    wells-next-the-sea is a port on the north norfolk coast of england. the civil parish has an area of  and in 2001 had a population of 2,451.office for national statistics & norfolk county council (2001). census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes. retrieved 2 december 2005. wells is  to the east of the resort of hunstanton, 20&nbsp;miles (32&nbsp;km) to the west of cromer, and 10&nbsp;miles (16&nbsp;km) north of fakenham. the city of norwich lies 32&nbsp;miles (51&nbsp;km) to the south-east. nearby villages include blakeney, burnham market, burnham thorpe, holkham and walsingham.ordnance survey (2002). os explorer map 251 â norfolk coast central. isbn 0-319-21887-2. ==origin of name== the name is guella in the domesday book (half gallicised, half latinised from anglian wella, a spring). this derives from spring wells of which wells used to have many, rising through the chalk of the area. the town started to be known as wells-next-the-sea in the early 19th century to distinguish it from other places of the same name. when the wells and fakenham railway was opened on 1 december 1857, the terminus was given the name of "wells-on-sea". in 1956 the wells urban district council voted to (re-)adopt the name wells-next-the-sea, and this has been the official name since then.description of wells-next-the-sea www.wellsnextthesea.info/wellsonsea/wellsweb/desc.html. retrieved 28 november 2011. ==geography== the north sea is now a mile from the town, as a result of the silting of the harbour. the holkham estate reclaimed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of wells, completed by the construction of a mile-long sea-wall in 1859.nature reserve : the beach : holkham hall and estate â north norfolk, england [http://www.holkham.co.uk/html/nature_reserv
Beaches_of_Norfolk Civil_parishes_in_Norfolk North_Norfolk Populated_coastal_places_in_Norfolk Post_towns_in_the_NR_postcode_area Seaside_resorts_in_England Towns_in_Norfolk Wells-next-the-Sea