Memories of beach holidays spent in an old tram at Hemsby

Remember who, when and where along the way,

Keep fresh those reflections of bygone years and record them here today.

The words of Jim Pankcoss published in 1997 in a book by Jack D Simpson looking at the life and times of Hemsby and District in Old Picture Postcards and Photographs.

Jack D Simpson's book on Hemsby which was published in 1997 (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

Hemsby is in the news constantly for all the terrible coastal erosion making life a misery for many, so let’s turn the clock back and take a look at Jack’s book which is packed with lovely old photographs.

The much-loved Lacons Arms, Hemsby, in 1938, four years after it had opened (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

I remember talking to him and writing about the village resort he loved with such a passion and no wonder – his mum bought a holiday home at Hemsby in April 1945  with a difference - a Norwich tram body.

When Norwich Electric Tramways changed their vehicles in the 1920s some of the old bodies were sold to holiday camps for living accommodation and to individuals for sheds and the like.

A holiday home with a difference - the No. 1 Norwich Tram retired at Hemsby, c. 1924 (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

Jack explains how two of the units were sold as holiday homes in Hemsby and transported by Pointers of Norwich in 1924. Following the war his mother Margaret bought the former Tram No.I which had worked the Unthank Road to Riverside Road route.

Author Jack Simpson who grew up loving his family holidays in an old Norwich tram at Hemsby (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

At the beginning there was no electricity, an oil stove was used for heating and cooking with paraffin bought from Larters village shop and water was obtained from a pump about a quarter of a mile away…busy times for Jack and his brothers Fred and John.

As for toilets… they were emptied once a week by Blofield and Flegg RDC .

“By today’s standards,” wrote Jack, “ it was a very basic standard of living when you have been brought up through the war with rationing and bombing it was great fun for us and for mum. Dad (Frederick) had not yet returned from abroad,”

Hemsby Camp members gathering on the beach in the 1920s (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

And he added: “I remember queuing outside Mr Olly’s shop on Beach Road with a milk jug to collect milk which was then sold from the churn. This would have been in 1945/6.”

Born in 1938, Jack grew up in Norwich when you could catch a bus from the Recorder Road depot three times a week to get to Hemsby.

“We would travel nearly every weekend. If we had to alight at Ormesby it meant a three mile walk,” he said. Direct buses followed.

A postcard of Hemsby Station. The train line from Yarmouth Beach opened in May 1878 (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

“The removal of the M&GN railway in 1959 saw, eventually, a complete change to the village of Hemsby with the building of the bypass, a burial ground, public toilets, shops and a news road layout.

The Street, Hemsby around 1948 (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

“Coastal erosion has seen the destruction of many holiday chalets that overlooked the beach and sea and the slow gnawing away of the Gap entrance and the Marrams,” he said in 1997.

Hemsby Gap in the 1920s (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

Jack’s lovely book also takes us on a journey around Winterton, Newport, Scratby and California with many pictures coming from the collection gathered by Andrew Fakes of Great Yarmouth.

The Valley, Hemsby in the 1950s (Image: Jack Simpson Collection)

He writes of all the changes which have taken place to make room for all the cars arriving and says: “This is progress and the modern way we live. I look back over half a century that I have been visiting Hemsby and I know the time I prefer.”