Cromer memories
Here are memories of Cromer and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Cromer or a Cromer photo.
My Father - Gardener
My father, Leonard Griffin, worked for the council as a gardener and helped build these gardens. He then helped maintain them until he retired. My memory is being allowed to run from one garden to the next and then the next but having to wait for my Mum at the end. I don't recall these as the rock gardens but as the sunken gardens.
My Father
My father, Lenny Griffin, used to put these out every morning and store away in a shed at North Lodge Park every night in the summer. I used to go with him and when they got the smaller binoculars I was allowed to carry one. The big telescopes my fther used to carry one on each shoulder.
The Metropole Hotel
The hotel which features in this photo is the Metropole Hotel which was situated in Tucker Street. It had access at the rear leading down to the Promenade. Following WW2 it fell into disrepair and was demolished being replaced with a block of flats. The only physical survival is a metal gate at the east end of the site, opposite the small Church gateway. This gate bears the letters HM (for Hotel Metropole).
The Grand Hotel, Cromer
The hotel on the right of this photo is the Grand Hotel situated on the Runton Road and corner of Beach Road. It had its own hard tennis courts across Beach Road - now a Car Park - and a flight of steps leading down to the Prom - replaced by Anglian Water.
Mr John White, Principal Lighthouse Keeper
My great-grandfather, John White, was Principal Lighthouse Keeper, from 1883 onwards. John, with his family, a wife, and three sons, travelled from Wales where he was a Lighthouse Keeper at South Bishop Lighthouse, Pembroke St Mary. Sadly his eldest son, also John, had died on duty in 1882 on the Lighthouse Ship Aberdaron. He had been on duty as a Lighthouse Keeper, was aged 21 years. Tragedy struck the family again, when after only 18 months of duty at Cromer on the 28 March 1884 John himself died on duty. We visited the lighthouse some 2 years ago and in a wooden drawer upstairs in the Lighthouse, the current part time Lighthouse Keeper showed us the Log Book where these details were found. This Log Book is still in use today. It was also noted that the previous Lighthouse Keeper had also died on duty! Jillian Carr, nee White
Where Was This Hotel', is it Still in Existence.
I have lived in the area all my life and don't recognise this hotel. It is a grand structure indeed but I cannot recall seeing it.
Jetty Street
My ancestors lived in Jetty Street around 1890 and at one time had a chocolate shop at No 8. Next door at No 6 was a shoemakers, I believe (now called Jacob's Rest). The family name of my great grandmother (Emily nee Newman) and great grandfather (William Harry) was Gower. My great great grandfather, John Newman was involved in the building of Cromer Pier and he was married to Jane Jacob in 1848. My great grandmother moved from Jetty Street to 17 Vicarage Road, Cromer but her son Rupert moved back to Jetty Street and it was he and probably his sisters who ran the chocolate shop.
Flecher Convalsecent Home
I worked at the convalescent home for 6 months, (my name was Lansdale then) as so-called 'nursing aide' - more like 'maid of everything' - cleaning baths, polishing old brass taps and scouring equally old claw-footed baths, while waiting to start nursing training in Norwich.
It was a lovely building in a lovely area (although with the war still on, barbed wire barricades were on beaches for fear of invasion). Matron was an old Tartar! - but it was a good introduction to nursing life as in those days the junior on the ward did the cleaning - and the ward sister made sure it was done properly before Matron did her round!
An account of my time at Cromer is included in my book "The Patchwork Years".
Lighthouse Keeper
My great grandfatherwas lighthouse keeper at Cromer - Mr Hopkins
Summer Holiday, 1958
My family and I stayed in the Elmhurst Hotel, Cromer for two weeks during August 1958. My brother and I made several coach excursions from Cromer - to Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Sandringham, King's Lynn and Ely. I went alone to Sheringham by train - the trains were still running then! - and found a most interesting book - which I still have - in a secondhand bookshop. I remember the beach there was most peculiar - divided by an almost straight line into areas of shingle and sand. We all went on a boat trip on the Norfolk Broads, and by train to Norwich for the day. On Cromer pier there was the Guinness clock telling Guinness time - on the hour the clock would open up, played a tune and all sorts of funny figures appeared and moved. It was a great attraction. Thank goodness, I took a photo of it, because I don't think the clock exists now. In later years my parents took my younger sister... Read more
Summer Holiday 1958
This is a front view of the Elmhurst Hotel, which stood - or stands? - in Cabbell Road, where my family and I stayed for two weeks in August 1958. I wonder if the building is still a hotel? I took a similar photo, which is in my album for that year. I also have two group photos of all the folk who were staying in the hotel at the same time as my family and I.
Family Connections With The 'Louisa Hartwell'.
My father and grandfather both served with Henry Blogg on the 'Louisa Hartwell' and my dad was one of the pallbearers when Henry Blogg died.
