Cromer Official Guide, 1965 (Part 1)

You can learn a lot about a seaside resort's history from old holiday guides. You can also learn a lot about the tourist trade of the time.

This Cromer and District Official Guide from 1965 has a potted history of the town including information on lifeboat Coxwain Henry Blogg. However, the advertisements for guesthouses and attractions reveal small details about how much the resort has altered since the mid 1960s, and also how little it has changed. In this blog post I tell you how to get there.

 

Cromer's East Beach, long before the Rocket House Cafe
and Henry Blogg Museum were built

Getting There

The guide quotes from a local hotel proprietor who points out how the trade in 1965 changed across the year - from the elderly visitors who holidayed off-season, to married couples with young children in May, families with school-aged children in July, and young couples with prams until September. After the latter had left, the elderly returned once again. I imagine it is much the same today, with the peak tourist season being during the school holidays.

The guide also informs us that motor cars and holidays with pay had brought Cromer's delights 'within range of a far larger number of people than could reach them sixty years [previously]' (page 17).

A list of approximate distances between Cromer and cities around the United Kingdom shows that the publishers were hoping to attract motorists from as far away as Bristol (226 miles) and as near as Norwich (25 miles). It boasts that although ‘the quaint old streets in the centre are very narrow, the town has parks for 5,000 cars’ (page 16).

In an age when a large proportion of people relied on public transport rather than owned a car, the advertisements for coach services give a good idea about the hometowns of Cromer's customers.

Premier Travel supplied express coaches from Bedford, St. Neots and Huntingon Chatteris. Sheffield United Tours brought holidaymakers from Worksop, Sheffield and Rotherham. Trent Motor Traction Company carried people from Nottingham, Grantham, Derby, Loughborough and Mansfield.

The guide also gives an insight into rail links to this North Norfolk resort, with 'good train services of British Railways [connecting] Cromer with the rest of the country' including express trains to London and also services from Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Leicester and Birmingham. The list gives a good record of some of the main towns where Cromer's holidaymakers came from (page 35).

Incidentally the same page informs the holidaymaker about the location of Cromer’s water supply – a deep well at the nearby village of Metton. How many holiday guides include this type of information in 2016?!

In further posts I will reveal more about Cromer’s attractions and tell you where you could have stayed in 1965.

Rocket House Gardens, Brunswick Terrace and the Gangway behind. This view has changed very little, although the houses to the left have been stripped of their ivy.

All quotes and selected images from Cromer and District Official Guide, 1965, published by the Cromer Advertising Association, Urban District Council.