The Scores
A good deal has been written about the scores over the years - not all of it accurate. What follows here is an account of these footways, working from north to south, and looking at them in both a topographical and historical context. The main sources used for the study are a Manor Roll of 1618 (which gives a complete account of landholding in the parish, together with location and tenancy stated) and a series of Manor Court minute books dating from 1582-85 and 1616-1756. These latter largely relate to the proceedings of Court Baron (as it was known), which dealt with the transfer of property and disputes between lord of the manor and his or her tenants. Two further sources are a listing of copyhold properties and tenants in the town dating from 1725 (these being liable to the payment of an annual ground rent to the lord and forming 80-85% of the built environment - the rest being freehold) and transcriptions of the original records relating to the transfer of these same properties. Both the listing itself and the accompanying transcriptions were carried out by the Revd. John Tanner, Vicar of Lowestoft from 1708-59.
These footways between the Denes and the top of the cliff became a distinctive feature of the town (and have remained so, in what is now the older part) when it relocated during the first half of the 14th century from a site further inland, somewhere within the area now taken up by the Normanston Cemetery. They were originally surface-water gullies running down the face of the cliff, which were taken in hand by the inhabitants and progressively converted to walled and paved access routes for pedestrian use and (in some cases) for horses and carts. Their conversion would have gone hand in hand with terracing the face of the cliff, to make it usable and to enable the setting-out of building plots.
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The word “score” itself derives from Old Norse skoran, meaning to “to cut” or “to incise” - giving it the same meaning as scoring card, leather, or even wood, in order to make an incision. At least two or three “scores in the making” can be observed along the cliff-face on Gunton Warren - one of which has had wooden steps put in place to aid both ascent and descent for people.
1. The Ravine
Northernmost of the scores and originally known as Gunton Score probably because of its proximity to the boundary with that parish. It seems to have become “The Ravine” at some point during the latter part of the 19th century - perhaps coinciding with the creation of Belle Vue Park, which opened in 1874 on having been created as a public amenity from part of the old North Common. The name has poetic tones to it and fits well with the Victorian sense of romanticism attaching to landscape, and the construction of the Jubilee Bridge (opened in 1887) to mark Queen Victoria’s fifty years on the the throne would have increased its appeal further. In practical, everyday terms, the score would have been used as a means of going to and from the Denes, at their northern end - both for people on foot and those engaged in driving horses and carts. back to map
2. Cart Score
Once known as Gallows Score, with manorial documentation of c. 1720 relating to property ownership and transfer in this location showing both terms in use - which would seem to suggest that this was the time of change from one to the other. It has been postulated that the name perhaps relates to a Mr. Gallow, who lived nearby - but no one of that name has ever been found as a resident in the manorial records and an earlier association with a gibbet-pole (rather than the apparatus of execution itself) is feasible. Before it became the dominant town in the local area (this being achieved progressively, throughout the 15th century), Lowestoft had shared the governance of Lothingland Half-hundred with Gorleston from the latter end of the 13th century and for most (if not all) of the 14th.
Among the privileges accorded to both places were right of gaol and stocks, for the apprehension and punishment of wrong-doers. The Half-hundred Manor itself (which was held in tandem with that of Lowestoft from c. 1306 onwards) would probably have had right of gallows itself, at one time, but no place of execution has ever been identified or established. However, a gibbet-pole on which to hang the corpse of an executed local felon (even one meeting his or her end far from home) could have been returned to the home-area. The top of Cart Score (obviously deriving that particular name from the passage of wagons to and from the Denes) would have been a bleak and exposed part of the North Common, crossed by different tracks and paths - a suitable environment for the location of a gibbet. back to map
3. Lighthouse Score
During the late 16th and early 17th century, there was a tannery located on either side of the bottom of the score - which wasn’t described as such, but referred to as a common way. This footpath, or track, then continued upwards and diagonally to the left across Lighthouse Hill (as it was known once the High Lighthouse had been built in 1676 on the site still in use today), to join with the top end of the High Street next to where the houses began. During the early 19th century, work was undertaken to step and pave this section - the whole of the footway then acquiring the name of “Lighthouse Score”. Though it wasn’t, of course, a genuine score in the true, topographical sense of the word. The production and working of leather was an important industry in pre-industrial Lowestoft, with the tanneries referred to drawing supplies of water from the spring-line present in the lower sections of the cliff. By 1720, the one on the southern side of the common way had been succeeded by a complex of fish-houses (probably mainly used for the curing of red herrings).
