Trimingham

Infobox UK place
official_name= Trimingham
country= England
region= East of England
shire_district= North Norfolk
shire_county= Norfolk
civil_parish= Trimingham
static_

static_image_caption = The Village sign
population= 139 (parish, 2001 census) [http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/consumption/groups/public/documents/general_resources/ncc017867.xls Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council, 2001. "Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes]
population_density=
os_grid_reference= TG275387
latitude= 52.89793
longitude= 01.38771
post_town= Cromer
postcode_area= NR
postcode_district= NR 27
constituency_westminster= North Norfolk
london_distance= 139 miles

Trimingham is a village and a Civil Parish in the English county of Norfolk [Ordnance Survey, Explorer Sheet 252, Norfolk Coast East, ISBN 9780319467268] . The village is 5.9 miles north of North Walsham and 6.3 miles east of Cromer. It is 24.8 miles north of the city of Norwich. The village straddles the B1159 coastal road between Cromer and Mundesley. Near-by road communications with Grimingham are the A140 to Norwich. The nearest railway station is at Gunton for the Bittern Line which runs between Sheringham, Cromer and Norwich.The nearest airport is at Norwich International Airport.

The Parish Church

The parish church of Trimingham is called St John the Baptist's Head. This strange dedication to John the Baptists head dates from the medieval period. During this time a life size alabaster head of the saint was kept at the church and pilgrims in this country came to the church to the shrine alter, rather than make the journey to Amiens Cathedral were a relic said to be the real head of John the Baptist was kept. The alabaster head did not survive and although it is unknown exactly what happened to it, it has been suggested that it was probably destroyed by Anglican reformers as a result of the 1538 Injunction against images during the reign of Henry VIII. Another theory is that the head was destroyed as a result of a further injunction which was rigorously imposed in 1547, during the early weeks of the reign of Edward VI. Today an Alabaster head survives in the Victoria and Albert Museum and it is thought that the head at Trimingham was exactly like the head in the museum collection. To this day, the nearby Village hall is called pilgrim shelter as a reminder of Trimingham’s past as a site of pilgrimage.The church has a short tower which is thought to be unfinished. It has heavy buttresses on the west elevation which suggest that a fault in the construction of the church may well have been the reasoning for the unfinished tower. The nave to the east cuts around the buttress to embrace it. This peculiarity may be partly the result of a restoration by Thomas Jekyll in the 1850’s. Pevsner. [Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East, By Nikolaus Pevsner and Bill Wilson ISBN 0-300-09607-0 ] states in his survey book, that Thomas Jekyll completely rebuilt the nave of which the most notable feature is the way that the tower buttresses on the east side project into the nave. The churches rood screen is very small with four figures on either side of the entrance to the chancel. The figures are St Edmund with his arrow, St Clare with her book and monstrance, St Clement with his anchor and crozier, and St James in his pilgrim's robes. On the south side are St Petronella with her book and keys, St Cecilia with her garland of flowers, St Barbara with her tower, and St Jeron with his hawk. The east window of the church is credited to H Wilkinson and dates from 1925. [Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East, By Nikolaus Pevsner and Bill Wilson ISBN 0-300-09607-0 ] the window depicts Christ in Majesty flanked by St Michael and St Gabriel, with the symbols of the four Evangelists surrounding them.

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Trimingham "Golf" ball

Trimingham is home to RAF Trimingham (RAF Neatishead), a remote air defence radar station shaped like a giant golf ball on the edge of the cliff on the coast road. In November 2006, the The Ministry of Defence admitted that the Type 93 radar spinning inside the dome had been out of alignment between November 2005 and February 2006, causing car engines and lights to cut out, and speedometer dials swung up to 150mph as motorists drove past. Having previously denied problems, the MoD said it will consider claims for compensation after an inquiry found the radar was "out of alignment". A local garage owner who runs the nearest garage at Mundesley, said he dealt with 30 calls over a couple of months [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6110844.stm RAF radar affected cars says MoD] .

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Trimingham Beach

Trimingham has a secluded beach that is popular with surfers, jet skiers, dog walkers and night-fishermen. It is reached by a steep one-vehicle only road accessed via a lane just past the "Ingleside" public house. The cliff face at Trimingham has the youngest chalk in the United Kingdom and it is possible to collect shells, bivalves, crinoids and oysters from here. The chalk has been prevented from washing out to sea although it remains very dirty and poorly exposed. The cliffs at Trimingham are suffering badly from coastal erosion. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildbritain/nature_near_you/venue.shtml?vid=46534&rid= Map & Address for Trimingham Beach]

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Railways

Trimingham was once served by Trimingham railway station on the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway between Cromer and North Walsham. It was closed in 1953.

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References