English: View east from the beach car park. By the promenade. The Sheringham mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) is the village of Upper Sheringham > 500347 which has been a farming community for 2000 years whereas lower Sheringham was little more than a collection of fisherman's hovels for hundreds of years. In the early 1700s each village had a population of about 100, but the fishing industry began to thrive and by 1850 there were about 100 boats working from the beach and the population had risen to 800, to double that of the farming village. In 1901 Lower Sheringham was granted status as a self governing urban district, and the town of Sheringham, with a then population of 2000, was born. With the arrival of the railways > 1091376 - 1091380 in 1887 a direct link was provided with London, via Cambridge - the journey took about four hours - crabs and lobsters caught in the morning could be in London later that same day. Middle class Londoners discovered the fishing town and the fishermen rented out their cottages to visitors, earning more money in the summer than they could from the sea in a whole year. During the 1890s the first sewers were laid, gas lamps were installed, and the parish church was built.