Cromer
2016
This stretch of North Sea beach lies near the coastal village of Cromer in Norfolk (GB). The origin of the place-name Cromer is uncertain: it could mean ‘crows mere’ (or lake). But there are other contenders for the derivation, a north country word 'cromer' meaning 'a gap in the cliffs'. I didn’t notice a gap in the cliffs, but all the more the wooden breakwaters on the shore. They seem to do their job well, but nevertheless the town was affected on the 5th of December 2013 by a storm surge that caused significant damage. Likewise the original village called Crowmere-Shipden, about a quarter of a mile to the north east, was swallowed by the sea in the 15th century. For a long time the engulfed village was marked by a rock in the sea called ’Church Rock’, but at the end of the 19th century that was blown up for safety, after a vessel suffered shipwreck on it. Furthermore this shore is considered to have one of Europe’s largest chalk reefs and therefore designated as a marine conservation zone.
