Roger Bacon, a mariner of Cromer, is said to have discovered Iceland in the reign of Henry IV. and also to have taken prisoner the Prince of Scotland, James Stewart, who was sailing to France, in order to be educated there.
A savings’-bank was established here in 1827. Petty-sessions are held every alternate Monday. The poor’s land was let, in 1786, for ten pounds a year—it now lets for fourteen guineas. This is equally divided between twenty-four widows, who do not receive relief from the parish. The market, which was held every Saturday, under letters patent of Henry IV. has been long discontinued; but the town is well supplied with provisions of all kinds, during the bathing season, persons from the country round bringing in poultry, butter, eggs, vegetables, &c. daily. Fish is not very plentiful: however, this depends upon the season. Mackerel, whitings, herrings, and cod are caught here; its lobsters have long been noted for their excellence, as are also its crabs. Great quantities of these are caught and sent immediately to London. Lobsters are reckoned out of season, from the latter end of June to that of July.
It also boasts of an annual fair which is held on Whit Monday.
Cromer was first frequented as a watering-place about the year 1785, by a few families of retired habits, whose favourable reports of the place induced others to follow their example. The accommodations, however, were long adverse to the influx of visitors, and the want of a respectable inn, in particular, was greatly felt, and was a material check, not so much to the actual prosperity of the place, but to its very existence as a place of general resort. At length, a spirited individual, the present venerable Mr. Tucker, built the New Inn, which from that time to the present he has conducted with the greatest propriety, and with every regard to the comfort of those who have used his house. The character of Cromer thenceforth became altered, and various improvements followed. Indeed, the inhabitants of Cromer owe a large debt of gratitude to him, and if universal respect, and, it is to be hoped, just success, to himself, can reward him, he receives his full recompense.
There are several machines for sea-bathing, the hour for which is regulated by the tide. The bather, Mr. Jacob, who is a very steady man, and the descendant of a line of bathers, lives in Jetty Street.
There are two bathing-houses, one on the cliff and the other by the side of it, on the beach: both of which are extremely well conducted, and kept by persons of respectability, by whom every requisite attention and civility are shown.
Cromer now contains many comfortable private lodging-houses, as well as apartments for the accommodation of its visitors, as also some respectable inns. One of the best houses in Cromer has lately been converted into a boarding-house, under the name of the Hotel de Paris. A number of houses, called the Crescent, have been built within the last ten years, and are a great acquisition. Had the same spirit of speculation in building, &c., existed here as elsewhere, or the same encouragement, at least, been given to it, it is probable that long ere this, Cromer would have risen to considerable importance as a bathing-place and fashionable resort; nature having done everything for it that might favour such a result. It has, however, been asserted, and perhaps with truth, that this spirit of improvement has been discountenanced on the ground, that the moral welfare of the place was promoted by its comparative obscurity and non-intermixture with the idle and the more corrupted servants, &c. of cities and towns. The facilities of travelling to long distances, too naturally tends to injure places which depend much on the local encouragement they receive. Persons who were once content, to visit, summer after summer, the same place, or who chose that which their own neighbourhood made most convenient, are no longer detained by motives of expense or distance from indulging a taste for variety. The rent of the houses is high, and consequently, that of lodgings is the same: the latter may be had at the rate of from one guinea and a half to three and a half: entire houses from four to six guineas a week: those of the latter price, of which there are not more than four or five, make up ten beds, and are therefore capable of accommodating a large family.
The inhabitants, almost universally speaking, are extremely civil and well-behaved, respectable in themselves, and respectful towards others; simple in their manners, and free from that spirit of extortion which is but too commonly the fault of those who have only a short season to enable them to meet many exigences, and who have only a partial interest in those they serve.
The walks, drives, &c., round Cromer are exceedingly beautiful, affording alike to the geologist, botanist, and mineralogist, abundant materials for the gratification of their respective tastes. Many valuable organic and fossil remains are to be found in different parts of the coast, a circumstance to which the active researches of the late Mr. C. S. Earle served materially to draw the attention of scientific persons. Professor Buckland and the learned Mr. Lyell have both honoured Cromer by visiting it.
Wild flowers are to be met with here in great beauty and luxuriance, some of them sufficiently rare to induce a long and health-giving walk in search of them. The sea-weeds, or algæ, are those which are generally found on our coasts, consisting of the great strap-wort, (Laminaria;) Bladder-wort, (Fucus vesiculocus;) Serrated Bladder-wort, (Fucus serratus;) the beautiful crimson Plocamium coccineum, the Ulva latissina, &c.