The Lighthouse reference requires little explanation. It was often referred to as the High Lighthouse, so as to distinguish it from its companion down on the on beach (the Low Lighthouse) - both of which had to be aligned at night by approaching vessels, in order to negotiate the Stanford Channel between the Holm Sand and the Newcome Sand and reach safe anchorage inshore. The first High Lighthouse had been built towards the top of Swan Score (north side) in 1628 - but Samuel Pepys (Master of Trinity House) authorised the construction of a replacement in 1676, a short distance out of the town’s built-up area - probably to reduce the fire-risk caused by sparks deriving from the burning of coal or wood to produce the warning light. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
4. 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. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
5. Mariners Score
Most northerly of the town’s original footway-only scores, with its southern wall carrying a Grade II listing from Historic England because of its architectural and historical worth. It consists of brick and flint masonry dating from the 17th century in the lower courses, with 18th and 19th century work above. The original name (dating from the 14th century) was Cross Score because of its proximity to the Corn Cross, which stood on the site of the present-day Town Hall and was the dedicated area for trading in grain - the most important of all agricultural crops. It may well have begun life as a cross raised on steps, but seems to have become replaced by an open, arcaded building with upper room above - known later as the Town Chamber. Adjoining it, immediately to the west, was the Town Chapel - a place of worship acting as a back-up and supplement to St. Margaret’s Church.
At some point, the score changed its name to Swan Score - this being in reference to the The Swaninn, which stood at the top end of the footway on the site of Nos. 41-42 High Street from at least the late 16th century onwards - and the name continued in use until it ceased to function as such - possibly during the second half of the 18th century. It then became known as Mariners Score, probably after the Three Mariners public house, which stood opposite across the High Street on the site of Nos. 50 & 51 Mariners Street. The earliest name found for this particular road during the late 16th and early 17th century is either West Lane (it was situated to the west of the High Street) or Mendham Lane (probably the surname of a property-owner there), but at some point later on it became Swan Lane (after the inn). It finally finished up as Mariners Street - again, following the demise of the The Swan inn and with the same connection to the Three Mariners public house.
The book Jack Rose’s Lowestoft (1981), p. 28, gives the name Scarll’s Score as once having been used, but without further information. And this is certainly a surname to be found in the area of North-east Suffolk and South-east Norfolk, even today - though not a common one. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
6. Crown Score
Takes its name from the The Crown inn, on the opposite side of the road, and like most of the scores has seen changes in name over the years. It is not referred to in the Manor Roll of 1618, but it existed nevertheless. The messuage, or building-plot, on its southern side is found referred to in the manorial records as The Lyon [Lion], which suggests that the house abutting onto the High Street must have served as an inn or alehouse of some sort at one time - probably during the 17th century. And, in fact, at one point recorded - even as late as 1720 - it was known as Lyon Score. In a listing of town copyhold properties made by the Revd. John Tanner c. 1720-25, the description of it is “one house divided into separate tenements”, held by John Hayle (grocer). A grocer at that time was not quite the same as one of today, who deals mainly in food and drink items, but someone who traded in a wide range of products, in bulk - selling on to retailers. Hayle had entered the property in 1675 and it may have been him who used part of the premises as an inn. During the earlier part of the 17th century, a man called Thomas Ferney (shoemaker) had been occupant (1617-26), followed by his widow and children up until 1646 - during which time the footway became known as Ferney’s Score.
