Cromer is a market-town and parish, in the hundred of North Erpingham, 22 miles from Norwich, and 130 miles from London, containing about 140 houses. This town was formerly a part of Shipden, whose church and many houses were swallowed up by the sea. May heaven avert a similar catastrophe, as the sea is daily making fresh encroachments on the land! The town is small, and situated upon a cliff of considerable height, and inhabited principally by fishermen. The first attempt for a pier was in the time of Richard the Second.

The coast about Cromer is very dangerous, as may be readily conceived, from the circumstance of all the out houses and fences being constructed of timber from the wrecks of ships, &c. There are four lighthouses between this place and Yarmouth. The remains of the ancient town walls of Shipden are yet to be seen. Though Cromer has no harbour, considerable trade is carried on, and much coal is imported in vessels, from sixty to one hundred tons burthen; the barges lie upon the beach, and at ebb tide carts are drawn alongside to unship their cargoes; when empty, the vessels anchor at a little distance from the above, and reload by means of boats.

Cromer Bay has the singular appellation of "the Devil’s Throat." This town is famous for furnishing the best lobsters upon the coast; it has fisheries both of crabs and lobsters from May to October; herrings in September and October, and also turbots, haddocks, skait, &c. Cromer is almost daily crowded with shipping.—As a bathing place, there are few situations, perhaps, which can exceed Cromer! where the sea views are bolder, or, as they are beheld mingled with the landscape, (which is highly picturesque,) offer a greater diversity of interesting scenery, than may be contemplated in its neighbourhood. The salubrity of the air, combined with its many local advantages, is too well known to require further notice. A new jetty has been erected by public subscription, which serves as a fashionable promenade to the visitors of this delightful spot.

The church is a handsome pile, built of flint and freestone, having a square tower, a nave, and an embattled top, rising 159 feet high; the living is a vicarage. The curiosities in this neighbourhood are the ruins of the abbey at Beeston Regis, Beacon hill, Foulness lighthouse, and Weybourne hoop. A large fair is held at Cromer, on Whit-Monday; the weekly market is on Saturday.

To the south of Cromer, is Cromer Hall, the seat of George Read, Esq. Bartholomew Rede, Esq. goldsmith, and lord mayor of London, was born at Cromer; his gold ring, weighing 9 oz. 3 dwts. was found at Girton, in Cambridge, and is now (1789, says Mr. Gough) in the possession of Mr. Cole.— Within the ring is this inscription: "Orate pro a’ i’ a, Bartolomei Red Militis." On the top is a figure of Saint Bartholomew, a quaint allusion to his name.

CROMER is a seaside resort and bathing place on the northern coast of the shire, and a town and parish, with a terminal station of a branch of the Great Eastern railway from Norwich and another terminal station near the beach on the Midland and Great Northern joint (formerly the Eastern and Midland) railway, and is about 10 miles east-north-east from Holt, 9 north-north-west from North Walsham, 11 north-by-east from Aylsham, 22 north from Norwich and 130 from London, in the Northern division of the county, North Erpingham hundred and petty sessional division, Erpingham union. Holt county court district, rural deanery of Repps and archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich. This place gives the title of baron to the Baring family. The town is picturesquely seated on the cliffs, which rise to a considerable height above the beach, and is sheltered on three sides by an amphitheatre of hills, partly covered with wood; it has at different times suffered from the incursions of the sea, which in the time of Henry IV, (1399—1413) swallowed up the town of Shipden, in which parish Cromer was then situated: in 1825 and 1832 large portions of the cliff fell into the sea so as to endanger the lighthouse, and in 1845 the jetty was washed away and other damage done, but in the same year an Act of Parliament (8 and 9 Vict, c. 20) was obtained for the purpose of raising money to build a new jetty and breakwaters, and also to erect a sea wall extending along the whole front of the west end of the town, with an esplanade for the use of visitors; and these works were eventually completed at an expense of about £7,000. In 1894 a wall and esplanade were constructed at the foot of the East Cliffs, and in 1855 new approaches were made opposite the Jetty. A band stand was also erected, the total cost amounting to upwards of £4,300.

