Why do we find a hill here on the flat Norfolk coast?

Hopefully you’re here on a nice warm day. But 450,000 years ago the view and the temperature would have been very different.

At that time Britain was in the middle of an Ice Age. Temperatures were about 12 degrees Fahrenheit lower than today. A large ice sheet up to three miles thick covered most of Britain. This severe cold period was known as the Anglian Glaciation.

This ice sheet didn’t quite cover all of Britain in ice, but almost. It reached as far as the River Thames and diverted the river from its original position in North Essex several miles further south. 

When temperatures warmed up, the ice retreated, leaving behind the materials that it had carried on its journey.

These  clays, sands and rocks were dumped by the melting glacier and formed the hills and bumps that we can see along this stretch of coast including Skelding Hill.  Today, the golf course takes advantage of this hummocky landscape and the vantage point of Skelding Hill provides the coastguard with an ideal lookout point. 

But it wasn’t only ice that created this view...

If you turn to look in the other direction and gaze over the gentle wooded hills and valleys you are enjoying parklands that were sculpted by a different force - human design.

Sheringham Park might look entirely natural but it was designed in 1811 by landscape architect Humphrey Repton. Unlike other garden designers he chose to work with the natural features carved out by the ice not against them.

Repton planted woodlands on the hilltops and left the flat land for farming. He designed paths to skirt around the hills rather than cut across them, revealing his natural understanding of the area’s fascinating geographical past.

Together man and ice have created a splendid view that might just win the award for the best view in Norfolk.