The Railway Poster…
Strolling along the sea-front there was a grimness,
A raucous cacophony of noise from amusement
Arcades and an unappealing dull ocean, its appeal cheerless.
Small rocks attracted only the erratic movement
On dank sand of oystercatchers, redshanks and turnstones,
Their occasional cries taunting the breeze in haunting tones…
Dark, wooden groynes stretched down towards the shore,
Having stubbornly buffered North Sea tides for many decades,
Whilst a vividly striped cliff-face rose from breakers’ roar,
Flaunting its spectacular chalk whites and brown sandstone shades.
Yet somehow Hunstanton intrigued, away from the dissonance
And revealed its history, charm and seaside essence…
A memorial, where the railway station once graced the town
Displayed a poster, advertising the ‘Queen of the Norfolk coast’,
In bright sunshine. A family looks on from the original pier, down
Towards a glorious beach of soft yellow sand, faint groynes, the most
Perfect of blue seas in a spick and span resort, an ideal classy destination:
Hunstanton, reached by rail, a genuine summer holiday attraction…
Pete Ray
4th October 2023…
Despite the dull weather when I visited on a late September afternoon and the fact that where I found a parking space meant walking past a number of noisy amusement arcades to reach the esplanade, Hunstanton grew on me…
The tide was clearly well up the beach on that dull day and of course the wet sand, littered with rocks, divided by wet groynes and crawling with wading birds didn’t really look too inviting…
The cliff face of white chalk and carrstone (sandstone mixed with iron oxide) which has left it daubed by stripes of brown, looked smart enough but a walk near the gardens and around the well maintained established buildings above the forgettable arcades endeared the town to me…
Then I saw the railway poster…
Loved that.
I had always envisaged my childhood seaside holidays would look like that…
ABOVE & BELOW: MY FIRST VISIT TO A VERY WINDY HUNSTANTON IN 2012...
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