The earliest reference to it goes back to the late 16th-early 17th century, when a man called George Rugge had a shop of some kind facing onto the street (type unknown), which led to it being called George Rugge’s Score. The man himself seems to have been “a bit of a character”, since he features three times in the six-monthly manorial court for Lothingland half-hundred (known as the tourn), which adjudicated upon misdemeanour not dealt with in the annual leet courts held in each local individual community. In October 1589, he was fined 4d for being “a common drunkard”; in October the following year, he was fined an identical amount for allowing his servants to dump household sewage in the drainage-channel which ran along his side of the score; and, in April 1594, he incurred a penalty of 12d for being a “rayler and slanderer” [railer - meaning verbal abuser], thereby disturbing the peace of the neighbourhood. Further references to the score named after him occur in two, later, following years when the Lowestoft churchwardens were fined 4d for not keeping both it and Swan Score clear of the rubbish being deposited there. This was a common and ongoing problem during the Early Modern period. People tended to dump their rubbish in whichever parts of the roadways or scores were nearest to them.
Both the walls and steps in this score are Grade II listed by Historic England for their historical significance and overall quality of build. The northern section is of 18th century date, consisting largely of brick and flint bond, with 19th century courses of brick only towards the High Street end. The southern one is largely of 18th century brickwork, with a length of cobbled flint only towards the bottom of the footway. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
7. Martin’s Score
There was no Martin’s Score, as such, in 1725 - with no reference being made to it in the Revd. John Tanner’s listing (of that year) of copyhold properties in the town. The sites of what are now Nos. 60 & 61 High Street are simply described as being to the north and south of each other, respectively. What did exist was an entry-way of some sort into an extensive area of land and buildings to the rear of a house earlier than that of today standing on the site of No. 55 High Street. Exactly when this access became a score connecting the High Street with Whapload Road is not known, but it was called Gowing’s Score before Martin’s Score - with both names presumably deriving from those of property-holders adjacent to the footway itself, on one side or the other.
Only thorough scrutiny of the manorial records from about the mid-18th century onwards is likely to provide an answer. It is said that John Wesley, on his first visit to the town, in October 1764, preached at the head of Martin’s Score to what is described in his Journal in the following way: “a wilder congregation I have not seen.” Presumably, his audience was gathered before him in the High Street itself - but whether or not the score, later to be known as Martin’s, was in existence at the time can only be conjectural at best.
“The Armada Post” - it is not possible to go into the development of Methodism in Lowestoft, nor into John Wesley’s close association with the town in any description and discussion of the scores (interesting though that would be). But something does need to be said regarding the so-called “Armada Post”, located on the wall of No. 61 High Street, together with an information board accompanying it. The present small wooden post is a modern replica; the original one is in the Lowestoft & East Anglian Maritime Museum. The latter has a small square copper plate fixed to it, with this inscription vertically set out in four rows: This Post Put Down in T 1688 M . Beside the 1688, and faintly indented, is 1788 . Beneath it, is a brass plate of similar size with the following inscription - similarly set out, but in five rows: Renewed by the Corporation in July 1888 . The differences in font size make some attempt to replicate that of the original wording.
The year 1688 has been taken as representing a centenary memorial to the defeat of the Spanish Armada - but, centenaries were not really celebrated as such until the mid-late 19th century or even the early 20th. And if the year had been either 1687 or 1689, no Armada association would have been made. The hard-to-read “1788” gives no indication of its origins, but the brass plate set below the original one was obviously put in place by the Lowestoft Borough Council to keep the hundred-year centennial reference alive. Unfortunately, in having July 1888 recorded, the Armada connection was not wholly accurate because, although the Spanish fleet left Lisbon on 21 July that year, it didn’t engage with the English force until the last day of the month. And the crucial action came just over a week later, on 8 August, off Gravelines on the coast of Northern France, when the English ships caused notable damage to the would-be invaders - causing them to disperse the following day and run northwards before the wind.
