OLD SEA ROADS

One of the characteristics of my part of the north Norfolk coast - and of other coastlines, too, no doubt - is the distinctive framework of a coast road with, often at right angles, lesser roads or tracks leading directly to the beach. Sometimes they are merely sandy tracks which eventually cut through the dunes, and which sometimes have developed into something more important, such as a main route to a small town or village which may or may not have had its origins in fishing.
Whatever the original motivation, many of these routes did come into existence simply because the seaward end was a good place to launch or haul boats, because pack trains, carts or wagons could get to the beach, or because goods could be landed and carted away. Or vice-versa, because most of these paths were also export routes.
Norfolk's coastline has not cornered the market in this kind of road. In south Lincolnshire, my home town has a number of similar routes which in this particular case led not to the open sea but to the banks of the former Nene estuary which in its heyday stretched from Long Sutton (Lincs) to Cross Keys (in Norfolk), and inland as far as Wisbech (Cambs).
In this part of marshland, though, the roads are called gat or gate. And some of them still exist, as in Danielsgate, Garnsgate and Seagate. In Norfolk, it is more likely that the name Gap - particularly Cart Gap - is used. Cart Gap's use and importance is, of course, self-explanatory.
There is also one road in Sheringham which seems to carry some of the hallmarks of having had its origins in yet another coastal cut-off track, leading through the foothills and, probably, originally, down to the beach. This is Holway Road, a name which may or may not be derived from 'hollow way.'
Hints that this name may actually be comparatively modern can be gleaned from a number of sources from the 18th and 19th centuries, none of which actually mention Holway Road. Faden's map (1797) describes part of the present route with a dotted line, suggesting it might have been a sandy track at this time. Bryant's map (1826) suggests surface improvements, but tends only to mention neighbouring names like White Gap and Noman's Friend. Again, an Ordnance Survey map from the 1880s merely labels Hook Hill and Morley Hill.
But if you need confirmation that Holway Road has changed over the years, then proceed up the hill, turn west into Cranfield Road, and then immediately walk right, this time into the trees, and there you will see - in rough alignment with the present main road into town - what seems to be a section of the old hollow way discarded during some improvement scheme or other, camouflaged by trees and greenery, and nowadays largely forgotten.
Nothing, it should be remembered, ever stays the same.