About Wells and North Norfolk

There is so much to see and do for all ages and tastes in and around Wells – we really mean it: we are still finding places we haven’t seen and events and activities we haven’t tried after many years coming here.

Wells itself could be seen as a typical English seaside town, with the (excellent and renowned) fish and chip shops, the cafes, arcades and gift shops on the quay, but it has its special charms and surprises.  As well as its beach with its much photographed painted beach huts, there is the marsh, with all its flowers and sea-birds: it’s not unusual on a quiet day to see all types of waders as you stroll out towards the beach.  The creeks provide the harbour at Wells and opportunities for water sports: but the town still has its real fishing boats too, and now provides the base for the support to the off-shore wind farms providing sustainable energy.  And we never cease to wonder at those high tides when all the marsh disappears under the sea, or on foggy November nights when you can no longer see, but only hear, the skeins of geese without number crossing the sky.  To the west the marshes were drained by the Earl of Leicester early in the Agricultural revolution, and the pinewoods were developed as part of the rich estate of farmland around Holkham Hall. 

Unlike so many resorts, Wells is still a working town and a community, and it shows.  As well as the shops in the Staithe, including a good supermarket, butcher, baker, greengrocer and newsagents there is now the Co-op, so you needn’t go further afield for essential provisions if you don’t want to, though Fakenham offers a Morrison’s and Aldi, if you prefer one-stop shopping.

Just along The Polka is a self-service fuel station. There is a bank, post-office, a library (you can join if you show ID with your address), and a health centre should you need it.  Then the sense of a community is evident in the churches, the active sailing club, and tennis & bowls clubs. The town stages bigger events – the Carnival, “Christmas Tide”, exhibitions by artists in their own studios – and extension and refurbishment of The Maltings Community Building provides a cultural hub for theatre, cinema and the arts! “Screen-Next-The-Sea” offers some really good cinema offerings. Take some alpacas for a trek and try the narrow gauge steam railway to Walsingham.

For more information about Wells, visit the Wells Guide