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Wells-next-the-Sea
Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England.
The civil parish has an area of 16.31 km2 (6.30 sq mi) and in 2001 had a population of 2,451, reducing to 2,165 at the 2011 census.
Wells is 15 miles (24 km) to the east of the resort Hunstanton, 20 miles (32 km) to the west of Cromer, and 10 miles (16 km) north of Fakenham. The city Norwich lies 32 miles (51 km) to the south-east. Nearby villages include Blakeney, Burnham Market, Burnham Thorpe, Holkham and Walsingham.
The name is Guella in the Domesday Book of 1086 (half gallicised, half Latinised from Anglian Wella, a spring). This derives from spring wells, of which Wells used to have many, rising through the chalk of the area. The town became Wells-next-the-Sea from juxta mare in the 14th century to distinguish it from other places of the same name. It appears as Wells Next the Sea (no hyphens) on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1838 and 1921. When the Wells and Fakenham Railway was opened on 1 December 1857, the terminus was given the name of Wells-on-Sea. In 1956 the Wells Urban District Council voted to re-adopt the name Wells-next-the-Sea, and this has been the official name since then.
The town has been a seaport since before the 14th century, when it supplied grain to London and subsequently to the miners of the north east, in return for which Wells was supplied with coal. Until the 19th century, it was easier to carry bulk cargoes by sea than overland. It was a significant port in the 16th century, with 19 ships over 16 tons burden operating out of Wells in 1580, making it the major port in the area. It had been, since the beginning of the century, an exporter of grain and an importer of coal. Wells was also from early days a manufactory of malt. At its height, the town boasted up to twelve maltings which, in 1750, contributed a third of the exports of malt from the country, mostly to Holland, more than any other port save for Great Yarmouth.
Wells was also a fishing port: in 1337, it is recorded as having had thirteen fishing boats and nearby Holkham had nine. Its mariners brought first herring and then cod from Iceland in quantity between the 15th and 17th centuries. The regulation of the harbour in order to preserve its use was by Act of Parliament in 1663; in 1769, Harbour Commissioners were appointed with powers over vessels entering and leaving (as they still have today). The quay was substantially rebuilt in 1845, as part of attempts to improve the town. At the same time, Improvement Commissioners were appointed with the task of making the town commodious and attractive to residents and the burgeoning tourist trade. As a small port, it built ships until the late 19th century; it never transferred to building motor vessels or to steel hulls. The coming of the railway in 1857 reduced the harbour trade, but it revived briefly after the Second World War for the import of fertiliser and animal feed. In 1982, there were 258 ship movements into the harbour.
Wells relies on the tides to scour the harbour because the town does not have a river running through it. The problem of siltation had preoccupied the merchants of the town for hundreds of years and occupied the attentions of various engineers, leading eventually to disputes which came to court in the 18th century. Sir John Coode, who had been knighted for his work on the completion of Portland Harbour, was recruited to solve its siltation problems in the 1880s; no attempted solution proved permanent. The growth of faster marine traffic, whose wake washes at the banks of the marshes, has widened the channel and reduced tidal flow further.
The North Sea is now a mile from the town; the main channel which once wandered through marshes, grazed by sheep for hundreds of years, was confined by earthworks to the west in 1859 when Holkham Estate reclaimed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of Wells with the building of a mile-long bank. This reclamation was claimed to have reduced the tidal scour though the West Fleet, which provided much of the water entered the channel to its north.
Hub AI
Wells-next-the-Sea AI simulator
(@Wells-next-the-Sea_simulator)
Wells-next-the-Sea
Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England.
The civil parish has an area of 16.31 km2 (6.30 sq mi) and in 2001 had a population of 2,451, reducing to 2,165 at the 2011 census.
Wells is 15 miles (24 km) to the east of the resort Hunstanton, 20 miles (32 km) to the west of Cromer, and 10 miles (16 km) north of Fakenham. The city Norwich lies 32 miles (51 km) to the south-east. Nearby villages include Blakeney, Burnham Market, Burnham Thorpe, Holkham and Walsingham.
The name is Guella in the Domesday Book of 1086 (half gallicised, half Latinised from Anglian Wella, a spring). This derives from spring wells, of which Wells used to have many, rising through the chalk of the area. The town became Wells-next-the-Sea from juxta mare in the 14th century to distinguish it from other places of the same name. It appears as Wells Next the Sea (no hyphens) on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1838 and 1921. When the Wells and Fakenham Railway was opened on 1 December 1857, the terminus was given the name of Wells-on-Sea. In 1956 the Wells Urban District Council voted to re-adopt the name Wells-next-the-Sea, and this has been the official name since then.
The town has been a seaport since before the 14th century, when it supplied grain to London and subsequently to the miners of the north east, in return for which Wells was supplied with coal. Until the 19th century, it was easier to carry bulk cargoes by sea than overland. It was a significant port in the 16th century, with 19 ships over 16 tons burden operating out of Wells in 1580, making it the major port in the area. It had been, since the beginning of the century, an exporter of grain and an importer of coal. Wells was also from early days a manufactory of malt. At its height, the town boasted up to twelve maltings which, in 1750, contributed a third of the exports of malt from the country, mostly to Holland, more than any other port save for Great Yarmouth.
Wells was also a fishing port: in 1337, it is recorded as having had thirteen fishing boats and nearby Holkham had nine. Its mariners brought first herring and then cod from Iceland in quantity between the 15th and 17th centuries. The regulation of the harbour in order to preserve its use was by Act of Parliament in 1663; in 1769, Harbour Commissioners were appointed with powers over vessels entering and leaving (as they still have today). The quay was substantially rebuilt in 1845, as part of attempts to improve the town. At the same time, Improvement Commissioners were appointed with the task of making the town commodious and attractive to residents and the burgeoning tourist trade. As a small port, it built ships until the late 19th century; it never transferred to building motor vessels or to steel hulls. The coming of the railway in 1857 reduced the harbour trade, but it revived briefly after the Second World War for the import of fertiliser and animal feed. In 1982, there were 258 ship movements into the harbour.
Wells relies on the tides to scour the harbour because the town does not have a river running through it. The problem of siltation had preoccupied the merchants of the town for hundreds of years and occupied the attentions of various engineers, leading eventually to disputes which came to court in the 18th century. Sir John Coode, who had been knighted for his work on the completion of Portland Harbour, was recruited to solve its siltation problems in the 1880s; no attempted solution proved permanent. The growth of faster marine traffic, whose wake washes at the banks of the marshes, has widened the channel and reduced tidal flow further.
The North Sea is now a mile from the town; the main channel which once wandered through marshes, grazed by sheep for hundreds of years, was confined by earthworks to the west in 1859 when Holkham Estate reclaimed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of Wells with the building of a mile-long bank. This reclamation was claimed to have reduced the tidal scour though the West Fleet, which provided much of the water entered the channel to its north.