One of the characters in Jane Austen’s Emma, first published in 1816, says; ”Perry was a week in Cromer once, and he holds it to be the best of all the sea-bathing places, A fine open sea, he says, and very pure air”.

Now, I don’t work for the local tourist board, and nor do I carry aspirations in that direction, but I reckon old Perry’s seaside sentiments could be taken down, dusted and used in evidence over two centuries later.

Jane Austen is back in fashion after lavish film and television productions of her novels.

Cromer never goes out of fashion because it pays little heed to passing trends or slick tricks of the holiday trade,

I relish Cromer at this time of year if skies are clear and winds not too lazy to go round you.

Then the pier assumes its dominant role of luring bit-part players on to centre-stage.

Grand scenery, including the town tumbling towards you if the church lets go, can inspire summer thoughts in winter.

Waves patrol below. Hands pump above slap and clap. Stage tests water with toes in the sea.

A platform for anglers dotted around the Pavilion Theatre, a haven for strollers who savour that old Norfolk trick of having one foot on land other in the sea.

There’s room to think and always the prospect of serious action down the slipway.

Lifeboat stabled just beyond the footlights.

Does old Blogg take a bow on stormy nights?

I recall how dramatic events of November, 1993, left me marooned and often miserable.

The pier was sliced in half by a runaway barge and became one of the area’s  leading  tourist “attractions” before a new holiday season beckoned with the official reopening six months later.

How I missed my little outings to end of the pier, especially when I felt too close to end of my tether.

No doubt many experienced similar withdrawal symptoms in 1940 when it was decided to blow up the central portion of the pier to prevent any invading troops having easy access to the town.

Local people were warned demolition would go ahead at noon on a particular Saturday  and advised to open their windows to lessen damage from the blast. High noon came and went.

Nothing happened. Many residents closed their windows  only to regret it  when at four o’clock there was a mighty explosion. Debris shattered windows and damaged property.

Then it dawned on the demolition brigade that the lifeboat crew couldn’t get down to the lifeboat shed.. “ Ha -well done, Wilson – I was wondering who would be first to notice that little problem” said Cromer’s answer to Captain Mainwaring .

Temporary planking went over the hole. In dark and wet conditions the crew must have been in greater danger going across that gap than they were in the churning sea.

The savage 1953 floods also took their toll but the old pier was soon ready for  anything else fate might throw at it before proud centenary celebrations in 1901.

The Hunstanton pier I enjoyed regularly as a child on Sunday  School outings  was destroyed by storms in January, 1978.

Happily there are still good companions for Cromer along our coastline at Great Yarmouth Gorleston, Lowestoft, Southwold and Felixstowe.

I recall favourite actor Alec Guinness making his final film for Ealing Studios in 1957  when  the pier at “Sunny Hunny” had a starring role in Barnacle Bill. Guinness later called it “a wretched film” and only made it as a favour for director chum Charles Frend.

I got close to the Britannia and Wellington  piers at Yarmouth during my days on the local weekly  newspaper in the mid-1960s. 

Rubbing shoulders with showbusiness stars  was a big pull although I  did see the Brit in a different light when Ralph Eustace Sherwin White, colourful chief reporter on the Yarmouth Mercury, described it thus in his Scout column; “Like Neptune’s giant frying pan stretching into the sea”.

Lowestoft looked set to have a partner for the South Pier at end of  the 19th century.

Indeed, the Duke of Cambridge  cut the first turf in connection with the North Pier project in 1899 but the £60,000 idea sank without trace.

Still, the Claremont Pier was built in 1903 by  the Coast Development Corporation to serve as a stopping place for  the Belle steamers between London and Yarmouth.

Facelifts and other alterations continue to find favour next door to the waves. All the more reason to savour these marvellous facilities for all seasons.

End of the pier where an era lives on out of curiosity and affection for old-fashioned ways.