The initials TM on the original plate have been taken as those of Thomas Meldrum, a Lowestoft mariner, who is said to have contributed a fire-ship (named the Elizabeth) to the English fleet - though no vessel of that name connected with Lowestoft is referred to in a national survey of merchant shipping carried out in 1572, where the town is shown to have had a fleet of eighteen craft. And no source for the fire-ship contribution has ever been cited. The vessel’s name Elizabeth must be approached with caution, as well, being that of the Monarch herself. Thomas Meldrum was certainly a townsman of the late 16th century, but he (the name usually found spelled as Mildram) lived in a house somewhere in the vicinity of the roundabout connecting Old Nelson Street, Whapload Road and Battery Green Road. So why should something associated with him have been placed halfway or so up the High Street?
One possible explanation is to be found with a late 17th century citizen called Thomas Mighells (merchant) - one of the wealthiest people in town - who lived in a house on the site of present-day No. 58 - with fish-houses on the lower part of the building-plot abutting onto Whapload Road - and who also owned a tan-house to the rear of what is now No. 55 - a building in which herring and mackerel nets (made of hemp fibre) were treated periodically in a solution of oak or ash bark and water to preserve them against the corrosive effect of salt-water. It was, effectively, more or less the same treatment as that used in converting cow-hides into leather. It is entirely possible that Mighells had right of access from the High Street to this building and its appurtenances, using a space or gap between present-day No. 60 and No. 61, and put a marker-post in place to remind people of this privilege - while at the same time saying that it was not for general use. The wording of the original copper plate affixed to a short wooden post - This Post Put Down In T 1688 M seems to have an air of authority about it - the sense of some kind of statement being made to anyone, and everyone, who passed by and read it. And use of the initials TM alone suggests that most of the townspeople (if not all) would have known who that person was. And no other property-owners, between Crown Score and Rant Score, had the same initials in the year 1688. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
8. Rant Score
This has the distinction of being the only one of the original scores, still in use, which seems to have retained a name going back to the late 16th-early 17th century. Though, like a number of the others, it is referred to in the manorial records as a “common score” - the word common having the legal sense of being available for use (without impediment) by all and sundry. It took its name from a family which once held five High Street houses to the south of the score (and the land which went with them, reaching down to Whapload Road), stretching as far as the main dwelling of the Wilde family. Using the layout of today, this means the sites occupied by Nos. 70 & 71 - 72 & 73 - 74 - 75, 76 & 76A - 77, 78 & 79, but with major alterations to the plot-layouts behind, and stopping at No. 80.
Christopher Rant (gentleman) is recorded as holding all five properties in the Manor Roll of 1618, with reference made to a previous tenant called Roger Rant. This is preceded by an earlier surviving set of manorial court minutes, whereby he is shown to have to acceded to the houses in February 1604 on the surrender of Humphrey Rant. So, presumably, Roger Rant must have preceded Humphrey - though a chain of ownership of grandfather, father and son cannot be definitely established. Christopher Rant mortgaged the block of property in April 1640 to another local gentleman, Henry Jenkenson (who was rather more connected with Oulton than with Lowestoft), and died the following year, in September. His son James inherited the mortgaged property, and he and Henry Jenkenson (the mortgager) allowed a merchant named Thomas Porter to pay off half of the mortgage amount in March 1642 and the residue in January 1654. James Rant had actually relinquished his own interest in his family’s former holding in September 1650 and was then no longer part of the transactions.
Porter then sold the messuage of what is now Nos. 75, 76 & 76A High Street to John Arnold (merchant) in July 1667 and held onto the rest of the the real estate until December 1675, when he conveyed it to his son, John. John Porter then disposed of present day Nos. 70 & 71 to William Mewse (butcher), together with Nos. 72 & 73 and No. 74 to Benjamin Ibrook (a Southwold merchant who had moved into Lowestoft) - all of this in September 1686. He retained Nos. 77, 78 & 79, but his widow - Mary Baker and her second husband, Thomas Baker, sold the messuage to Benjamin Ibrook in July 1714. Despite these changes in ownership, and all others which followed, Rant Score remained as Rant Score.
