Caister-on-Sea

Caister-on-Sea
Caister-on-Sea Location within Norfolk
Population	8,616 (2021 Census)
OS grid reference	TG512125
District	Great Yarmouth
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GREAT YARMOUTH
Postcode district	NR30
Dialling code	01493
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	Great Yarmouth

Caister-on-Sea, also known colloquially as Caister, is a large village, seaside resort and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.

Caister is located 2.8 miles (4.5 km) north of Great Yarmouth and 18 miles (29 km) east of Norwich.

History

A view of Caister Roman Site

Caister's history dates back to Roman times. In around AD 200 a fort was built here as a base for a unit of the Roman army and navy. However its role as a fort appears to have been reduced following the construction of the Saxon Shore fort at Burgh Castle on the southern side of the estuary in the latter part of the 3rd century.

The name "Caister" derives from the Anglo-Saxon word "ceaster", meaning "Roman fort".

In the 1950s, a building near the south gate at Caister was excavated in advance of a housing development. These buildings do not appear to be military as they include a hypocaust and painted wall plaster as well as female jewellery, and it has been suggested that this building may have been an officer's house, or possibly a ‘seamen's hostel’ which may be a polite name for a brothel. The site appears to have been abandoned in the 5th century, but 150 Saxon burials have been found to the south of the enclosure. The remains excavated in the 1950s are now managed by English Heritage and are open free of charge to the public as Caister Roman Site.

In the Fifteenth Century, Caister Castle was built as a residence for Sir John Fastolf. The castle has an attached Motoring Museum and is still open to visitors.

There has been an offshore lifeboat in the area since 1791. It was used by a beach company to salvage ships wrecked on the sand banks. Between 1856 and 1969 lifeboats were operated by the RNLI. In the 1901 Caister lifeboat disaster, nine crew were lost while attempting a rescue during heavy seas. At the time it was said, "If they had to keep at it 'til now, they would have sailed about until daylight to help her. Going back is against the rules when we see distress signals like that". A monument to the men lost in the disaster bearing the inscription "Caister men never turn back" stands in the village cemetery, unveiled in 1903 and was listed Grade II by Historic England in 2020. A pub called the "Never Turn Back" is named after the incident.

The village was served by Caister-on-Sea railway station until it was closed in 1959. The nearest railway station is now Great Yarmouth, 2.5 mi (4.0 km) to the south.

Today, Caister is also host to a National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) Station.

Geography

According to the 2021 census, Caister-on-Sea has a population of 8,616 people which shows a decrease from the 8,901 people recorded in the 2011 census.

Amenities

There is a Haven caravan and holiday park near the coast. The oldest holiday camp in the United Kingdom, it began as the "Caister Socialist Camp" in 1906. In the 1950s and early 1960s, it used to be on both sides of the road. Opposite the beach was a dining room, paper shop, sports facilities and tourist chalets. These facilities were sold to a property developer who turned it into housing in the 1970s. In the 1980s a new holiday camp was opened, under the ownership of Ladbrokes, which was sold to Warners in the 1990s.

Caister FC is the village football team, who play at the King George V playing field.

The wind farm at Scroby Sands has thirty 2–megawatt wind turbines, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) off shore.

Church of the Holy Trinity

Caister's parish church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and dates back to the Thirteenth Century. The Church of the Holy Trinity is located on Ormesby Road and has been Grade II listed since 1947. The church was heavily restored in the late-Nineteenth Century and is home to East Anglia's largest Medieval font. Stained glass in the church includes a memorial to the men killed in the Caister lifeboat disaster by Paul Woodroffe as well as a depiction of Christ the Shepherd by Alfred Wilkinson. Furthermore, there is a set of royal arms that are dated from the reign of King George III, though they could be a repurposed work from the reign of King Charles I.

Governance

Caister-on-Sea is divided into the electoral wards of Caister North and Caister South for local elections and is part of the district of Great Yarmouth.

