Surroundings

Whitstable (pop. 26,200) is known to gourmets the world over on account of its excellent oysters. There is evidence of the existence of oyster-beds here for at least 2,000 years. The town is popular with tourists and hosts an annual Oyster Festival in July. The Whitstable to Canterbury railroad line, built by George Stephenson in 1830, was the first passenger line in the world. The town has some attractive old houses, a shingle beach and a small yacht harbor.

The Isle of Sheppey, approximately 17sq. mi/45sq.km in area, is separated from the mainland by the channel known as The Swale, spanned by a bridge carrying the A 249. The Isle abounds with camping sites, holiday camps and chalets.

Lowestoft (pop. 59,400) is the most easterly town in England. As well as being a popular seaside resort with a good sandy beach, it is also a busy fishing port and center of the fish-processing industry (although the golden days of the herring fisheries are long since past). Among the town's thriving enterprises today is Brooke Yachts International, a boatyard specializing in luxury craft. The town is well known to the art world, not only from the watercolor "Lowestoft" by William Turner, but more especially from the delightful Lowestoft porcelain manufactured here between 1756 and 1803. The fish market adds to the life and color of the town, as do the narrow lanes in the older part.The Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival takes place every year for two days over the South Beach.

Further west from Blakeney Point, along the A 149, Hunstanton (consisting of Old Hunstanton and New Hunstanton; pop. 4,200), offers a magnificent view of the Wash such as can be had from nowhere else. The huge shallow-water inlet is the remnant of an even more extensive arm of the sea, which once also covered what are now the Fens. Hunstanton is a quiet modern seaside resort with a good sandy beach. The cliffs are of interest to geologists for their variegated coloring (red and white limestone, reddish-brown sandstone). The church in Old Hunstanton (Decorated) contains some fine monuments.

Mablethorpe and Sutton-on-Sea (combined pop. 5,500) are less crowded resorts. The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92) spent his childhood here, when Sutton was a mere village among lonely sand dunes.

Cleethorpes (pop. 33,300) has grown from a small fishing village into a popular seaside resort, with a beach of fine sand, a promenade and a swimming pool.Cleethorpes has several notable sites such as the Humber Forts and the lighthouse on Spurn Point.

Grimsby (pop. 91,500), immediately adjoining Cleethorpes, at the mouth of the Humber, is England's foremost fishing port. It is also an important industrial town with extensive docks. According to the 14th century "Lay of Havelock the Dane", Grimsby is so named after a fisherman called Grim, who saved the life of the king's son here.Grimsby is home to the the award-winning National Fishing Heritage Centre, the Church of St James dating back to the 12th century and the impressive Victorian Town Hall.