Cockles And Crabpots

Tony Hall takes us around a cottage in one of his favourite Norfolk places

- Tony Hall

WHO CAN resist the seafood in Cromer? Cockles, the famous crabs, lobsters, fish and chips; for me as a fish eater, Cromer is bliss and one of my favourite places. Now there’s a super new cottage, centrally located, for people looking to stay in this ‘Gem of the Norfolk Coast.’

It is owned by Penny and Mike Jones. Penny will be well-known to many as she was one of the driving forces of Norfolk Hideaways, helping establish what was then a new cottage holiday agency back in 2009.

Penny decided to leave and concentrate on the couple’s own holiday properties situated in the historic village of Overstrand and Crabpot Cottages was born. They then decided to branch out into Cromer, and found Cockle Cottage.

“My father,” explains Penny, “comes from Shetland. Living there one had to be very self-sufficient, resourceful, very hands-on, which is what he taught me. With all the properties I have done a lot of the work myself and this one was no exception, although I do need professionals to help reinstate. Here the cottage needed everything new, including central heating, kitchen and bathroom.”

Cockle Cottage is a single-storey detached part of the old Victorian board school right in the heart of old Cromer, two minutes from the shops and four minutes from the sea front. In 1947 it was three schools in one, infants, boy, girls and remained as such till the early 1990s when it was relocated and the site sold to a developer. It was converted into dwellings, retaining many original features and offering the added bonus of car parking.