A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



protected by the ranges of blown sand, known as Meals, which rise from 

 a few feet to 50 or 60 feet in height, and present a mountainous out- 

 line when seen from a distance, especially at sunset. They fringe the 

 coast near Brancaster, the Burnhams, Holkham and Wells, and extend 

 from Eccles and Waxham to Winterton, East Caister and Yarmouth. 



The blown sand is mainly derived from the expanses of sand which 

 are uncovered on the foreshore at low tide, but in some places the 

 accumulation is helped by the sand blown away from the cliffs. 



From the fact that the hills were planted with the marram grass 

 they are known as the Marram Hills. 



MODERN CHANGES 



The outline of the coast is unbroken by any great bays, if we except 

 a portion of the Wash. The one rocky cliff of Hunstanton, which 

 rises to a height of 68 feet, has protected the north-west corner of 

 Norfolk. Elsewhere along the coast the irregularities marked by the 

 names of Brancaster Bay, Holkham Bay and Blakeney Harbour, are 

 indentations in the sandy foreshore protected by blown sand and spits of 

 shingle. 



At the mouth of the Great Ouse, at Lynn, and at the mouth of the 

 Yare, at Yarmouth, where the united waters of the Waveney, Yare and 

 Bure help to scour out a channel, we have the only two harbours of 

 consequence in Norfolk. The harbours of Wells, Blakeney and Cley 

 have deteriorated since the reclamation of the marshlands.^ 



Among the beach deposits that of Weybourne, which stretches in a 

 west-north-west direction from Weybourne for ten miles to the mouth of 

 Blakeney Harbour, is of interest. The stones do not exhibit any gradual 

 variation in size like those in the Chesil Beach. They consist mostly of 

 flint, but include quartz, jasper, agate, carnelian, quartzite, and other 

 rocks derived from the Glacial Drifts in the Cromer cliffs. The general 

 movement of the beach is westward. On the east coast the shingle and 

 sand travel southwards, and the mouth of the Yare has been constantly 

 forced in that direction owing to the growth of sand and shingle which 

 has formed a great natural embankment between the sea and the marsh- 

 lands from East Caister southwards for about five miles. As remarked 

 by Mr. J. B. Redman, this great area, 'equal to 1,600 acres, has been 

 formed across what was a large estuary during the occupation of the 

 country by the Romans.' After a.d. 1000 this bank became sufficiently 

 sound for a settlement to be made on it, and the present town of 

 Yarmouth was founded. It was then separated from Caister by a channel 

 called Grubb's Haven, which was closed about the reign of Edward III. 

 When the channels at the mouth of this estuary became choked, the 

 influx of the tide became more and more restricted, the rivers in the 

 drier seasons occupied but narrow channels, and these in course of time 

 were embanked and the marshes for the most part became dry land. 



• North Sea Pilot, part iii. p. 143. See also J. B. Redman, 'The East Coast between 

 the Thames and the Wash Estuaries," Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., vol. xxiii., 1865, p. 186. 



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