England has beaches, who knew?

I live near the large estuary on the right side of the UK called The Wash. It's pretty much the broadest estuary in England and the coasts are far enough apart to be barely visible from the opposite side. This gives the beaches on the Norfolk side in the East a unique property - the sun appears to set over the sea!

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Now every so often in the spring here in the UK we get a little mini heatwave for a few days and everyone decamps to the beach - so when one of my local photography clubs decided to have a trip to Hunstanton last week I was right there with tripod at the ready.

Hunstanton itself is one of those typical english seaside towns but thankfully the beach over at Old Hunstanton has more to offer than fish and chips and cheap lager. The wreck of the stream trawler Sheraton is one such sight as it emerges from the receeding tide:

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The Sheraton served as a minesweeper in World War I and as a patrol ship in World II. After the wars the ship was decommissioned and was eventually painted bright yellow and used as target practice by the RAF. No wonder so little of it remains!

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The lighthouse at Old Hunstanton was built in 1840 though there has been one at the site since the late 1600's. These days it is available to rent as a holiday cottage by tourists.

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At the other end of the beach back towards town a series of groynes designed to stop the beach being washed away by the action of longshore drift. At high tide only the numbered posts at the end of them are visible but at low tide their full structure is revealed and they make a great subject for a bit of long exposure photography.

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