OVER THE BUMP TO PLAY FOOTBALL

From West Cliff 1896
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This photograph illustrates all too well the erosion of the cliffs. The profile of Beeston Bump seen in the background of this photograph compared with to day shows just how much land we have lost. My father used to speak of playing football as a boy on level ground beyond Beeston Bump, that is on the seaward side of the bump. Just off camera the Grand Hotel is under construction due for completion in 1896, two years after this photograph was taken. In fact the only Victorian purpose built hotel in the vilage at the time was Sheringham Hotel built in 1889. On the stones there are beach tents and some of these larger tents were constructed using four oars. There is only one breakwater visible in the photograph and then none at all for as far as the eye can see. This photograph gives an indication of what Sheringham was like before the popular invasion, depictIing the Village of Sheringham rather than the Town it was about to become.