Location, Location …

That previous posting came down to class: the 11+ and grammar schools gave the aspiring lower-middle class a route into white-collar employment. And consigned the 80% who didn’t make it to hewing wood, drawing water. In many local education authorities there were fewer ‘grammar school’ places for little girlies. And those sweet, dainty mademoiselles, who suffered from earlier ‘awareness’, had a discriminating subtraction to make sure they didn’t squeeze out the lads from the places that were available.

This posting continues along similar lines.

Two houses, both alike in dignity, in fair Wells, Norfolk, where we lay our scene …My links to Wells are shown in other postings on this blog. I wouldn’t want to go back (but I have been, for as brief a time as possible); but there is a persistent nostalgia. Above all, I never quite get over cottages, which in my time sold for the bottom end of three figures, now going for well into six numbers. Hence a gobsmacked addiction to local property porn.

Now those two houses …

The terraced job on the left is:

A charming Grade II Listed period brick and flint cottage with 2 bedrooms, attractive gardens and first floor views out towards the sea. No onward chain.

 

… situated in a convenient location just a short walk from the quay at Wells-next-the-Sea with fine views from the rear towards the Pinewoods and Lifeboat Station beyond. There is well presented characterful accommodation comprising a sitting room with a wood burning stove, kitchen, dining area and a ground floor bathroom with 2 bedrooms upstairs. Outside, there is a small front garden and a lawned garden to the rear with a patio area.

It should also go, even without saying,

a much loved second home for the current owners and a successful holiday lettings business

 

It’s in Freeman street, which, in the days of my youth, was not the ‘nicest’ part of town. On 1st February 1953, the day after the Great Storm, the young me cycled down to take a look.

 

Many of those cottages were open to the sea view — the ‘Embankment’ had been breached, and the tide had got behind the older sea-defence (which itself had to be breached deliberately to let the waters escape). Salt water did massive damage to houses built by flints held together by lime and mortar.

 

I’d give small odds this charming Grade II Listed period brick and flint cottage is more brick to the rear, for just that reason. Were ‘Burnham Cottage’ mine, in mid-winter I’d keep a sharp eye on those ‘spring’ tides and flood warnings.

 

All along the coast you’ll see markers (as above). We’ve got a lot better in predicting these tragedies. We even expend money to prevent them. But the nature of the beast is, over time, we get careless; and water levels are ever rising.

 

In short, I’d not be easy spending in excess of £450,000 on this one.

 

The post-war brick job, on the right of that double image above, is in Northfield Waye at the other end of town. No: for once that not my clumsy fingering: they do thing different in Norfolk.

This comes from the same estate agent, same website as the Freeman Street cottage:

An ex-local authority house with 3 bedroom accommodation, driveway parking, an attractive south facing rear garden and views towards the sea. No chain.

 

ç is a semi detached ex-local authority house situated in a popular residential area within walking distance of the town centre at Wells-next-the-Sea with first floor views towards the sea and close to walks on the North Norfolk Coastal Path and East Quay.

Again the view (I’d reckon a better one, if one likes salt marsh), far more space. Probably built to a far-better standard. But Guide Price £325,000.

 

Obviously two reasons for that: the ex-local authority bit, and, hidden well down the description:

a restrictive Covenant which states that it may only be sold to a purchaser who has been resident in or worked in Norfolk for the 3 years prior to purchase.

That last being a reminder that Wells is already 40% holiday lets and weekender second homes.

 

So 40 Northfield Waye requires a 10% deposit of £32,500 and a mortgage of £1,300 a month. Compare that to the average Norfolk wage of £24,000 a year.