Town in Norfolk, England
Cromer
Cromer launches its lifeboat from the end of a pier, produced the RNLI's most decorated lifeboatman and gave Norfolk its sweetest crab.
Key information
- County
- Norfolk
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 7,700 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Cromer crab, the Victorian pier and its end-of-the-pier show, lifeboat heroes, 'Poppyland'
- What locals are called
- Cromerites
- Famous people
- Henry Blogg, Clement Scott, Arthur Conan Doyle (visitor)
About Cromer
The town that launches its lifeboat off a pier
Most seaside towns tuck their lifeboat into a harbour. Cromer has no harbour at all, so its fishing boats are hauled up the beach and its lifeboat goes out from the end of the pier. The pier dates from 1901 and is topped by the Pavilion Theatre, home to a traditional summer variety show that has become one of the best-known of its kind in Britain. You can watch a comedian, a dance troupe and a singer over a seaside tea, while a lifeboat crew keeps watch beneath your feet. The pier's tall Victorian silhouette, with its bandstand-style pavilion perched over the North Sea, is the picture most people have of Cromer.
Henry Blogg and the 873 lives
Cromer's best-known son is Henry Blogg, born in the town in 1876. He joined the lifeboat crew as a young man and was coxswain for almost four decades, from 1909 to 1947. He is remembered as the most decorated lifeboatman in the RNLI's history, with three gold and four silver medals. He is credited with saving 873 lives, many of them from ships wrecked on the sandbanks off the Norfolk coast. One of his most celebrated rescues came in 1917, when he led the crew that saved the people aboard the Swedish steamer Fernebo in a fierce gale. Blogg died in 1954. The Henry Blogg Museum, beside the seafront, tells the story of Cromer's lifeboats and the crews who manned them.
Why a Cromer crab tastes sweeter
Cromer's crabs are small, sweet and so highly rated that restaurants far from the coast put the name on their menus. The local fishermen work from small boats that are winched up the shingle and sand, and set pots on the chalk-bedded reefs just offshore. The crabs are brown crabs, caught in the warmer months, and their fans claim the chalk and stony seabed give the meat its distinctive flavour. The town's fish-and-chip shops and seafront stalls sell dressed crab, and a crab sandwich on the pier is as much of a Cromer ritual as the show.
How a poet's pen put poppies on the map
In 1883 the journalist Clement Scott stayed near Cromer, fell for the nearby cliffs and fields, and wrote about them in the Daily Telegraph. He gave the area a name, 'Poppyland', and visitors followed. Railways soon connected the town, and Cromer grew from a modest fishing village into a fashionable resort, with grand hotels on the cliff-top and promenades for taking the sea air. Poppyland remains the name used for the stretch of coast, and Sidestrand's Garden of Sleep, where Scott is remembered, is part of the story. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the area in 1901. Local tradition links the Norfolk legend of the phantom dog Black Shuck, and nearby Cromer Hall, with The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Landmarks, from the tallest tower to the lighthouse on the cliff
The tower of the Church of St Peter and St Paul rises to about 49 metres, making it the tallest parish church tower in Norfolk. It dominates the skyline for miles around, and sailors have long used it as a landmark. A little way along the cliffs sits Cromer Lighthouse, built in 1833. Its beam sweeps across a stretch of sea notorious for shipwrecks, which explains why the town's lifeboat crews have been so busy. Cromer Museum, in a row of old fishermen's cottages, adds smaller treasures: fossils from the crumbling cliffs, Victorian souvenirs and the tools of local trades.
Carnival, crab and cliff walks
Cromer's summer carnival, with its parades and fun, is one of the main events of the Norfolk coastal calendar. The pier show runs through the season. Beyond the town, the Norfolk Coast Path leads east and west along the cliffs, and the high wooded land of the Cromer Ridge rises behind. It is a good place to get a feeling of why people have been drawn here since Victorian days. Then head back to the front for fish and chips and a view of the pier. That is the Cromer way.