Regarding its location in town, it is halfway between Mariner’s Score and Herring Fishery Score and, given its width, can by taken as the High Street mid-point for vehicular traffic passing to and from the Denes. Before shafts became increasingly used on carts and wagons during the 18th century, the first draught-horse was often harnessed to a pole protruding from the middle of the conveyance’s front, with other horses then set in line ahead - up to two or three in number, according to the size and weight of the load. Four sorrel horses in line (the predecessors of the Suffolk Punch), turning in or out of Rant Score would have been extremely difficult to manage - and this probably accounts for the space on the opposite side of the High Street, next to No. 133A and Duke’s Head Street (known as Blue Anchor Lane, in earlier times).
Up until, and into, the third decade of the 17th century, a house stood on this spot - recorded to in the Manor Roll of 1618 by the name Bellman’s at the Hill - the hill in question being the steep slope of Rant Score itself (also found occasionally referred to as Hemming’s Hill). The name Bellman’s almost certainly refers to a seafarer named Thomas Bellman (or perhaps the family he belonged to) who died in November 1572 - master of a trading vessel called the John, of forty tons cubic carrying capacity, which features in a national list of such craft compiled during the year he died. By the year 1650, the house was no longer there. The laws of the manor decreed that copyhold houses in the town (c. 80-85% of the total stock) could be confiscated and demolished, and a new occupant found, if a tenant did not keep his or her dwelling in good repair. This is unlikely to have happened here. Although no record was found in the manor court minute books, it is likely that Bellman’s at the Hill was was demolished to provide turning space for heavy carts and wagons entering or leaving Rant Score. They were, in a sense, the articulated lorries of their time,
The most notable event connected with the score is that of Tuesday 14 March 1643 (1644, by adjustment of the old Julian calendar to its Gregorian successor), when Oliver Cromwell came to Lowestoft from his Cambridge headquarters with a large detachment of cavalry, reinforced by a company of foot-soldiers from the strongly Parliamentarian town of Gt. Yarmouth. He had been advised, from some source or other, that a cargo of Royalist armaments was being shipped into or out of Lowestoft (which of the two, has never been established), and he acted quickly in response to prevent this happening. He may have been in town for as little as two days, putting up at The Swan inn on arrival (probably with one or two of his leading subordinates), while his main force was quartered at Somerleyton Hall - home of the Royalist supporter, Sir John Wentworth, who had to extend free hospitality to the troops as punishment for his political alignment.
Things came to a head the following day, when certain Royalist gentry from South Norfolk and North-east Suffolk (who had gathered in town) - plus a handful of townsmen of Royalist sympathy - made a token stand against the Parliamentary force, by drawing a chain across the top of Rant Score as a gesture of defiance and having the three cannon brought up from the Ness Point coastal battery placed to as to traverse the High Street to both north and south, with the middle gun aimed at Blue Anchor Lane [Duke’s Head Street] and across the Market Place over which there was, at the time, an open field of fire. Cromwell’s Cavalry would have ridden from Somerleyton through Blundeston and Oulton, down Steyngate Way [Gorleston Road] and along Beccles Way [Normanston Drive and St. Peter’s Street] into town. There was never going to be any kind of military engagement, given the respective size of each side (to say nothing of the urban environment itself), and Thomas Mighells (merchant), forebear of the man referred to in the previous section, acted as intermediary between them. The result was that Cromwell rounded up most of his opponents - including townsmen Thomas Allin (merchant and mariner), brothers Simon and Thomas Canham (mariners), and the vicar James Rous - and took them back to Cambridge, where they were placed under house arrest for a certain period of time before being released.
