringham railway station is the northern terminus on theBittern Line, theNational Rail route toCromer andNorwich. Services run generally hourly and are operated byGreater Anglia. The station has a basic single platform structure that was opened in January 1967, following the closure of the original and more substantialstation close by; the platform was rebuilt in 2019, to accommodate the newClass 755 trains which now operate the route.
The line beyond the National Rail station has been preserved as theNorth Norfolk Railway, also known as thePoppy Line. It operates between Sheringham'soriginal station and a new station atHolt, viaWeybourne. The railway operates primarily with steam and diesel-hauled trains, with somediesel multiple units.
The short link between the National Rail network and the North Norfolk Railway was re-established in 2010; the first train to use the link was hauled by70013Oliver Cromwell.
Local bus services are provided bySanders Coaches. The primary X40, X44 and 44A services run regularly between Sheringham,Cromer,Aylsham andNorwich. Routes also operate to other local destinations includingFakenham,Holt andWells-next-the-Sea.
TheA148, which connectsKing's Lynn and Cromer, by-passes the southern part of the town.
Sheringham has three schools. One is the Woodfields for disabled children,[15] the other two areSheringham High School[16] and Sheringham Community Primary School.[17]
Local television news programmes areBBC Look East on BBC One andITV News Anglia on ITV1.
Local radio stations areBBC Radio Norfolk on 95.6 FM,Heart East on 102.4 FM,Greatest Hits Radio East (formerlyNorth Norfolk Radio) on 103.2 FM, and Poppyland Community Radio, a community online based station which broadcast from the town.[18]
The town is served by the local newspapers,North Norfolk News andEastern Daily Press.[19][20]
St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph, on Cromer Road was designed bySir Giles Gilbert Scott. In 1901 a donation of over £3,000 byCatherine Deterding, the wife of the managing director and founder of theShell Oil Company, enabled the purchase of land around an existing chapel to build a new church. Work began in 1902 and the first section, St Joseph's chapel was completed in 1908.[21] In 1910 the second section opened, which comprises thesanctuary,nave and the porch. Later the church was completed by extending the nave and adding a new porch. The complete building was consecrated on 25 March 1935. From the outside it is possible to see the join between the northern two-thirds opened in 1910, and the southern extension completed in 1935. This large red-brick church towers over its neighbours. The north end, (theliturgical east), has a high rose window, while each long side is pierced by three vastPerpendicular-style windows. The church is entered through a porch and into anarthex on the south west corner of the building. Behind a grilled area to the east there is a large framedicon of theBlessed Virgin. Inside the church the height and narrowness emphasizes thearcades which are also of a good height and have arches of alternate sizes. The décor is a mixture of both thearts and crafts movement andindustrial Gothic, a signature of Gibert Scott's style. Thefont is a replica the seven sacraments font atSt Mary and All Saints, Little Walsingham. There are some good pieces of early 20th centurydevotional art much of which was imported from the studio and workshop of Ferdinand Stuflesser in theAustrian Tyrol. There is arood screen above the entrance to thesanctuary. TheStations of the Cross, ordered from Stuflesser, spent theFirst World War in the hold of a German freighter impounded atGenoa.
TheChurch of England Parish Church of St Peter was consecrated in 1897.[citation needed]
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The memorial to the men and women of Sheringham andBeeston Regis who died in military service during the twoworld wars is located atgrid referenceTG155433 on the traffic island at the intersection of the Boulevard, St Nicholas Place and the Esplanade. It was designed by Herbert Palmer somewhat in the style of anEleanor cross. It is ofClipsham stone and stands 26 feet (7.9 m) tall.[22] It was unveiled on 1 January 1921. The names of the dead are on four panels that form the base of the cross.[23] A recent addition to the memorial is a small wrought-iron fence around the base with poppy motifs. There are also further names on memorial boards in the nearby parish church of St Peter.
The town is also home to a large 317MW wind farm, theSheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, approximately 11 miles (18 km) to 14 miles (23 km) offshore.[26]
TheOddfellows Hall on the Lifeboat Plain, built in 1867, was the originalRNLILifeboat station and a gathering place forfishermen 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. After years of standing idle, it re-opened in October 2007 having been completely refurbished at a cost of £250,000. A collection of organisations such asEast of England Development Agency,North Norfolk District Council, Sheringham plus Community Partnership and other interested parties worked together to facilitate the refurbishment of the hall and bring it back into community use.
Sheringham nestles under the nearby hill ofBeeston Bump, a geologicalSSSI which was the site of one of theSecond World War secretY-stations. The Bump can be climbed using theNorfolk Coast Path from either the east or west. The Bump is akame, a glacial deposit that began forming between 10,000 and 15,000 years[27] ago at the end of the latestIce Age. The huge mass of ice caused a depression in the land and, as the ice melted, the land mass began to 'spring' slowly back in a process calledisostatic readjustment. This process still occurs in the UK, as Northern England is slowly rising.
The northern frontage of Sheringham is protected by a concreteseawall which also serves as the promenade. It is a vital part of the protection of the town against thenatural erosion that occurs along theNorth Norfolk coast. Thestorm surge of1953 considerably damaged Sheringham's wooden sea defences. In front of the sea wall aregroynes, armoured at their bases with large blocks of natural rock, which preventlong shore drift. There are numerous drains along the frontage. To the east towardsWest Runton the seawall ends just belowBeeston Bump. From there a timberrevetment and groyne system, designed and constructed in 1976, runs eastwards for 2 km (just over a mile) to West Runton Gap. The shoreline management plans of theDepartment for Environment include a policy of "managed retreat" along this stretch of coast. The revetment between Sheringham and West Runton is no longer being maintained and is thus in a poor state of repair. Sections that become hazardous will be removed. The coastline will then be left to evolve naturally.
Sheringham has aNon-League football clubSheringham F.C. who play at Weybourne Road.Sheringham Golf Club opened in 1891. In October 2016, it was announced a disused sewage outlet pipe stretching 50 metres (160 ft) from the beach into the sea will form theNorth Sea's "firstsnorkel trail".[28]Sheringham Golf Club is located on town's western outskirts and is bounded by the North Sea and the North Norfolk Railway.[29] A modern sports and leisure complex, incorporating a swimming pool and gym, and known as The Reef Leisure Centre, opened on Weybourne Road in late 2021,[30] replacing the ageing 'Splash' facility that had occupied the site.
Destinations from Sheringham | |
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