11th July, 2023 in Local & Family History

Coastal places: The Central North Coast in Norfolk

By John A. Davies

By David M.G. Waterhouse

During the summer months, the north coast is susceptible to a chilly mist that rolls in from the North Sea. Known as a sea fret, this cold fog is caused by warm air, normally between the months of April and September, passing over the cold sea. The frets are restricted to the coastal strip and can continue while, nearby, conditions inland are warm and sunny.

Norfolk’s sea frets are responsible for favourable growing conditions for cereal production across the area. Following this stretch of coast will enable us to look at the later episodes of prehistory, relating to the post-glacial period. In this chapter, we shall be introduced to the settlement of Norfolk during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. There is a great deal of current research into these periods, notably through offshore archaeology in relation to the mapping of the North Sea bed, across the expanse we now refer to as Doggerland.

Doggerland

For most of its prehistory, our country has not been an island. Britain was joined to the continent of Europe and the sea lay far to the north of its current position. The coast was far away, forming a line running from the current Yorkshire coast to the northern tip of Denmark. Britain was effectively a peninsula of Europe. During the period of the last Cold Stage of the Devensian glaciation, a large part of Britain, together with much of what is now the North Sea, was covered in ice. The sea level was about 120m lower. Other parts of Britain and the North Sea were covered with tundra.

The northern coastline was backed by a landscape of lagoons, salt marsh, rivers and lakes. This environment provided the inhabitants with a bounty of resources for fishing, eating shellfish and hunting wildfowl. Behind the coast was a large fertile plain, which was populated by vast herds of animals on a scale that is seen on Africa’s Serengeti plain in modern times and providing rich hunting grounds. It was named ‘Doggerland’ by Professor Bryony Coles in the 1990s, during her pioneering study of this landscape. At the end of the Devensian cold period, the huge glaciers melted and the sea level rose. Then, as the weight of the ice lessened, the land started to tilt and dry land became submerged under the North Sea. What had previously been a peninsula of Europe was cut off and Britain became an island just 8,500 years ago. The enormous landscape of Doggerland was drowned.

Today, as fishing boats cast their nets, alongside the catches of cod, sole and turbot, they regularly turn up bones and teeth of creatures that once roamed this great plain. Fishermen have dredged up many tonnes of bones of giant extinct animals from the seabed. Remains of woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, wild horse and bison have been recovered in very large quantities from depths in excess of 20m, reflecting the sheer numbers of creatures that once roamed this expanse. This was once a very rich terrestrial environment. In the wake of the herds, we also have evidence of predators, which included lions and hyaenas.

Doggerland is now the focus of intense archaeological interest and investigation. However, the study of this submerged landscape presents a unique set of difficulties and new archaeo-geophysical techniques are being developed, alongside the application of computer modelling and molecular biology. These investigations look at the nature of past environments, ecological change and the nature of early human communities. The new information is being used to identify where people were and where archaeology might survive within this massive landscape.

Doggerland is providing us with one of the most exciting archaeological landscapes for study anywhere in Europe. Unfortunately, it is difficult for non-specialists to engage with the kind of work being undertaken from ships and by divers, both in the deep sea and in the closer intertidal zone. Over the coming years, it will be possible to produce models of the original landscape and to explore the lost terrain through computer graphics that more of us can better understand and share. In the meantime, we can view some surviving remains of Doggerland’s forests at intervals along the Deep History Coast. There are a number of locations where stumps of ancient trees can be seen at low tide. These include sites at Titchwell, Gore Point and Holme-next-the-Sea in the north and Sea Palling in the east. Researchers have also identified a number of very fragile archaeological sites that still survive within the intertidal zone and are exposed at low tide, together with others located further beyond the current coastline.

Continuing our exploration along the coast from West Runton, the high ground at Beeston Hill slopes down towards a harbour and seafront at Sheringham. The town originally grew in importance through its role in coastal fishing. Much of its development belonged to the years from the 1890s to the early twentieth century. It is now a popular seaside resort, in tandem with nearby Cromer. The adjacent Sheringham Park, further inland, is another popular draw for locals and tourists from afar. The 1,000 acres of Sheringham Park are in the care of the National Trust. The park was originally designed by the famous landscape architect Humphrey Repton (1752–1818). Famous today for its displays of azaleas and other rhododendrons, it combines woodland walks and unequalled panoramic views of the coast, especially from its treetop viewing platform. It also contains the grand Sheringham Hall, again the work of Repton and constructed between 1812 and 1817, which is not open to the public.

Sheringham Museum at the Mo, situated on the seafront, contains an eclectic mix of local lifeboats and fishing boats, photographs and glass negatives, boatbuilding tools, paintings and drawings. It also houses a collection of fisherman’s woollen sweaters, called ganseys, and there is a display of local fossils from along the Deep History Coast.

The Cromer Ridge

A sense of the scale of what was once Doggerland can be experienced by looking out to sea from high points just inland, including those inside Sheringham Park and the adjacent Kelling Heath. In fact, the best raised locations belong to the geological feature known as the Cromer Ridge, which dominates the landscape along this part of the coast. The ridge stretches inland from the area between Mundesley and Cromer, rising to over 100m south of Sheringham. It forms one of the highest locations across the whole of East Anglia. The ridge then continues inland, to the south of Holt, extending for 14km in length, almost through to Thursford.

The Cromer Ridge is a glacial feature, created during the Anglian Cold Stage, 470,000–400,000 years ago. It was formed from glacial moraines, scoured from the bed of the North Sea and deposited along the edge of a great ice sheet at this point. The ridge therefore serves to indicate the extent of the ice at a point in time and represents a pause in the flow of the sheet, depositing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material along the way. Several other associated features resulting from glacial action can also be seen here. These include a formation known as an esker, located on the Wiveton Downs, which is a long sand and gravel ridge running for 3.5km between Blakeney and Glandford. What is known as the Blakeney Esker was originally formed within a channel cut into the base of the ice. This is perhaps the finest example of such a glacial feature in England.

Extracted from Exploring Norfolk’s Deep History Coast by Dr John A. Davies and Dr David M.G. Waterhouse