James Rous gives an account of the incident, in a space in the parish register of the time, between the baptisms for 12 March and 23 August during the year 1643 - and it makes for interesting reading. The entry is dated 1 June 1646, so it was made retrospectively, and the absence of any baptismal records between the two dates cited almost certainly reflects Rous’s period of captivity. The show of Royalist opposition itself was once taken to indicate that Lowestoft was a town loyal to the Crown, and no doubt some of its inhabitants were (represented by the four taken away by Cromwell). But there would probably have been those people who felt no particular allegiance to either side and there was also a small section of the population which consisted of Dissenters (Presbyterian Nonconformists) - people who would certainly have been on the side of Parliament. One of the most interesting features of this particular time in the town’s history is that when William Canham (gentleman) came to make his will in May 1647, he left the sum of £5 to his fourth son, Simon - to be given to him “when he shall have made his peace with the Parliament of England and returned home to Lowestoft”.
Jack Rose’s Lowestoft, p. 28 (previously referred to above in Mariners Score), gives two other names for Rant’s Score - though, again, without any further information. Blue Anchor Score and Youngman’s Score are the ones cited and, regardless of use or the length of time attached, might seem to have been connected with the 19th century. The Old Blue Anchor Stores public house still stands next to the space referred to in the fourth and fifth paragraphs, while William Youngman, Lowestoft’s first elected mayor following the grant of borough status made in August 1885, was partner in the Youngman & Preston brewery (which stood at the bottom of Rant Score, on the southern side) and lived at No. 63 High Street. However, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Blue Anchor Score might well have derived at some point in the past from Blue Anchor Lane - the old name for Duke’s Head Street. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
9. Wilde’s Score
Again, a footway which is found referred to in the Revd. John Tanner’s property listing as “the score” - but which eventually came to bear the name of the family who lived for so long in the house immediately to the north of it (No. 80 High Street, as we know it today). But it wasn’t originally their property. A previous dwelling on the site had belonged to Richard Dericke (al. Dericke Harman), a master-shoemaker, and he left it in his will of 9 May 1575 to his daughter Mary (he was buried on the 20th), who had married Wyllyam Wyld (as it is spelled in the parish register) in August 1569. His burial record of 25 March 1611 records him as “William Wild senior” and a lost memorial brass to him in St. Margaret’s Church gave his age as eighty-seven - which means that he was born in 1524. This was the year of a national tax imposed by Henry VIII, known as a Lay Subsidy, and the Lowestoft list records a William Wild (his father) paying the sum of 1s levied upon goods worth £2. This most likely establishes him as a merchant of some kind, in a small way of business, connected with fishing and fish-curing if later members of the family are anything to go by.
Parish registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced by Thomas Cromwell in 1538 and the surviving Lowestoft records date from the year 1561. The missing memorial brass referred to, with details of William Wilde’s age at death, means that he was forty-five years old when he married Mary Harman - so, it could well have been a second marriage for him. No details are obtainable to show how old she was - but if an average female marriage-age for single women at the time, of twenty-four to five, is applied - then she would have born in 1544 or 45. William Wild seems to have been the one who put the family fortunes on an upward curve and, after having come into joint ownership of his father-in-law’s house, he was wealthy enough to build the impressive replacement dwelling we see today, numbered 80 High Street and often known as South Flint House. A date-tablet above the front door has the year 1586 recorded, with the initials W (William) and M (Mary) sitting below - and these are further reproduced in the spandrels of a fine stone fire-surround in a first-floor room: what, today, would be called the “master bedroom”.
