Overstrand
Encyclopedia
Overstrand is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 (population 1,101) on the north coast of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 in England, two miles east of Cromer
Cromer
Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...

. It was once a modest fishing station, with all or part of the fishing station being known as Beck Hythe. In the latter part of the 19th century it was catapulted into prominence, and became known as “the village of millionaires”.

As with much of the Norfolk coast, erosion was and continues to be a major problem. Clifton Way is an experimental site, of which sea defences include; riprap
Riprap
Riprap — also known as rip rap, rubble, shot rock or rock armour or "Rip-rap" — is rock or other material used to armor shorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against scour, water or ice erosion.It is made from a variety of rock types, commonly granite or...

 (at £1,300 a boulder, predominantly shipped from Norway), wooden groynes, a revetment
Revetment
Revetments, or revêtements , have a variety of meanings in architecture, engineering and art history. In stream restoration, river engineering or coastal management, they are sloping structures placed on banks or cliffs in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water...

 and they have tried to replant trees on the slumped cliff, but in an act of controversy they were stolen and nothing has since been done. The soft boulder clay cliffs slump because of the water running through the clay, and the resulting material on the beach is removed by the succeeding high tides. And so the process continues over the years. In the neighbouring village of Sidestrand
Sidestrand
Sidestrand is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is North of Norwich, South East of Cromer and north-east of London.The nearest railway station is at North Walsham for the Bittern Line which runs between Cromer and Norwich...

, the whole church was moved back from the cliff edge in the 19th century, though the tower of the church was left standing on the cliff top.

Out to sea there used to be another town but was unfortunately victim to the seas erosion on East Anglia, this town has been nicknamed Understrand.

The London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 journalist and travel writer Clement Scott
Clement Scott
Clement Scott was an influential English theatre critic for the Daily Telegraph, and a playwright and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century...

 came to Overstrand in 1883, christened the area ‘’Poppyland’’, and wrote about the church tower on the cliff edge and its “Garden of Sleep”. While in Overstrand he stayed at the Mill House with miller Alfred Jermy and his daughter Louie. Louie became “the Maid of the Mill” in his articles about ‘’Poppyland’’.

Scott had many London contacts in the theatrical world, and his writings led a number of them and others from London society to come to Overstrand. Some bought land in the village and had houses built there, and for a while the village was the place to visit. A large hotel was built on the cliff edge, though this slid into the sea in the 1950s.

The Edwardian architect Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...

 worked at Overstrand, designing Overstrand Hall
Overstrand Hall
Overstrand Hall is a country house in Overstrand, Norfolk, designed by Edwin Lutyens for the 2nd Lord Hillingdon, a partner in Glyn Mills Bank. It was built between 1899 and 1901 and is Grade II listed as of 27 September 1972...

 for Charles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon, The Pleasaunce for Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea
Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea
Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea was a British Liberal politician and patron of art.-Background and education:...

 and the Methodist Church. Whilst the large houses of the gentry have largely passed from private ownership to other uses, the visitor to Overstrand can still appreciate the development that took place at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

The feudal Lord of Overstrand is Frank Charles Albert Hayer III and his wife, Lady Nancy Christine Hayer.

The artist Fiona Davies is a local resident.

Overstrand railway station
Overstrand railway station
Overstrand railway station was a station in North Norfolk on the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway, serving the settlement of Overstrand. It was much used in the summer months by holidaymakers. It closed along with the rest of the line in April 1953....

 was on the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway
Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway
The Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway was a British joint railway company.The NSJR was owned by the Great Eastern Railway and the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway and consisted of two distinct sections: a line between North Walsham and Cromer via Mundesley, and a coastal section running...

 between Cromer
Cromer
Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...

 and North Walsham
North Walsham
North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England in the North Norfolk district.-Demographics:The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 11,998. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of North...

. It is now closed.

The Overstrand
Boulton Paul Overstrand
-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Brew, Alec. Boulton Paul Aircraft since 1915. London: Putnam, 1993. ISBN 0-85177-860-7.* Halley, James J. Royal Air Force Aircraft: K1000 to K9999. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain Ltd., 1976. ISBN 0-851330-048-0.* Lewis, Peter. The British Bomber since...

 biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

 bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...

 was named after the village; being made at the nearby Boulton & Paul aircraft factory in the early 1930s.

Further reading

  • Poppyland - Strands of Norfolk History, Stibbons and Cleveland, Pub: Poppyland Publishing, Fourth ed. 2001, ISBN 0-946148-56-2
  • Poppyland- in Pictures,

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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