The Pier
There has been a pier or jetty in Cromer since 1391. Letters granting the right to levy duties for repairs suggest that attempts at maintenance seem to have gone on until 1580. In 1582 Queen Elizabeth I granted the inhabitants of Cromer the right to export wheat, barley and malt for the maintenance of their town and towards the rebuilding of the pier.

The last wooden jetty
The last wooden jetty was built in 1846; described as a plain wooden structure, it was just 70 yards long. By night, it was regulated by several bylaws: smoking was only allowed after the hour of nine o'clock when ladies would be expected to have retired for the evening. Gales damaged the jetty so much that it had to be dismantled and Cromer was left without a pier. This brief spell of emptiness spurred the 'pier commissioners' to consider a more fashionable structure, and so, in 1901, the new pier opened.