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On the 9th August 1888 a steamer tug called Victoria, laden with passengers left Great Yarmouth for a day trip to Cromer. At that time Cromer had no pier so Victoria’s passengers had to be landed by means of a small boat. After a pleasant stay and a look around Cromer, the Victoria’s passengers re-assembled on the beach for their return journey.
It is said, that on days when the tide is exceptionally low, you can still see the remains of this steeple, but we have looked and have not been able to observe it for ourselves. It has also been said that after the Victoria’s disaster, and because of the hazard it caused to shipping, it was dynamited. But we are not sure if this is true.
The Victoria’s engines were started and the boat began its return journey back to Great Yarmouth. Several hundred yards out the steamer hit something, and began to take in water fast. Local fisherman who had observed what had happened, helped evacuate the passengers and they were taken back to Great Yarmouth by train. It turned out that the Victoria had struck the tower of a church, which was submerged in Cromer’s waters. The steeple belonged to the church of St. Peters, of Shipden.
The forgotten village of Shipden had existed some seven hundred years ago. Unfortunately its fine jetties, houses and church were washed away during the 14th century. However, on cold and stormy nights, so the residents of Cromer say, one can hear a strange booming sound coming from a seaward direction.
The drama critic of the Daily Telegraph and the Morning Post Clement Scott arrived in Norfolk in August 1883. Unable to find himself accommodation he was put up in the Miller’s House in Overstrand. He was so taken with the area that he wrote a number of articles in the newspapers expounding the virtues of Norfolk, which eventually resulted in Cromer and the surrounding area becoming a fashionable place for holidays for the rich and famous.
He named his articles and, subsequent book Poppy-land. The book was dedicated to the Miller's daughter. The term Poppy-Land was due to the vast quantities of poppies which grew in, and around, the area which he so loved. One of his favourite places and for which he wrote a poem entitled ‘The Garden of Sleep’, was the church tower of St. Michael and All Angels at Sidestrand.
The church and churchyard stood right on the cliffs and as the land around it was gradually eroded the locals decided to re-locate their community church further inland. They dismantled the church stone by stone and rebuilt it on its current site.
However, they left the church tower on the cliffs and also the old graveyard.
Every New Year's Eve for 15 years Scott walked along Tower Lane to the old church tower and churchyard and spent the last few moments of the old year on the cliffs in the place he called his Garden of Sleep.
As the sea continued to claim the land, the locals had the disconcerting sight of seeing the coffins and the remains of those who had been buried in the church since the 15th Century, tumbling one by one, piece by piece into the crashing waves below.