Up to 1853 this house actually was the Customs house. A narrow passage beside it (west) -
Link - leads to the 17th century deep water quay and Cley mill >
Link. See >
Link for the other side of Customs House.
Present-day Cley is not in the same location as the medieval village of Cley used to be. This was located south of St Margaret's church >
Link and had a busy harbour, which was ruined by embanking in the 1640s by Sir Henry Calthorpe. A fire had already encouraged relocation in 1612. When Thomas Telford had been called in, in 1822, to advise on the problem of silting the Cley channel, his advice was ignored and the once busy port is now history. Many of the houses and cottages that line the narrow High Street (A149) through the village are built from flint and brick and date from the 17th and 18th centuries.