Wells-next-the-sea

This is a strange place; contrasts from tacky quay front, slightly run down & cheap looking, a couple of penny arcades chucked in for good measure, to a beach of outstanding natural beauty (and that’s official, it’s an AONB!).
A real surprise when you climb the steps up from the car park at the end of the mile long sea wall (you can catch a diddy train there too, the Wells Harbour Railway, choo choo!). Glorious view of the salt marshes and the lifeboat station and then up over the path to the beach, wow! Miles of sand and sea and channels and dunes AND beach huts! Old fashioned ones on stilts, all different colours and states of repair. Very photogenic.
There are also posher bits of Wells round the back. This is definitely a place worth exploring more; I’ll give it a 10! (Oh, sorry, can’t, OK a 5 then.) Need to go back and see it for longer.

Wells-next-the-Sea, known locally simply as Wells, is a town and seaport situated on the North Norfolk coast. It has an area of 16.31 km2 (6.30 sq mi) and has a population of about 2,500.
Wells is situated about 15 miles (24 km) to the east of the resort of Hunstanton, 16 miles (25 km) to the west of Sheringham, and 10 miles (16 km) north of Fakenham. The city of Norwich lies 32 miles (51 km) to the south-east. Nearby villages include Blakeney (famous for its bird sanctuary), Burnham Market, Burnham Thorpe (the birthplace of Horatio Nelson), Holkham (with its famous stately home Holkham Hall), and Walsingham (a major catholic pilgrimage site).
The town is now a mile from the North Sea, as a result of the silting of the harbour. The Holkham Estate reclaimed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of Wells, and this was completed with the mile-long sea-wall in the 1850s. The town has long thrived as a seaport and is now also a seaside resort with a popular beach that can be reached on foot or by a narrow gauge railway that runs at special times partway alongside the mile-long sea wall north of the harbour. The beach is known for its long flat terrain, abstract sand dunes, varied unique beach huts and a naturist area situated to the west at Holkham. A land-locked brackish pool called Abraham's Bosom is used for pleasure boating and canoeing. The beach is backed by dense pine woods.
The town stretches nearly a mile inland. The majority of shops and other such businesses are now found on Staithe Street but up to the 1960s commercial premises were also to be found along High Street which continues south towards St Nicholas's Church.
The distinctive landmark of the seafront is the granary with its overhanging gantry on the quay, finished in 1904. This is now converted to flats.
A feature of the town is the area known as The Buttlands which is a large green ringed by lime trees. Large elegant Georgian houses overlook The Buttlands, as do the Crown Hotel, Globe Inn and the Wells Catholic Church.