Nestled at the very top of Norfolk is a charming seaside town that seems to have slipped through the cracks of time. Cromer, as far removed from civilisation as you can get in Norfolk, sits proudly atop the headland, a good 50-minute train ride from Norwich. Over a century after its heyday as a playground for affluent Victorian beach-goers, the town has retained much of what made it so appealing to figures like Arthur Conan Doyle.
Boarding houses perch on the (reportedly eroding) cliffs; fishing boats come and go; the pace of life remains delightfully relaxed. The Mirror travel editor Milo Boyd spent a weekend in a stunning seaside Airbnb there, soaking up all of the delights it had to offer. READ MORE: The north west beach ‘better than Cornwall’ named among best in the UK to visit this half term At the heart of the seafront lies Cromer's coastal gem - the pier.
The 151m long Victorian structure has a sign slapped on its entrance declaring it '2024 Pier of the Year', having won the award for a third time at the National Piers Society awards. The pier stands as a testament to endurance, with some form of structure having been present there since 1391. During WWII, the British Government blasted a hole in its middle to prevent invading forces from using it as a landing strip, accidentally using so much dynamite that debris ended up in the middle of town.
The pier, which was nearly lost to the North Sea eight years after the end of the war due to a severe gale, has since und.