The village's name means 'ridge shore', or perhaps 'narrow shore' to contrast with nearby
Sidestrand. The London journalist and travel writer
Clement Scott came to Overstrand in 1883, christened the area ‘’Poppyland’’, and wrote about the church tower on the cliff edge and its “Garden of Sleep”. While in Overstrand he stayed at the Mill House with miller Alfred Jermy and his daughter Louie, who became “the Maid of the Mill” in his articles about ‘’Poppyland’’. Scott had many London contacts in the theatrical world, and his writings led a number of them and others from London society to come to Overstrand. Some bought land in the village and had houses built there, and for a while the village was the place to visit. A large hotel was built on the cliff edge, though this slid into the sea in the 1950s. The Edwardian architect
Sir Edwin Lutyens worked at Overstrand, designing
Overstrand Hall for
Charles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon, The Pleasaunce for
Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea and the Methodist Church. The large houses of the gentry have largely passed from private ownership to other uses.
Overstrand railway station was on the
Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway between
Cromer and
North Walsham. It is now closed. The
Overstrand biplane bomber was named after the village, having been made at the
Boulton & Paul aircraft factory in Norwich in the early 1930s. ==In popular culture==