Postcard from Norfolk - Wells-Next-The-Sea

Wells-Next-The-Sea is experiencing an emposhment. It's the reverse of the process where high street shops close, or turn into charity shops, or fried chicken places that claim to be from southern states other than Kentucky. If a shop closes down in Wells, it is quickly replaced by one selling something lovely. The place has a (appropriately) tiny wee shop that sells doll house furniture, it's been there for years. What kind of a model business model works that well? Actually the shop is charming, as well as all the period stuff that people imagine in a dolls house, it's got little model plasma wide screen tellies and so on. I love the idea of a modern dolls house.

It's got everything a small town needs. It's got a grocery that sells everything, it's got a butcher, it's got two delis and loads of pubs, it's even got a shop that sells fishing tackle, crab lines, and guns! Fantastic, frustrated at not having caught anything? Pick up a pistol and unload that bad boy into the harbour like some piscine gangland drive-by.

It's home to French's, which is the best fish and chip shop in the world, and the Crown, which has seen off some pretty stiff competition to become my go-to pub of choice when in the area. It's big which means it doesn't get crowded, it's posh which means there is champagne by the glass and it has a huge sofa where one can stretch out and relax, all that's missing is a remote and a telly.

And because it's Norfolk, everyone has dogs, meaning that all of the pubs and the shops have dog bowls outside them so that when the dog owners are inside, the dogs tethered up outside an have a drink. The only place that doesn't have a dog bowl outside it is the pet shop, which has two dog bowls. In addition, the pet shop had the usual pet stuff for sale lined up outside the shop, which is what the merchants do with their wares in Wells. Placing a bird feeder along with the stock had probably seemed like a natural thing to do, sending a firm 'bird feeders for sale, more inside' message. To the local bird population however, the message was 'free food!'. Maybe the pet shop owner was counting on the crowds in the high street deterring the timid wildlife, in which case she had miscalculated just how bold the local avian population can get if there's the chance of a free meal, and then a bathe in a handy dog bowl.

The high street was busy though, everybody doing a sort of slow wander up one side, then down the other, or zig zagging from shop to shop, drawn to the displays depending on whether their interest is in art, books, meat or really large wheels of cheese. The high street is a jolly place to wander in generally, stretching as it does from the quay up a hill to the buttlands, that small square of green where folk used to practice their archery and home to three excellent pubs. Obviously feathering beer barrels gave you a thirst. The high street was festooned with bunting when I visited, no special occasion that I could work out, just bunting for the hell of it. Bunting does make a street look jolly and it makes you wonder why you don't see more?

Wells is also home to a fabulous beach and a string of beach huts. These come in a variety of shapes, sizes and ages and many, many different colours but all conform to the 'shed on stilts' school of architecture. A new feature this year is a 'to be raised' sign adorning the sheds that are apparently not on stilts. Obviously there are stilts under there somewhere, but the beach has risen and the sand now creeps around the doorway. New huts are put up to replace those that have finally fallen victim to the elements and one wonders how long it is before these will have to be raised too, the alternative is to mount them on stilts at some nosebleed inducing altitude, not really an option as nobody wants to spend their day at the beach in a beach watchtower, knackered from the climb up the steps.

Still, keeps the local beach hut specialist restorer and builder busy.