MY MEMORIES OF CROMER
Born in 1947 in Suffield Park, as was, Cottage Hospital on Overstrand Road. Lived in Links Avenue until 1959. My memories are vast. I went to school in the centre of Cromer which is now converted to senior citizens accommodation. I have been back to Cromer two or three times, the first time after 30 years. My husband and I took a nostalgic trip to my old home and the area where I played as a child. My parents divorced in 1958 and my mother remarried in 1959 and we moved to Chester. My father, "Tim" Ernest Sylvester Bartram was a trumpet player in a band after the war and also worked as a signalman. He had been a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force when my mother met him and he had been a POW in Germany for some time after being the only one left alive after his Halifax crashed in Germany. I have his Log Book, makes interesting... Read more
Crab Cottage
In l984 my sister, Christine Ramsey/Taylor wrote to me at my home in Texas asking if I would like to share a holiday cottage with her and her three children. She had booked in at Cromer and had rented an old fisherman's cottage, called Crab Cottage. The rent was going to be 75 pounds for a week. I had planned to visit England that year so I accepted for my daughter Amy and myself. We stopped off in Leicester for a few days, then we loaded up the car and set out for Cromer. The cottage was very small and I was to learn that the previous owners had raised a large family of children there. How they managed I don't know. There was a kitchen downstairs and a lounge. Upstairs were two bedrooms. One had a double bed (which almost filled the room) and the second one had bunk beds. In the lounge downstairs there was a bedsettee. Hot water for the... Read more
The Bartrams
There is a long line of us 'Bartrams' living and working in Cromer. I myself was born in East Runton 1956, although at the time my parents Bernard and Mary lived in Gas Works Cottage, Cromer. We moved to Lynwood Road, Cromer in 1957. My father, Bernard William Bartram, was at the time in the RAF. When he left he joined the railway as a signalman. My grandfather Ernest Bartram was also a signalman and lived at 7 Central Road for many years. He and my grandmother Emma were I believe quite eminent in local council for Cromer for many years. I had an uncle there as well Ernest, known as 'Tim', also ex-RAF and later a signalman. I have many memories of Cromer and a lot more to tell. I will update as I can. I visit there when I can. Last year (2009) I visited there twice during the summer. I was on holiday from where I now live - Spain. Cromer is still my favorite place to... Read more
Memories of Norfolk
Long Days on The Beach With Family And Friends
My parents owned a caravan on what is now Seaview Caravan Park and as a child I remember going down onto the beach with my brother. My parents and an uncle called Sparky and his wife all went down onto the beach and put up at least 5 windbreakers in a circle. We hired a beach hut and kept all the deckchairs, spades, buckets in it, we also had a primus stove so our parents could make cups of tea all day. When the tide was out we had family cricket matches on the hard sand but when we got started anybody on the beach could join in. We would stay on the beach till about 6.30-7.00.
Some mornings we would get up early to go down on the beach to watch the fishing boats come in and watch excitedly as they unloaded the crabs and lobsters. Sometimes the fishermen would give me a crabs leg which had come off in the boat although mum did not like it... Read more
YH294 PANDORA
I spent all my younger July and Augusts at East Runton in my grandad's caravan on Stewarts caravan site. My sister Gaynor and I made good friends with brothers Mick and Graham Kilsby from Kettering.
I have many happy memories of hot summers and beach huts and a boat with the number YH294 Pandora on the side. Mick said one day "you know I'll remember that for the rest of my life" and do you know, I have .......wonder if he did!
Pillbox on The Cliff
I lived in East Runton as a child somewhere around 1960 and I have a couple of memories. More than likely they are for my own purpose but here goes. I used to play in the white pillbox that was up on the cliff edge. When I went back in 1992 it had fallen down to the beach by then and I really wanted to play in it again. Also in the center of the village there was a little pond. I fell in one time and it was really muddy and shallow and the botton was lined with little red bugs...creeped me out. Oh and one more thing Robert Brownsell and Eric Peters were my best freinds. I think Robert is still there but I lost his number and email address! God Bless East Runton. I'm thinking about retiring there.
Childhood Memories
East Runton was my home until I reached the age of 11 when my family emigrated to Australia in 1966. What wonderful memories I have of Runton, the annual fete held on the road leading down to the beach, walking the dogs through the woods and up Inkaborough Hill. I attended Cromer Primary school and can remember standing outside the village hall waiting for the bus and the joy when it couldn't reach us because of the snow. I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up there having the beach during the summer and the beautiful countryside to enjoy during the winter.Oh happy days!!
Summer Holidays
When we were kids we used to holiday at East Runton nearly every year. We stayed with George and Mabel Bonney (and Trixie the dog) at Shepherds Cottage on the common. I think it was called Top Common. My Dad hired two beach huts from Walter Green - one of the fisherman - who used to sit at the bottom of The Gap mending his crab nets. What fun we used to have!! A marvellous clean beach with rock pools and, when the tide was out - ideal for football! Mr Bonney told us all the best places to go and we often took Trixie for walks - or should I say she took us as she knew the area so well! Such happy times and great memories of a beautiful Norfolk village. Hope it hasn't changed too much!
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