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13 High Street

    Current

    Old Rectory
    13
    High Street
    Lowestoft
    United Kingdom

    History
    post war
    post war
    Credit:Bert Collyer
    Credit:Bert Collyer

    The listing for The Rectory is between number 12 and number 14 - hence equates to number 13.Edward Lowry Henderson, Rector of Lowestoft, and his family lived there (he was later Dean of St Albans) CREDIT:1911 census

    Previously The impressive rectory for St Margarets Church, No13 as of 1940 was the Transport Ministry offices.

    See also Lost End of High St


    NOTES ON No.13 HIGH STREET:
    In 1841 No.13 High Street consisted of a house and large garden that stretched down the cliff to Whapload Road.  Here there was a stable which was accessed by a private right-of-way shared with No.14 to the south.  No. 13 was known as the Vicarage House or Rectory and until his death in August 1863 it was the home of the Reverend Francis Cunningham, Vicar of Lowestoft.  No.13 was then occupied by the Reverend Charles Herbert.  Ten years later a new Rector was appointed Vicar of Lowestoft, the Reverend William Hay Chapman and he, like his predecessors, moved into the Rectory.  No description of this building is known, but it was probably quite small as were the buildings around it.  So in the late 1860’s Rev. Chapman had the old building demolished and a much grander Rectory built on the site.  It was designed by the local architect, William Oldman Chambers and was built by Robert Brett of Lowestoft at a cost of £2,000 and was completed in November 1870.  This new Rectory was very grand – it stood 4 storeys high and contained no less than 16 principal rooms.  It had a balcony on the first floor over-looking High Street from which it was set back about 3 feet, with a small front garden and a smart wrought-iron fence separating it  from the public footpath.  So tall was the building that in May 1871 the Lowestoft Fire Brigade inspected it to check they had ladders long enough to deal with any fires there! The local press described it as “forming a prominent object (from)north, east and west” [Norfolk Chronicle, 20th May 1871]
    A succession of Rectors lived here and made this their home until 1931 when the Reverend Canon Hawtrey James Enraght was appointed Rector of Lowestoft. He considered No. 13 to be too big and did not want to live in such a large house, so the building remained empty for a while.  When the 2nd World War started the building was taken over for the Local Food Office.  On May 12th 1943 No. 13, along with adjacent buildings, was badly damaged in an air raid, and together with others it was demolished in November 1945. [“The Chronicles of a Suffolk Parish Church” by Hugh D. W. Lees, Lowestoft, 1949]. The site has remained undeveloped ever since. CREDIT:Ivan Bunn 


    The Lost Score

    A modern myth, this, caused by misunderstanding and incorrect interpretation of what large-scale maps of the town seemed to show. It all hinges on the former No. 13 High Street which, along with the dwellings on either side, was seriously damaged in a German bombing raid on the evening of 12 May 1943 and was demolished in November 1945. Built in 1870 at a cost of £2,000, to a design by local architect W.O. Chambers, this house was the largest and most imposing of all the buildings numbered 5 to 25. At four storeys high, with basement beneath, it dominated this part of the High Street and served as the parish’s Rectory House from 1870 until 1931, when the incumbent of the time (the Revd. Hawtrey L. Enraght) found it too large and inconvenient and moved to a smaller premises on North Parade. On the southern side of No. 13’s plot, a private footway (stepped in part) ran from the bottom of the cliff - where a stable and coach-house were located - up to the High Street. This was for use of residents and employees only, and not for anyone else. It was never intended for the benefit of the general public and was never a score. In 1725, this part of the High Street (which was  not rebuilt following post-war demolition and clearance) was occupied by just six houses fronting on to the High Street, with the plots of two of them - one at the northernmost end and one at the southernmost - reaching all the way down to Whapload Road. 

    ©2024 CREDIT:David Butcher

    Architecture

    The vicarage No13 was a very grand building. It was erected in the early 1870s to replace a much smaller and older vicarage on the site. It was for the vicar of Lowestoft and this is a wonderful view of the ground part of the ground floor. The four young ladies standing outside are almost certainly the maids that worked in The Vicarage. When the 1891 census was taken there are in fact four young ladies listed as living in there as housemaids and that presumably out the front is the vicar's horse and carriage And that's almost certainly his groom... sitting in the carriage

    This stands on the top of the cliff. The Yards at the back and like so many of the bigger houses in the High Street the old cliff they own the land the foot of the cliff  where butting onto Whapload Road and the stables were at the rear of the property. So if the vicar wanted to go out  I doubt if he would have made his way down the cliff  to get into his carriage. He would have sent the coachman round to get the carriage and   bring it to the front.

    The house itself, The Vicarage, was very very imposing  compared with the others around it.  It had a fancy front it was set back from the street   unlike the other buildings. With a nice little yard  at the front with a wrought iron fence   A fancy balcony on the first floor.  This building was... I think... think by the time it was erected  it was probably one of the, to use the local jargon, the poshest and  biggest buildings in Lowestoft High Street.  

    The vicar of St. Margaret's lived there. As with many of the buildings on this side of the High Street they were all badly damaged many destroyed in 1943   during an air raid in the Second World War.  This is taken in the late 1940s, when the building  was, had been in uninhabitable because of the bomb damage  as you can see here. so it was decided that  all of the remaining badly damaged properties on   this east side of High Street would be demolished  and here you see the grand rectory sadly  in the process of being demolished but it gives a good  idea of what a grandiose building that was   compared with the others. The buildings to the south, that's to the right of The Vicarage, have already been cleared. This picture is approximately where The Vicarage would have been   Probably behind where the lamp post is. and it was decided all of those old houses would be  cleared completely away and a nice grass area  would be laid out. So here we are looking north   up the High Street in the present day  and The Vicarage, it's gone, and   forgotten by most people.  CREDIT: Ivan Bunn from transcript - Poetry People - High Street Histories 

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