32 High Street
Current
32
High Street
Lowestoft
United Kingdom
History
No 32 appears to have always been a house, Tudor inside just like 31 next door. If you look at the roof line you can clearly see the Georgian frontage which has been added on later. In 1932 kelly' s directory lists a Mr John waiter Baron Endacott as living there, and in 1967 a Mr Ronald T Stevens. Today it is still a private house.
CREDIT: Lowestoft High Street, The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker by Crispin Hook 2016 Get the book
Current Address: 31 & 32 High Street. East or West Side: East side When built: Formerly a single house and shop dating from the mid- 16th century. No. 31 is Grade II listed. Brief history/features: The original property was sub-divided in the year 1812. The owner, one Richard Thornton, a carpenter and joiner, partitioned his house and sold the northern half to a Lowestoft mariner named Thomas Nicker for £360. With the money Thornton paid off an overdue mortgage on the property.
In the late 19th century No. 32 was radically modernised but No. 31 retains many of its 16th century features internally. It traded as a chemist shop from the 1830s to the 1920s. Former Notable Owners: In the 16th century it was the home of wealthy Lowestoft Merchant named Roger Hill and his family.
Little known fact: Roger Hill died here in September 1588. Shortly after his death an inventory of all his goods and chattels was drawn up. Contained in a chest in one of the chambers were Roger’s clothes. Among them was ‘ a gown lined with otter fur’, ‘a silk doublet’, ‘a new canvas doublet’, ‘two heavy woollen coats’, ‘a cloak with silver clasps’, ‘a Spanish leather jerkin with eight silver buttons’, three pairs of britches’, ‘a hat and cap’, ‘two pairs of stockings’ and ‘one pair of boots and two pairs of shoes’.
1911 Census - 32 High Street we have: Revd. Herbert Armstrong - curate
Architecture
The roof of No. 31 oversails a narrow gap between it and No. 30, its tiles concealing a high-quality end wall of knapped and squared black flints belonging to the latter. Original roof-trussing is still in place and there is an odd join and fillet butting into No. 30, which was noted during window alterations in the 1990s. The front of both Nos. 31 & 32 (being one building before subdivision) was possibly originally jettied, as two foundry-made iron support posts are located inside the ground-floor space of No. 31 fronting the street, not far from the window itself.
Nos. 31-32 High Street once formed the home of Roger Hill (merchant), whose burial is recorded in the parish registers on 13 September 1588 - he, having made his will on 20 August (Norfolk Record Office, 296 Homes). The probate inventory of his dwelling and worldly goods was drawn up on 16 September (Norfolk Record Office, INV 4/45) and shows a considerable level of wealth of the time, with a well furnished house and extensive outbuildings - including a brewhouse. Hill's primary activity was connected with fishing, as a vessel named "Gift of God" is referred to in the inventory and there are a number of references to premises and materials connected with the curing of red herrings. Study of this document reveals a great deal about the activities and life-style of a man at the top level of Lowestoft society of the time.
Nos. 31-32 High Street passed from Edmond Hill (merchant), son of Roger Hill, to John and Elizabeth Cubitt at some point before 1618, when the Manor Roll of that year names them as tenants. Three years later, they sold the property to Robert Allen (merchant), who already owned the house immediately to the north (what is now Nos. 29-30 High Street).
There are no further details of transfer after this, but a listing of 1720 names William Hayward as tenant, with someone called Pake preceding him. This may have been Robert Peake (al. Pake), a local doctor, who had died in late March 1680. The property is described in 1720 as being of freehold tenure, which accounts for there being no records of transfer after 1621 - freehold properties not having to be recorded in the manorial records, when they changed hands, as copyhold ones were. Around 80-85% of Lowestoft's housing stock was copyhold, and it looks as if Robert Allen had sold the freehold of Nos. 31-32 to another party at some point after he had acquired the property. CREDIT:David Butcher
TM5593NW HIGH STREET 914-1/8/19 (East side) 13/12/49 Nos.31 AND 32
GV II
House and, formerly, a shop, divided into 2 properties in C20. Mid C16, remodelled and re-clad in mid C19, rear additions mid C19. Brick and flint core. Pantile roof (No.31) concrete corrugated tiles (No.32). 2 storeys and dormer attic. 31 has a C20 glazed door and a plate-glass former shop front of early C20, replacing one with glazing bars. The first-floor window is a 4-light late C20 casement. No.32 is entered through a mid C19 plank-panelled door to the left under a plain overlight. Scrolled acanthus consoles support a dentiled hood. One sash right and one to the first floor, both with margin glazing and both under rendered skewback arches. The whole is unified by a dentiled cornice completing the low parapet. Gabled roof with 2 flat-topped dormers each fitted with late C20 casements. Front stacks removed. The rear shares a hipped 3 storey mid C19 brick extension with C20 details. INTERIOR of No.31. The front ground-floor room probably originally a shop. Mid C16 multiple roll-moulded bridging beam and wall plates. Roll-moulded joists with splayed end stops. Interior of No.32 not inspected. CREDIT: Historic England
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