A Monthly Publication

Rail journey to Hunstanton Pier

Well done Hunstanton Newsletter for promoting the idea of restoring our rail link with Lynn and the rest of the world. (See the Newsletter website to register your vote: www.hunstantonnewsletter.co.uk). In the summer of 1969, visitors who had booked a holiday, inclusive of rail travel to Hunstanton, were amazed when their rail journey ended at Lynn and they had to take a taxi the rest of the way. 

In 1862 it took the Victorians just ten months to lay the 15 miles of track. Surely, with the current emphasis on using public transport whenever possible, it should not take as many years to bring back a proper railway, complete with steam engines that would be in keeping with Hunstanton's Victorian heritage? 

In documents recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, I came across the minutes of a quite extraordinary meeting held in Lynn on 1st November 2002. At this meeting a solicitor acting for CHS Amusements Ltd made the suggestion that if the Council restored the rail link, his clients would comply with the terms of their lease and rebuild the Pier!

Of course, the Council does not have to build a railway in order to get its lessee to rebuild the Pier, but there is an ongoing obligation for the lessee to 'make and maintain' a Pier at Hunstanton. It does not matter that CHS has a new owner, the responsibility for complying with the Repairing Covenant in the Pier lease rests with the Pier lessee, whoever he happens to be at any particular point in time throughout the term of the 999-year lease.

As far as I am aware CHS still claims ownership of the original Hunstanton Pier Company (HPC) which was created by an Act of Parliament in 1868 for the specific purpose of 'making and maintaining' Hunstanton Pier.

In 1946, instead of concentrating on that task, the HPC tried to acquire Cromer Pier in order to make a claim for war damage. The plan was to restore the pier and then operate it free of rent for a few years prior to a lease being agreed.

This less than generous offer was rejected by the owners, the Cromer Protection Commissioners (CPS) but in 1948 ownership of the Pier was transferred to Cromer Urban District Council when an Act of Parliament dissolved the CPS. (Confer 'The Story of Cromer Pier' by Christopher Pipe, Poppyland publishing.)

Since that date Cromer Pier has prospered and is now insured by its current owners, North Norfolk District Council for more than £10 million..

In contrast, the owner of Hunstanton Pier, West Norfolk Council, has no Pier and has lost millions of pounds since 1978

because of its continuing failure to enforce the Repairing Covenant in the Pier Lease. The onus is now on the administration that assumed control in May to make amends for past mistakes. Fortunately, a Repairing Covenant may be enforced at any time during the term of the lease, regardless of the fact that it was not enforced when the Pier first fell into a state of disrepair.

It was good to hear our new Mayor raise the possibility of twinning Hunstanton and he will not be surprised if I suggest Cape May in New Jersey, USA. Cape May prides itself on being a Victorian seashore resort and, also in common with Hunstanton, is an east coast town that faces west.

The American connections with this part of Norfolk are also well documented, with Hunstanton being temporary home to some 1,000 USAF personnel and their dependents in the 1950's. In 1953 the people of the town had a particularly good reason to be grateful to the Americans for the part they played during and after the floods.  

Perhaps we need to set up a twinning committee to make an approach to Cape May to find out if the interest in twinning is reciprocated...

I have been taken to task by both friends and family for nit-picking over minor historical inaccuracies. Undeterred, here I go again. The cottages occupied by the Bunting family were, of course, in Hill Street, at its junction with Park Road, not on Redgate Hill. The chalk pit used as a rubbish dump was on Redgate Hill, not in Park Road. As a lad I played at being one of Robin Hood's Merry Men in the disused Park Road chalk pit. I have no idea what material was used to fill it in, but I would not have thought it was household waste.

Better leave it at that for now, before I am justifiably accused of talking historical rubbish; but before leaving the chalk pit area, might I suggest that a new First School should be built adjacent to the Community Centre, so that pupils may have the benefit of using 'their' school playing field. In 1969, when I was teaching at (what was then) the Primary School, I regularly marched a class of forty lower juniors to the field for a games lesson. Now, I understand it would require at least six responsible adults to accompany that number of children. Therefore, why not persuade the County Council to build the school on the field and convert the existing school building into a museum?

Coincidently, I also took my class to stand on the footbridge to watch one of the last trains leave Hunstanton station in May 1969... 

 John Maiden