The town was once incorporated, a privilege long since lost; of late it has been controlled by a Local Board, but under the provisions of the “Local Government Act, 1894,” (56 and 57 Vict. c. 73) it is now governed by an Urban District Council, and on Jan. 1st, 1896, the Suffield Park portion of the adjoining parish of Overstrand was added to the District by order of the County Council, confirmed by a Local Government Board Order dated 4th Dec. 1895. The Council consists of 15 members, 12 of whom are elected for the Cromer ward and 3 for the Suffield Park ward. Water of excellent quality, pronounced by Professor Frankland D.C.L., LL.D, F.R.S. to be “one of the best waters in Great Britain,” is obtained by borings and headings in the chalk; additional works were completed in 1892, and included a duplicate well and headings with pumps and machinery; a new reservoir, with a storage capacity of 600,000 gallons, was completed in 1896, and mains for supplying Suffield Park are being laid, the whole being the property of the Cromer Water Company Limited, formed in 1875. The town is lighted with gas from works near to the Great Eastern Railway station, the property of the Cromer Gas and Coke Company Limited, formed in 1874. The sewerage system of the town has been extended and completed under the advice of Mr. J. C. Mellis C.E. of London. The western portion of the town has recently been sewered from plans by the District Council surveyor, Mr. A. F. Scott. Much land has been laid out in building sites by the owners of the Cromer Hall and other estates, and owing to the number of new erections and the opening of fresh thoroughfares the town has both increased in size and improved in appearance, and now contains some fine business premises, and many well-built dwelling houses. The church of SS. Peter and Paul is a fine building of cut flint with stone dressings, in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, north and south porches and a noble embattled western tower, 150 feet in height, with crocketed pinnacles and containing a clock and 6 bells; the whole edifice was originally ornamented with sculptured work, the western entrance being particularly fine: the north porch was restored in 1868; the font is a copy of a beautiful one in Yaxham church, in this county; the stained west window is a memorial to Charles Buxton esq. M.P. who died August 30th, 1875; in 1886 the tower was restored at a cost of £1,300, and in 1887—9 the chancel, which had long been in a ruinous condition, was re-built on the original foundations at a cost of about £6,800, the work being carried out under the direction of Sir Arthur Blomfield M.A., A.R.A.; the stained east window was presented by the Herring family, and memorial windows have been placed to the late B. Bond-Cabbell esq., of Cromer Hall (d. 1892), to J. Bond-Cabbell esq. (d. 1878), and to the children of Sydney Gedge esq. M.A., M.P., and a handsome brass eagle lectern by an unknown donor. The register dates from the year 1689. The living is a vicarage, tithe rent-charge £174, average £131, gross yearly value £200, net, £180, including 25 acres of glebe, in the parish of Southrepps, with residence, in the gift of T. F. Buxton esq. J.P., of Easenye, Ware, Herts, and held since October, 1896, by the Rev. James Frederick Sheldon M.A. of Queens’ College, Cambridge. The Catholic Church, erected in 1896 on the Overstrand road, at the foot of the Lighthouse cliffs, is a small structure of red brick with stone dressings in the Early English style, the design being by George Sherwin esq. of London, and is still incomplete, it being intended to add a chancel and presbytery: there are at present 100 sittings. The Wesleyan chapel in Hall road, erected in 1881, has 260 sittings; the Free Methodist chapel in Prince of Wales’ road was built in 1890 and will seat 264; both are of red brick and cut flint, with stone dressings. The cemetery, on the Holt road, about a quarter of a mile west of the town, and opened in 1860, contains one mortuary chapel, and is under the control of the Urban District Council. The Town Hall in Prince of Wales’ road, erected in 1890 by a Limited Company, from designs by Mr. G. R. Skipper F.R.I.B.A, of Norwich, at a cost, including site, of £2,000, is a structure of red brick, the fronts being relieved by ornamental brick, work and a band of panels, containing shields of arms of persons of distinction and families connected with the locality. The building contains a public hall, 77 by 43ft. 6in. capable of holding 900 persons; at one end is a platform or stage with retiring rooms and a separate entrance, and at the other end is a gallery; in the vestibule are cloak rooms, and on the first floor are reading and recreation rooms; at the rear end of the block is the fire engine station. The Lecture Hall, Cross street, erected in 1891 by public subscription, at a total cost, including site, building and fittings, of £667 13s. for the use of the Cromer Band of Hope, and vested in trustees, is an edifice of red brick, and comprises a large hall 50 by 29ft. and seating from 250 to 300 persons; at the rear are committee and cloak rooms and lavatories: over the entrance porch is a room for an optical lantern, from which pictures may be thrown on to a screen of Parian cement on the wall behind the platform. The Royal Cromer Golf Club was instituted in 1887, and numbers nearly 300 members. H.R.H, the Prince of Wales K.G. who is patron, has presented a handsome silver challenge cup, which is competed for annually by the members’. The Links are situated on the Lighthouse hills, half a mile to the east of the town, and are bounded by lofty cliffs affording magnificent views, both of the sea and of the well-wooded and hilly country inland; the course consists of 18 holes; the greens are composed of excellent turf and are very firm, and the play is very varied. A club house has been erected in a picturesque gorge near the first “tee.” The land is the property of Lord Suffield K.C.B., P.C. who is president of the club. The Workmen and Fishermen’s Reading Room in Chapel street (formerly a chapel) was opened for its present purpose in 1891, the building having been acquired by public subscriptions and vested in trustees for the benefit of the town; connected with it is a library of 200 volumes; the vicar is president. Cromer has several comfortable and well-appointed hotels, including The Grand Hotel, The Hotel Metropole on the West cliff, and the property of a company, the Hotel de Paris, entirely rebuilt, and the Royal Links Hotel. There are also several well-appointed private hotels and boarding houses, and there are many lodging houses; the beach has a fine firm sand and level surface, and thus affords a delightful promenade several miles in length: bathing machines are available on the beach and warm baths can be had in the town. A pleasure fair is held on Whit Monday. The population are chiefly employed in the crab, herring, cod, whiting and lobster fisheries. Ships are continually seen passing on the North Sea, but the coast being extremely dangerous, there are five lights between this and Yarmouth. In 1868 a lifeboat, with a boat house and slipway, was presented to the town by the late Benjamin Bond-Cabbell esq. at a cost of upwards of £2,000. A short distance from the town, in that portion of Overstrand which was added to Cromer in 1896, is a lighthouse, 52 feet in height and 250 above the level of the sea, crowned with a lantern containing 14 oil lamps with two-wick concentric Douglass burners, in finely-plated reflectors, which revolve upon an upright axis once in 2 minutes, giving 2 bright flashes during each revolution i.e. one flash every minute; the power of each lamp without the reflector is no candles and with reflector about 5,000. The Cromer Cottage Hospital, Loudon lane, established in 1867, was removed in 1888 to the present building, the gift of the late Mr. G. W. Collison, a native of Cromer, who also bequeathed to the institution a sum of £500; the hospital, designed for the relief of the poor of Cromer and neighbourhood, is under the management of a committee of 18 ladies with the vicar as chairman, treasurer and visitor; it is supported by voluntary contributions, small weekly payments being made by the patients; the number of in-patients admitted during the year ending Sept. 30th, 1895 was 103; there are no out-patients. The Fletcher Convalescent Home of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital stands on a fine site of three acres, within view of the sea, and close to the Great Eastern railway station. The building is of red brick with stone dressings, in the Domestic Gothic style, from designs by Messrs. Boardman and Son, architects, of Norwich, and has a tower on the east side, the lower stage of which forms the main entrance. The building is arranged in the form of the letter L; the south section contains the living rooms, and the east section the dining room, kitchen and offices, all of which are on the ground floor, all the bed rooms being on the first floor. In a detached building on the north side is an isolation ward with offices complete, and there is also a room fitted up for such of the nurses as may require change of air. The home will accommodate 30 patients. The site, building, and complete equipment were the gift of B. Edgington Fletcher esq., of Marlingford Hall, Norwich, and the home has been endowed by the Earl of Leicester K.G. president. The town lands, of 13 acres, produce £24 10s. yearly, which is distributed to poor widows. Cromer Hall, the residence of Mrs. B. Bond-Cabbell, is a fine mansion of stone, in the Gothic style, erected by the late George Thomas Wyndham esq.: it consists of a central block, with tower and two wings, and was begun in 1827, but was partially burnt down before it was finished in 1829. Colne House is the seat of the Dowager Lady Buxton; Cliff House that of Samuel Hoare esq. M.P., M.A., J.P. New Haven Court, a mansion of brick on an elevated site on the outskirts of the town, is the residence of Mrs. Locker-Lampson Colne Cottage is the residence of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton bart. M.A., D.L., J.P. Trent Cottage is the residence of Henry Broadhurst esq. M.P., J.P. The trustees of the late B. Bond-Cabbell esq. are lords of the manor and the principal landowners. The area is 871 acres of land; rateable value, £20,133; the population in 1881 was 1,568 and in 1891 was 2,193.

