14 High Street

In 1841 the property was own by Caroline M. Hubert and Harriet Smith.  Described as being a “House & Garden” it was connected by a narrow reserved right of way which connected it to Whapload Road – this was shared with No. 15 to the immediate south.  When the 1841 census was taken it was occupied by 58 years old Maria Hubert, 56 years old Harriet Smith and 33 years old Hannah Hubert – all three ladies were school mistresses and were running a private boarding school for girls. The relationship between these three ladies is not known. At the time the census was taken there were 14 pupils with ages ranging from 7 to 17 years living there.  There were also three female servants in the house.
When the 1851 census was taken the school was still open and Harriet Smith (a widow) and Hannah Hubert (unmarried) were the school mistresses. Harriet came from Gainsborough, Lincs., and Hannah from Battersea, Surrey. They were apparently helped by two assistants and two female servants.  There were 17 girls boarding there with ages ranging from 6 to 16, and one boy aged 9. The pupils originated from near and far.  Also in the house were two female lodgers.
Harriet Smith, aged 75,  died here in April 1853 and was buried in St. Margaret’s churchyard. Hannah Hubert continued to run (and own?) the school alone.  In 1861 there were 11 girls boarding here.  Hannah had one assistant and two female servants at that time.
A decade later the school was still open and run by Hannah Hubert, with two female assistants and two servants (a cook and a housemaid).  There were 13 girls boarding there with ages ranging from 9 to 14.  This “Ladies Private school” continued for at least another 15 years and apparently closed in the mid-1880s.  After its closure Hannah Hubert continued to live at No. 14 during her retirement as the School Principal after a period of forty years or more. In 1888, as a rate payer, she was registered to vote in the Borough Elections and so it is safe to assume that she was the owner of No. 14.
When the census was taken in 1891 she was still there aged 91 years old, living with her was “a friend”, forty-one years old Alice Barnes and one servant.  
Hannah Hubert, who never married, died at 14 High Street on 21st October 1893 and was buried in Lowestoft Cemetery four days later.  The short death notice of her death in the Lowestoft Journal states that she was “much respected”.  She apparently died intestate and Letters of Administration were granted to her friend Alice Barnes who, presumably, oversaw the sale of No. 14.  This took place in June 1900 (see attached advert from the Lowestoft Journal) which reads as if Alice Barnes was the then owner of No. 14 which she had named “Hillside”.  This substantial house, containing 12 rooms, was apparently purchased by Thomas Brown of Lowestoft who advertised it as being “to let” in the Lowestoft Journal in July 1900.  There seems to have been no takers and Thomas Brown was still advertising the house to be let nearly 2 years later in May 1902. 
When the census was taken in 1911, 14 High Street was occupied by a self-employed pork butcher named Daniel Larter and his family.  Two separate single rooms had been let to lodgers, 71 years old Harriet Mantripp, a retired dressmaker,  and Mary Ann Thrower aged 76 described as living from her “private means”.  The 1939 Register shows that Daniel Larter was still living here with his wife at the start of World War two! CREDIT:Ivan Bunn