The village's national constituency is Great Yarmouth which has been represented by the Reform UK's Rupert Lowe MP since 2024.

War Memorial

Caister-on-Sea's war memorial are several brass plaques inside Holy Trinity Church. The conflicts of the Twentieth Century had an extremely heavy toll on Caister, the fallen from the First World War are listed below:

Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Burial
2Lt.	Frederick M. B. Case	7th Bn., Norfolk Regiment	10 Aug. 1916	Bapaume Post Cemetery
F/SLt.	Gerald W. Hilliard	Royal Naval Air Service	8 Sep. 1915	Holy Trinity Churchyard
Cpl.	Ambrose V. George	1st Bn., Norfolk Rgt.	2 Sep. 1918	Red Cross Corner Cem.
LCpl.	Ernest W. E. Hewitt	128th Coy., Royal Engineers	17 Oct. 1917	Lijssenthoek Cemetery
Gnr.	George Farley	276th Bde., Royal Field Artillery	12 Sep. 1917	Vlamertinge Cemetery
Pte.	Lewis W. Cubitt	7th Bn., Royal Fusiliers	3 Apr. 1918	Arras Memorial
Pte.	Sidney E. Brown	2nd Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment	2 Jul. 1916	Millencourt Cemetery
Pte.	Herbert E. Haylett	7th Bn., Norfolk Regiment	30 Nov. 1917	Cambrai Memorial
Pte.	Alexander Brown DCM	9th Bn., Norfolk Rgt.	18 Sep. 1918	Chapelle Cemetery
Pte.	George W. Crow	9th Bn., Norfolk Rgt.	15 Apr. 1918	Tyne Cot
Pte.	Harold W. Haylett	1/1st Bn., Norfolk Yeomanry	22 Jun. 1916	Suez Memorial Cemetery
Pte.	Albert B. Foulger	6th Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment	9 Aug. 1918	Morlancourt Cemetery
Pte.	Ernest E. Bullock	10th Bn., West Kent Regiment	1 Oct. 1918	Lijssenthoek Cemetery
Rfn.	William G. Arbon	3rd Bn., Rifle Brigade	18 Oct. 1914	Ploegsteert Memorial
Rfn.	William D. Case	20th Bn., Rifle Bde.	6 Aug. 1918	Saint-Erme Cemetery
Sn.	James W. Amis	HMS Bulwark	26 Nov. 1914	Chatham Naval Memorial
Sn.	Bertie A. George	HMS Hogue	22 Sep. 1914	Chatham Naval Memorial
Sn.	Thomas Harrington	HMS Orama	25 Jun. 1919	Holy Trinity Churchyard
Skp.	Charles A. Green	H.M. Drifter City of Liverpool	31 Jul. 1918	Chatham Naval Memorial
Skp.	Edward N. Bullock	H.M. Trawler Jay	11 Aug. 1917	Chatham Naval Memorial
2hd.	James Bensley	H.M. Trawler Tettenhall	23 May 1917	Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Dhd.	Henry Harris	H.M. Drifter Clover Bank	24 Apr. 1916	Chatham Naval Memorial
Dhd.	George R. Green	H.M. Trawler Ocean Retriever	28 Feb. 1919	Holy Trinity Churchyard
Dhd.	Charles J. Brown	H.M. Trawler Thomas Stratten	20 Oct. 1917	Chatham Naval Memorial
Dhd.	George A. Amis	H.M. Trawler Thuringia	11 Nov. 1917	Chatham Naval Memorial
Eng.	William Burman	H.M. Drifter Beneficent	1 Jun. 1916	Chatham Naval Memorial
Eng.	Philip J. Chapman	H.M. Drifter Clover Bank	24 Apr. 1916	Chatham Naval Memorial
Eng.	William J. Gay	H.M. Drifter Moss	25 Apr. 1916	Chatham Naval Memorial

And: Walter E. Haylett.

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Caister%20next%20Yarmouth

External links

• Great Yarmouth - the Golden Mile