Petty Sessions are held at the Police station the first Monday in every month at 11 a.m. The places in the petty sessional division are:-Aldborough, Antingham, Aylmerton, Baconsthorpe, Barningham Norwood, Barningham Winter, Beckham East, Beckham West, Beeston Regis, Bessingham, Cromer, Felbrigg, Gimingham, Gresham, Gunton Hanworth, Knapton, Matlaske, Metton, Mundesley, North Repps, Overstrand, Plumstead, Roughton, Runton, Sheringham, Sidestrand, South Repps, Suffield, Sustead, Thorpe Market, Thurgarton, Trimingham, Trunch.

Places of Worship, with times of services: —

SS. Peter & Paul Church, Rev. Jas. Frdk. Sheldon M.A. vicar; Rev. George Ernest Hillyard, curate; 10.30a.m. 3 & 6.30 p.m.; Thur. 7.30 p.m.

Catholic: —

Overstrand road (served from Norwich), 11.30 a.m. (mass), from first Sunday in July to last Sunday in September both inclusive.

United Methodist Free Church, 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Tue. 7 p.m.

Wesleyan, Rev. C. D. Thomas, 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Schools: —

Sir Bartholomew Read, a native of Cromer & Lord Mayor of London in 1502, founded a Free school here in 1505 & endowed it with £10; the Goldsmiths’ Company of London, the trustees, rebuilt the school in 1821, but the property has now (1896) been sold.

A School Board of 5 members was formed in 1895, an additional member being elected in 1896 when the Suffield Park Ward was added to Cromer. Alfred Edward Salter M.C.P. clerk to the board & attendance officer. Board room, Bond street.

Board School, Bond street, erected in 1896 for 200 boys, 200 girls & 250 infants; average attendance 117 boys, 117 girls & 110 infants.