8 High Street

No. 8 High Street seems to have been created, probably in the early 1800s, by sub-dividing a larger house into 3 smaller units. No. 8 only contained 4 main rooms. In the 1950s it was incorporated into the adjacent No. 7 High Street. Together with the adjacent buildings it was demolished in the 1960s when the cliff top garden to the south was extended.

The photo taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s shows Nos. 7 to 10 High Street not long before they were demolished.  The vacant lot next to No. 7 is the site of No. 6 which has already been demolished.  When the 1911 census was taken it contained 5 rooms and was occupied by a fisherman named William Boggis with his wife, Frances, and their four young children.  It goes without saying that, apart from the approximate location, the property bore no resemblance to the house(s) that stood here in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

NOTES ON Nos. 7 to 9 HIGH STREET
Probably built in the late 18th century Nos. 7, 8 & 9 were probably originally 1 large house. By the early 19th century this house had been sub-divided into three houses to later be numbered 7 – 9 High Street.  In 1841 the site is described as being “3 houses and gardens”, all owned by one Samuel S. Brame (born 1814).  He was a doctor and surgeon who lived with his family in a large house on London Road South.  Nos. 7- 9 were occupied by his tenants. As far as can be ascertained No. 7 contained 4 rooms, as did No.8. No. 9 was said to contain 8 rooms, some of these appear to have been in a “wing” that extended over a garden in the rear.
Nos. 7 to 9 were separate properties until the 1950s when No. 7 expanded into No.8 and the latter ceased to be a separate property (see accompanying photos).
In the early 1960s these three properties (together with No.10) were demolished by the Town Council to extend the public garden to the south.  This garden was created when the buildings here (Nos. 11 to  25) were cleared away after destruction and damage caused by a German air raid on 12th May 1943.
CREDIT:Ivan Bunn

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During the 1960's the house and remaining terrace was struck by lighting and the council pulled down these remaining houses down right up to Arnold House

See also Lost End of High St

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 [Nos. 27 occupied the cleared ground-space of former Nos. 7-8 High Street.] - full list here

27. John Frary – one tenement, with a yard, between No. 26 on the north and No. 29 on the south, abutting onto the High Street to the west and Nos. 28 & 30 to the east. Rent, 5d. per annum.

*The Latin extracts refer to right of use of a well, presumably shared with neighbouring properties.

• Peter Durrant, on surrender of Thomas & Elizabeth Batchelor – 15.12.1647.

• John Durrant, on death of his father Peter – 24.3.1669.

• William & Margaret Pearson, on surrender of John Durrant – 24.3.1669.

• Thomas Tey [Tye], on surrender of William & Margaret Pearson (mortgage) – 3.4.1678 – debt settled, 5.4.1682.

• Elizabeth Hawys, widow, on surrender of William & Margaret Pearson (mortgage) – 7.1.1691.

• William Pearson, son of William & Margaret, on parents’ death – 30.12.1696.

• John Frary, on surrender of William Pearson & release of Elizabeth Hawys – 30.12.1696.