Sandbanks, Walcott Road, Bacton, Norfolk, NR12 0LS

This wonderful Christian holiday caravan, Norfolk, sits right where the garden meets the beach — Sandbanks looks straight out over the golden sands of Bacton Beach on the north-east Norfolk coast, with its own private land and parking so you’re never far from the sound of the sea. Inside, two bedrooms and two bathrooms give a bit of breathing room for a family or two couples sharing, and there’s a washing machine for anyone staying longer than a few days. It’s a proper home from home: step out onto the decking with a cup of tea and watch the tide come in, or head down onto the sand in minutes for a walk along one of Norfolk’s quieter stretches of coast.

Just along the coast is Happisburgh, home to the oldest working lighthouse in East Anglia. Built in 1790 and still painted in its distinctive red and white bands, it’s the only independently operated lighthouse in Britain, kept going today by a trust of local volunteers after being saved from decommissioning in the 1980s. The beach beneath it has an even older story to tell: in 2013, a set of footprints was uncovered in the mud here, later dated to between 850,000 and 950,000 years old — the oldest human footprints ever found outside Africa, exposed by a storm and recorded just before the tide washed them away for good.

That discovery is part of what’s now branded the Deep History Coast, a 22-mile stretch of coastline running from Weybourne to Cart Gap, right past Happisburgh and Bacton, where crumbling cliffs have given up everything from mammoth bones to ancient flint tools. It’s an easy stretch to explore on foot, with a scattering of Discovery Points along the clifftop path telling the story as you go.

Cromer itself, with its pier and famous crabs, is a short drive further along the coast — and well worth a stop at the RNLI Henry Blogg Museum, which tells the story of the most decorated lifeboatman in the RNLI’s 200-year history. Henry Blogg served as coxswain of the Cromer lifeboat for 38 years, from 1909 to 1947, and is credited with saving 873 lives — a record that’s never been matched, by a man who spent his working days as an ordinary Cromer crab fisherman.

Inland, the Norfolk Broads offer a completely different day out — England’s largest protected wetland, and surprisingly, largely man-made: the Broads began life as medieval peat diggings that gradually flooded, and weren’t recognised as artificial until the 1960s. Hiring a boat for the day, or simply pottering around one of the riverside villages, makes a gentle change of pace from the coast.

Norfolk itself has an unusually rich Christian heritage, too. It has more surviving medieval churches than any other English county — well over 650 of them, the highest concentration anywhere in the world, including more round-tower churches than the rest of Britain put together. It’s the kind of county where a church tower is rarely out of view for long, and even a short drive inland from Bacton takes you past several worth stopping for.

This Christian holiday caravan, Norfolk, is perfect for:
Clergy and church workers wanting proper sea air and quiet
Families or two couples sharing, with room for four
Dog owners — a warm welcome awaits, small charge applies
Anyone happy pottering along the coast or the Broads at their own pace

For more Christian-friendly places to stay across the East of England, browse our East of England properties. And if Happisburgh’s story has caught your imagination, the Deep History Coast has more on the trail, its Discovery Points and what else has been found along this stretch of coast.

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