Station Approach, Sheringham - 01263 820800 enquiries@nnrailway.co.uk

b>Sheringham - 'Homestead/village of Scira's people'. In Domesday, Silingham.

Historically, the parish of Sheringham comprised the two villages of Upper Sheringham, a farming community, and Lower Sheringham, which combined farming with fishing.

The industry was at its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the coming of the railways made it possible for fish to be transported more efficiently to market. Through the 1900s the focus of the fishing, as all along the north Norfolk coast, began to be on crabs, lobsters and whelks. The crab and lobster fishing made the local fishermen major suppliers to the London fish markets. Long lining for cod and the catching of herring began to become less important in the second half of the century, as did whelking. Today, from a peak of maybe 200 boats, Sheringham has eight boats operated single-handed.

The current town of Sheringham was once Lower Sheringham, a fishing station for the main village, now known as Upper Sheringham. It is a railway town that was developed with the coming of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line in the late 19th century. Most of Sheringham's range of buildings and shops come from this period and the early 20th century. It has a particularly interesting range of buildings using flint, not normally in the traditional Norfolk style but in a variety of techniques.

Sheringham today has a thriving town centre centred around a traditional high street which has a wide range of privately-owned shops. On Saturdays throughout the year there is a popular market located in the car park adjacent to the railway station which attracts large crowds to the town even out of the holiday season. The town also has a good selection of specialist shops such as second-hand books, antiques and bric-a-brac, fishing tackle and bait, a model shop plus arts and craft shops.

The Sheringham Little Theatre has a wide range of productions on throughout the year including a well-established summer repertory season running from July to September, and a popular pantomime at Christmas; in the foyer is an coffee shop and there is nearly always a display of art, very often by local artists. There is a good selection of food outlets and some pubs, restaurants, and a youth hostel. Supermarket operators, including Tesco, have made attempts to open a superstore in the vicinity of the town. These applications have all been turned down by North Norfolk District Council, the latest being in 2006.

Sheringham Museum was located in converted fishermen's cottages and washhouses in the heart of the town. The museum had, as part of its information on the local Fishing industry, a collection of original boat building tools dating back to the 1880s. Sheringham became famous for its boatbuilding with boat-builders like Lown, Johnson and especially Emery being kept busy in the town. These skilled shipwrights built boats for Sheringham, Cromer and other fishermen further afield. There was a display in the museum of Emery's original bench and tools. Fishing is the foundation of which Lower Sheringham developed with a small, tightly-knit community developing on the cliffs and launching their boats from the flint beaches. During the mid 19th century there were over 200 boats fishing off the shore. The fishermen were real characters going by nicknames like Downtide, Bounce, Squinter, Spider, Butter Balls, Bread-alone, Pongo and Teapot. Also on display were models of lifeboats, a Roman kiln, the original settlement of Upper Sheringham, and photographs showing how this popular holiday resort has grown over the years. One of the newest displays showed pieces of elephant bone that have been coming out the cliff to the west of Sheringham. Significant because no-one expected any such finds to be made here. The pieces of bone on display have been dated back some 1.5 million years. These giant animals roamed the world at a time when what is now the Norfolk coast, although then much further north, was enjoying an almost tropical environment. The museums display told the story of these remarkable animals and traces there migratory journey from continent to continent. Linked with this was a display on the geology of the beach and information as well as a display of the most common fossils you will find on the local beaches. There is a displays covering the war years at the museum. Sheringham Museum closed and has now reopened in new location -The Mo- in 2009.

On 19 January 1915 Sheringham became the first place in Britain to have a bomb dropped on it by a Zeppelin. The story and part of the bomb is on display in the Museum.

Sheringham was a front-line town during World War II. Barbed wire surrounded the beaches from fear of invasion and the cliffs often reverberated from the pounding of large guns practicing at the close by Weybourne Camp. A displays called the 'Misfortunes of Peace and War' had displays of debris of planes, ships, other items found on the beaches of North Norfolk. Another display allowed the visitor to take a peep into an old pharmacy, and there were other unusual objects such as a pig's bladder used as a fisherman's float, a Victorian fly trap. Visitors could also learn about the discontinued practice of flint picking off the beaches.