Wells-next-the-Sea
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Brightly painted beach huts in line on the soft yellow sand. A backdrop of pines that stretch away westwards to Holkham Gap. Breakwaters, with green pyramids atop to mark their end in the high tide, divide the beach into segments. Excited children descend the steps on the footpath through a gap in the pines, eager to dig in the sand. The tide flows in gently, the perfect depth for children. Behind the pines, a boating lake, 'Abraham's Bosom', and a caravan park not insight of the sea, but close enough for the smells and sounds. All conected to the town by the beach road running north-south with the re-claimed marsh on one side and the channel feeding the port on the other.
Wells is the longest surviving of North Norfolk's ports, still functioning into the 1980s. Its quay, redeveloped by the Great Eastern Railway, is used today by local fishermen and is popular with yachtsmen. Running up away from the quay, narrow parallel streets lined first with redundant warehouses, then some fine houses. Then a surprise, a long rectangular green, the Buttlands. Lined by trees and on one side - late Georgian houses. John Lewis
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