Sea Wall Defences Including Promenade and Cliff Retaining Walls From Opposite the Bottom of Melbourne Slope to the Gangway

Details

CROMER

892/0/10011 Sea Wall Defences including promenade
16-JUN-03 and cliff retaining walls from opposit
e the bottom of Melbourne Slope to The
Gangway

GV II

Sea wall defences, promenade and cliff retaining walls. 1845-6 and 1899-1900 with origins of 1836-8. Mid C19 part by John Wright, later part by William Tregarthen Douglass, both for the Cromer Protection Commissioners.
Earlier part in flint cobbles, facing in coursed flint cobbles, later part in massed concrete, mostly cast in situ. The sea walls face north towards the sea and run from opposite the bottom of Melbourne Slope (not included) to the approx. mid point at the pier (q.v.) and then eastwards again to The Gangway. The first quarter is by Douglass, then the next quarter west of the pier by White, then the half east of the pier is by Douglass building out from the original Edwards wall of 1836-8. A small fragment of this early wall is visible at the end of the Douglass wall next to The Gangway. The walls have a battered outer face with a torus moulding near the top for most of the length to deflect the force of the sea. The top is rounded and the inner face is of coursed flint in the earlier section. The promenade roadway runs behind this over the mass of the sea wall defence and then, westwards, beyond the Jetty Cliff and Bastion (q.v.), there is a low cliff retaining wall also in coursed flint to the town side of the promenade. This runs to a point below the top of the Melbourne Slope. At intervals along the whole length of the sea walls are three semicircular bastions and at the approx. mid point are the forecourt and bastions to the pier. These last were built out over Wright's wall, since a small section of this is visible in the eastern pier bastion.
HISTORY. The first sea wall defence at Cromer was built 1836-8 by George Edwards of Lowestoft. It extended from The Gangway to near a jetty of 1822 which was at a point east of the present pier. There was a level grass promenade on the top over its mass. After the wall was damaged by storms, in 1845 in particular, the Cromer Protection Commissioners were set up by Act of Parliament to manage the coastal defences of the town. The Commissioners decided to erect a new sea wall and promenade to the west of Edwards' wall. These extended westwards from the jetty (by now destroyed) to a point below the top of the present Melbourne Slope. Wright built the new wall and promenade and a new jetty. His wall was at the same level as the earlier one, thus providing a continuous walk. It included a semicircular bastion as the starting point for a new jetty. Part of this bastion survives east of the pier. The rest of the Wright wall stands to the west of the pier. On the townward side of the promenade carriageway Wright constructed the coursed flint retaining wall. In c.1900 a semicircular bastion was introduced into Wright's wall west of the pier perhaps as part of the major improvement project then being carried out. This was to provide a west extension of Wright's wall, a replacement of Edwards' wall and widening of the promenade behind it and an impressive pier in place of the jetty. This large improvement project was carried out 1899-1900 by Douglass of the firm Douglass and Arnott. The sea wall was extended to the west to a point opposite the bottom of the Melbourne Slope. East of the new pier (q.v. also by Douglass) the new wall was constructed out from the Edwards wall, to begin with without the torus moulding, this being added later C20. These important sea walls show the necessarily continuing concern for sea defence at Cromer. The earlier walls were built in the late Regency and early Victorian period when the town was first expanding as a resort. The major project at the end of the C19 coincided with a further expansion as a fashionable resort with the construction of large hotels, notably the Hotel de Paris above the pier and many houses. These sea defences form a highly significant group on the sea front, not only with the pier and the many historic buildings lining the skyline above but also with The Gangway (q.v.) and the Jetty Cliff and Bastion (q.v.).
REFERENCE. Cromer Preservation Soc., Historic Features on the Seafront, 2003.

Legacy

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490171

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LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Historic Features on the Seafront, (2003)

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