Mundesley to Cromer 23rd Septemeber 2020
Yesterday Betty, Beryl and I went out for dinner at a pub in Coltishall. The food was very enjoyable but I found eating out under Covid rules takes something away from the occasion. We wore masks as we entered, but not whilst eating. The waiting staff were not wearing masks either. Which struck me as a little odd. I don’t think we’ll do it again.
Today we are to walk from Mundesley to Cromer, a walk of only about 8 miles. We have gone for this relatively shorter walk today, rather than the more obvious one from Sea Palling to Mundesley, because the weather is a little unsettled. Tomorrow however is set to be good weather, favouring the longer of the two walks.
We rendezvous at Cromer with Beryl, who has been staying in a B&B with friends. Cromer is a very noisy place today, with jet fighters buzzing around all day long. The local paper is peppered with letters of complaint from residents, about the level of noise, although I gather they do get 2 days per week of respite! I wouldn’t chose to live here – that’s for sure.
We drive south in our car to Mundesley and by 12pm are down at beach level. Here we find the tide is too high, with the waves splashing close to the sea wall. We quickly decide that beach walking is not a sensible option and take the Norfolk Coast Path north along the cliff-top towards Cromer.
The tide is too high at Mundesley for beach walking
Getting out of Mundesley is more difficult than I expected, with the Norfolk Coastal Path signs confusing me a little. I suspect someone has turned the direction post round, so we attempt in vain to correct it. Nope, it’s not moving. Well perhaps it’s just my map reading that’s at fault? Fortunately all we need to do is keep the sea to our right and we can’t go wrong. Can we?
Several miles out at sea we can see a drilling platform. It is a novelty, since the only other comparable structures are wind turbines, which are gathered in their thousands. This is about the only place on the UK coast where you can see such a sight, since most gas and oil rigs are much further offshore. This one will be a gas production rig, with the oil rigs much further north off the Scottish Coast.
The Coast Path eventually takes us off the main road and along the cliff top. The base of the cliffs are protected here by metal piles with poured concrete behind. So far so good, with the cliffs looking quite stable and grassing-over nicely. This part of Mundesley is appropriately called Cliftonville and doesn’t appear to be threatened by the sea anything like as seriously as other places we have visited these past 2 weeks.
The relatively stable cliffs at Mundesley
The World War Two Mundesley Emergency Coastal Battery is still very much in place and commands an excellent view across a large swath of the North Sea. It was built in 1940/41, with the word ‘emergency’ perhaps reflecting the startled realisation of the militaryat that time, that Norfolk ought to be better defended. They soon put that right by mounting a pair of 6-inch naval guns here, with attendant searchlights. I don’t know how much service they saw, but they were apparently removed by 1946 leaving Mundesley to return to being a quiet little backwater.
The World War II battery at Mundesley
After a brief return to the main road we are directed back to the cliff edge where a caravan park does not get the same quality of protection from the North Sea as Mundesley did. An ancient line of wooden sea defences located on the beach, are the only defences here. I suspect the caravans have to be rolled back from the cliff edge each winter, as the sea inches its way inland. From here onwards the cliffs are being much more actively eroded.
Whilst the girls stop for a wild wee, I walk on a bit and meet one of those keen, solitary, striding characters who walk the cliff-tops of Britain. The path he has come along has been closed due to erosion, so I check the best route with him.
“Have you come along the Norfolk Coast Path?” I ask.
“Yes.” is his monosyllabic response as he breezes past, leaving me to ponder whether to follow the route he has just taken, or the official alternative. I play safe and take the latter. He looked the sort who would not let a mere cliff-fall stop him, whereas I am a little more circumspect about such things.
This route takes us through a caravan site and along the road, before briefly turning inland around the back of Beacon Hill, where a large white golf-ball sits mysteriously overlooking the sea. This is RAF Trimmingham which is part of the UK’s automatic early warning system. A bit like its World War Two plane spotting counterparts at the Mundesley Coastal Battery, its radar scans the seas up to 250 away and the skies 100,000 meters above us.
Our brief foray inland takes along the main road and into Trimingham, where we pause at what appears to be a village hall with a handily placed picnic table. A number of interpretative boards tell us about local geology and coastal erosion here.
Trimingham village hall/interpretative centre
Coastal Erosion-interpretative board illustrating cliff erosion
The walk along the cliff-top to Overstrand is interrupted by 8 or 10 massive landslips. Thousands of tons of cliff sediment have slipped into the sea here. Many must have been within the last 12 months, with no sign of any recolonization by vegetation. They look as though several bulldozers and diggers have been quarrying material from the cliffs. The sea adjacent to one of the slips is a cloudy grey colour caused by the recent high tide carrying away large quantities in suspension, to be redeposited on beaches further south.
A mud flow has carried tons of material down to the beach – the sea beyond is thick with suspended sediment
Numerous rotational slips send cliff material tumbling into the sea
A mix of rotational slips and mud flows where the sea has taken a massive ‘bite’ out of the coast
This large landslip appears to have stabilised some years earlier, with a mix of vegetation colonising the slopes
Norfolk here is disappearing rapidly into the sea. This is in part due to the poorly cemented glacial deposits of Pleistocene age and climate change. The latter plays its part through increased storm events and the subsequent aggressive nature of wave action. Climate change also leads to rising sea level. This means the existing beaches no longer induce the breaking of waves offshore, so they now break over the base of the cliffs at high tide or during storm events. At one time, sea defences would have been the automatic solution to this threat. However, nowadays it is realised that this just moves the problem elsewhere and is horrendously expensive. In the area between Mundesley and Overstrand the policy has changed to one of coastal realignment, allowing the sea to have its way in areas of low priority such as farmland. The higher priority coastal settlements however have all sorts of solutions put into practice.
