A Visit to Great Yarmouth

Seaside towns have long been the place for unusual or eccentric attractions. The types of exhibits and collections that were also part of the travelling fairground. Take for example, the infamous Rector of Stiffkey – the defrocked clergyman who ended up being mauled by a lion in a sideshow at Skegness.

Madame Tussauds at Blackpool has kept up to date for its holidaymakers by including likenesses of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. The Louis Tussauds Waxworks at Great Yarmouth, however, was looking more than tired by the time of its closure in 2013, with its replicas of Kojak, Mr Blobby and Samantha Fox.

The House of Wax, Great Yarmouth before it closed

 

The House of Wax in 2016 - now closed

If you are visiting Great Yarmouth then I would highly recommend visiting the Time and Tide Museum. Converted from an old herring smoke house, this place has a reconstruction of an old Yarmouth row (a narrow pedestrian lane with houses and shops), a seaside gallery, and information on the area's fishing industry.

The Hippodrome Museum is also open to visitors after performances at the circus.

Before you leave Great Yarmouth, you must make sure that you pay a visit to The David Howkins Museum of Memories. Admissions here go to charity, and at the time of my visit (2016) only cost £3 for an adult, and £1 for children. The contents of the museum are eclectic. Some its exhibits look like small personal collections – such as the cluster of Murano Glass clowns (familiar tourist souvenirs from the latter half of the twentieth century), and some Royal memorabilia. There are also some dolls houses (not antiques), and rooms full of teddies and dolls.

A fairground Aunt Sally - see if you can knock the clay pipe from her face...

Of particular interest however, are the Stamp Room and the Joseph Merrick display. The latter includes a bust of Merrick, which is a replica of a plaster cast taken of his head, kept in the London Hospital where he spent the last few years of his life. Visitors can buy a booklet about the ‘Elephant Man’ at the museum. The curator is keen to point out that the ‘true’ story of the Elephant Man is that the showman Tom Norman was Merrick’s colleague and friend, and that, contrary to the David Lynch feature film, Merrick tired of the medical inspections instigated by the film’s ‘hero’, Frederick Treve. Joseph Merrick’s skeleton has still not been buried, and it has recently been mooted that his remains should be returned to his original birthplace, Leicester (in a similar vein to Richard III’s).

The member of staff on duty at the Museum of Memories was very eager for me to go to the first floor to see the Stamp Room. This is a room with furniture and artifacts completely covered in postage stamps. This display was created by Albert Schafer who spent over 30 years fulfilling this self-imposed challenge.

The museum is housed in an impressive building that used to be the local gas showroom. You can walk a grand staircase – lit by a huge stained glass window – leading up to the former gas offices on the first floor, which now house the Stamp Room and toys. As you leave, you can buy a genuine seaside postcard from the 1950s as a souvenir.

The Museum of Memories is memorably eccentric and unique.

For more information on the museum look here

THE NORFOLK MURALS OF JOHN MORAY-SMITH

After a visit to Cromer Museum earlier this year to see the John Moray-Smith seaside mural (detail above), a subsequent Twitter conversation with the museum prompted me to look for some of Moray-Smith’s other murals around Norwich.

Moray-Smith was an Italian traveller who married a Norwich woman, Katrina Moray-Smith and took her name, after coming to England as a prisoner in the First World War. He worked for Watney-Mann’s Norwich Brewery in the 1940s and 1950’s.

Cromer Museum houses three of Moray-Smith’s plaster relief artworks from 1951 including a portrait of the famous Lifeboat coxwain Henry Blogg, a mural of a 19^th century lifeboat launch, and the aforementioned beachscape. The two murals were taken from the Ship Hotel in Church Street, Cromer, which closed in 1984.

Detail from Cromer seaside mural

Henry Blogg

I’ve only included some small details of the seaside mural here, as I recommended you to visit the museum itself to fully appreciate the scale and quality of the work.

Three of Moray-Smith’s artworks can be found at pubs in the centre of Norwich, which I visited this summer. 

The Coachmaker's Arms

The Coachmaker’s Arms, St. Stephen’s Road, NR1 3SP, has a representation of St. Stephen’s Gate and dates from 1937.

The Berstrete Gates

The Berstrete Gates, Ber Street, NR1 3EN, similarly shows a picture (1937) of some long-gone city gates from Norwich’s city walls.

Grazing sheep in The Woolpack

The Woolpack in Golden Ball Street, NR1 3EH, houses the most impressive collection of Moray-Smith plaques (from 1938). There were originally six pictures illustrating different aspects of the wool trade from sheep grazing, to shearing, market trading and export, five of which can be found in the pub today. Go and have a look at them whilst supping some local Woodforde's beer.







I later returned to Norwich and went to look for the mural at the Prince of Denmark, Denmark Road, NR3 4JQ. The size of this mural presents an impressive figure which can be seen easily from across the road and from the path outside the pub. 

I also went to see the Norwich Panorama which is displayed at The Maid's Head Hotel, Tombland. It truly is a stunning piece of artwork and a great tribute to a fine city!

Information taken from Cromer Museum and the Norwich Society.

SHELLS! Eccentric Seaside Art

Shell House postcard

I lived in Bournemouth for a while in the early 1990s. On several occasions I went to visit the Shell House in Southbourne. This folly was an incredible collection  of sea shells collected from all over the world by one man, George Howard, and managed to be both amusing and moving in equal measure.

Shell House postcards

Not long before I left Bournemouth I filmed the Shell House; these are some stills from my cine film:

You can view a clip of the movie here:

I was sad to hear years later that the attraction had been demolished, but I'm pleased that I was able to capture it on film and that I can share it today.

You can read more about the Shell House here:

THE SHELL HOUSE 

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More recently, I came across the Peter Coke Shell Gallery in Sheringham, North Norfolk. Just like the Shell House, this gallery houses the work of one man, the late actor Peter Coke who was enamoured with the art of 'sailor's valentines' but took it to another level with his miniature gardens, temples and flower posies, all constructed out of shells and coral. 

The gallery is open in the summer months. It is free to enter but there are postcards and shells for sale, or you can make a donation towards its upkeep.

Read more about the Peter Coke Gallery here:

PETER COKE SHELL GALLERY 


(Postcards of the Shell House on this Blog by Dennis, Salmon and J. Hammersley, Boscombe).