Sheringham Heritage Trails

As with other towns, Sheringham has significant buildings and sites marked by blue plaques and forming a heritage trail. The trail was initiated in 1991 by the Sheringham Society and members of the Museum Trust and was accompanied by a booklet, illustrated by local artist Mick Bensley.

There are 36 sites picked out on the trail, not all of them with blue plaques, giving a commentary on the varied history of the town. Prominent features include lifeboats, boat building, the Coastguards, the railway, grand hotels and large houses occupied by prominent people of the Edwardian era, schools and churches. Sheringham’s oldest buildings, long since disappeared, were St Nicholas Chapel, which was medieval, and a paper mill (18th and 19th century) powered by water from two mill ponds. Although Sheringham as a town is little more than a century old, it has undergone a surprising amount of change during this period.

Sheringham boasts a beautiful setting between the beach and towering cliffs to the north and a hilly and wooded ridge to the south, formed by the glaciers of the Ice Age. A more extensive series of walks (The Sheringham Trails) covers the area outside the town and offers an exceptional variety of landscapes within a relatively short distance, with amazing views. It features two medieval churches, at Beeston Regis and Upper Sheringham, the extensive ruins of Beeston Priory and a number of World War II relics. The route also takes in Beeston Hill (or Bump), a glacial feature, Beeston Common, a site of special scientific interest because of its geology, flora and fauna and the stately Sheringham Park, devised by landscape gardener Humphry Repton.

Two booklets describing the trails are available from The Fishermen’s Lifeboat Museum or The Peter Coke Shell Gallery.