It is evident that we are not far from Cromer as one of those “Bloody Fighters” discussed in the local paper flies fast and low overhead.
An elderly couple sit on a bench looking at the cliffs through binoculars.
I suspect they are bird-watching, but I can’t resist saying to them “If you are looking for England, it’s gone into the sea.”
“Haha” is their appreciative response.
I should have added “By the time they sort out Brexit, there will be no England left for Boris to rule.”
The Coast Path soon ‘chicken’s-out’ from following the coast, which appears to be disappearing rapidly and re-joins the main road for a few hundred metres before turning right into Coast Road. The name suggests this was once the main road along the coast. However, we soon discover that it now literally goes to the coast and no further.
A large amphitheatre-like bite has been taken out of the cliffs here, where a landslip occurred some years ago. Unlike the coast we have just walked between here and Trimingham, the authorities have had a good go at reducing the impact of the sea. They had to really, otherwise Overstrand would now be ‘Understrand’ sitting on the strandline of the beach below.
The engineering employed includes a network of trenches running down the slumped scar of the landslip. Each trench is filled with small limestone ‘pebbles’. This is what is known as a French Drain and it allows water to pass easily through the limestone of the trench down to the sea below. The expectation/hope is that this will prevent water soaking into the permeable substrate. If this is allowed to happen, the whole of the cliff becomes unstable. It appears to be having some benefit. For good measure, large boulders have been placed on the beach to prevent the sea eroding the toe of the slip.
Previously unstable cliffs at Overstrand, stabilised with pebble-lined French Drains acting as soakaways for surface run-off
Overstrand cliff stabilisation
Close-up of the pebble-lined French Drains
Landslip and French Drains from below
The coast path takes us down the road bearing the grand name of “The Promenade”. However, it has been partially blocked by a recent landslip, which will doubtless block it completely before too long.
Back at sea level we are able to inspect the various sea defences, including large loose boulders on the beach (rip-rap), wire cages full of pebbles (gabions), a 10 metre wide concrete sea wall, a wooden fence protecting the base of the cliffs (revetment) and zig-zag wooden groynes.
Landslip partially blocks The Promenade
Overstrand sea defences
Overstrand aerial view
Massive concrete sea wall
Zig-zag wooden groynes
Gabions placed above the sea wall – note how the sea has partially destroyed the lower ones, despite being several metres above high tide level
Close-up of collapsed gabions
Gabions stacked 10 high above the sea wall
Concrete blocks, wooden revetment and steel piling appear to have limited success in stabilising the cliffs
Wooden revetment disappears into the distance
Despite just about every form of sea defence known to man, the soft cliffs at Overstrand steadfastly refuse to be stabilised whilst the interventions by man do little to enhance the natural beauty of this coastline. Which cards should be played? It’s a case of stick or twist I suppose.
As we walk along the beach the role of rain-derived water becomes obvious, with groundwater-fed streams cascading down to the sea. The landslip material is so wet that reeds even grow in beds at the base of the cliff.
A small stream emerges from the water saturated cliffs
One interesting feature we come across is an embryonic sand-dune stabilised by the marram grass that is growing up from it. If Overstrand beach could somehow be supplied with sand, perhaps nature will fashion it into sand-dunes stabilised by marram grass. Soft engineering could be the solution to the problem, ‘working with the grain of nature’. (see the next section – Sea Palling to Mundesley)
An embryonic dune, stabilised by marram grass, forms at the base of the cliff
Further along the beach, towards Cromer, the cliffs are more stable with scrub and small trees growing on the cliff-slope. This includes gorse, sea-buckthorn, bramble, bracken, sallow and sycamore. At the Cromer end of the beach some of the trees on the cliff slope are over 50 years old. This part of the coast is more stable because of the change in rock type. This includes Marl Point, a big chunk of chalky till that has been thrust up by the force of moving ice.
Closer to Cromer the cliffs are more stable, with trees growing on them
Marl Point – a lump of chalky till thrust up by moving ice
The groynes that run down the beach appear to be more successful at trapping bladder wrack than the sand they were designed to stabilise. The normal home for bladder wrack is on stable rocky shores, where they are anchored to the substrate with their ‘holdfasts’. On the shifting substrate of this shore there is little of permanence to fix to. Nature as-ever adapts, using the wood of the groynes instead.
Bladder wrack on wooden groynes
Finally we arrive at Cromer and take time to have another look at the town. One of the most striking buildings is the modern Henry Blogg Museum. This building takes its name from the UK’s most decorated lifeboatman – Coxswain Henry Blogg of Cromer. It details the essential work carried out by the RNLI, which Blogg served as a volunteer lifeboatman for 53 years.
A little further along we discover a wonderful stairway up the cliff side. It looks like something from a Fred Astair musical. You can almost see Ginger Rogers and he skipping down the steps. ‘Ginger’ Betty and I would hardly do it justice!
After a wheezing climb up the steps we discover another beautiful bit of architecture attached to the Red Lion. This ‘rapunzel’ tower really deserves to have a mysterious princess occupying its highest window.
Once again charmed by Cromer, we do a spot of window shopping before retrieving Beryl’s car from its suburban parking space and returning with her to Mundesley to collect our own.
The RNLI Henry Blogg Museum at Cromer
These grand steps deserve Hollywood stars to decorate them
This ‘Rapunzel’ tower likewise deserves a princess to occupy the top window