Prior to this new dwelling being constructed, the Wild family lived further up the High Street, to the north, in a house on the site of what is now No. 2, and they also had a house and land taking up much of what is now the Sparrow’s Nest Gardens area. Further evidence of their growing affluence and importance may also be seen in the fact that William Wild was allowed to acquire the entry to the score from the High Street in February 1603 (though it is not known whether, or not, it was by purchase). The transaction simply refers to “by grant of the lord” [of the manor], but also refers to the score’s width being nine feet with “one house built over it” - this referring to the room present above the score, which appears to have been an addition to the main house at some point after its construction. No restriction as to public use of the score resulted from this and no further reference to it has come to light - which is not to say that none exists. From 1586, until the death of John Wilde (gentleman) in 1738 - a member of the family who had grandified himself on the back of accumulated wealth and public recognition - the house had been in continuous, five-generation, Wilde occupation for 152 years. The final -e in the surname became so increasingly used - particularly during the second half of the 17th century - that it eventually became fixed as the standard form.
The main line of the family died out with John Wilde, who was unmarried and without children. In his will of July 1735, he left the whole of his considerable estate to endow a school for forty local boys - thus mirroring the bequest of Thomas Annot (merchant) who had done the like in 1570 and whose grammar school was still in existence, being based in the upper room of the Town Chamber which stood on the site of the present-day Town Hall. John Wilde’s gift to the town went on hold for a very long period of time as he left his assets, for term of her life, to a personal friend, Elizabeth Smithson - and she lived on until 1781! It wasn’t until 1788 that the town’s Churchwardens put the work of construction in hand - and the building remains to this day, to the rear of No. 80 High Street (which became the Schoolmaster’s residence), a little further down the score, and serves as the headquarters of the Lowestoft Heritage Workshop Centre.
Much more could, of course, be said about Wilde’s School, which continued in operation up until about the outbreak of World War Two and the evacuation of Lowestoft children in June 1940. Part of its site (not the original Schoolhouse itself) received serious bomb damage and it did not re-open following the return of peace in 1945. It is possible that the score owes its name as much (if not, even more) to the school as to the family which lived at its head for so many years. A post-war diversion at its lower end into Cumberland Place resulted from the development of land needed for the provision of office-space for the Birds Eye company.
In conclusion, and turning once again to Jack Rose’s Lowestoft, p. 28, two other names for the score are given: Denny’s Score and School Score - the latter of which requires no explanation. The former, however, does - and it might possibly have to do with a man named Joseph Denny, a Trinity House pilot, who formed one of Lowestoft’s three main beach companies during the 1780s. This was taken over in 1800 by his son Joseph Jnr. who died ten years later, leaving his company shares in the hands of his wife, Elizabeth. Their son John then took over the running of the enterprise, which largely consisted of marine salvage work and life-saving. At some point, the company became known as “Denny’s Old” and then simply “Old” alone, to distinguish it from two other rival groups (the “Young” and the “North Roads” companies) - the former two of them having their headquarters down on the southern sector of the Denes, where the so-called “Beach Village” was eventually to form and become very much “a town within the town”. The people who lived there, and others, mainly referred to it as “The Grit”. The Old Company’s HQ (a large wooden shed), and its yawls and gigs, were located near the foreshore down towards what later became Hamilton Road. But, if in earlier times, it had operated further to the north in line with the end of Wilde’s Score (as it could well have done) and used that footway to access the High Street area, it is conceivable that the score itself might have carried the Denny surname for a time.
The wall and steps on the south side of the score, to the rear of Nos. 81 & 81A High Street, are Grade II listed by Historic England, largely for the former’s antiquity and appearance, through being of 18th and 19th century brick and flint construction in an irregular bond. Nearest the High Street itself, and forming an integral part of the north wall of Nos. 81 & 81A, are decorative courses of brick “headers” and double or triple cobbled flints (depending on size) laid in such a way that each of these materials alternates and contrasts with the one laid below - thereby achieving a distinctive and attractive visual pattern. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
10. Maltsters Score
Yet again, another of the old town’s access paths between the High Street and the Denes, but one which seems to have gone out of use at some point during the late 17th-early 18th century and become part of the site of what is now No. 88 High Street - whose plot once ran down the cliff-face as far as Whapload Road. A reference found in the manorial records of property-transfer says that the southern boundary of the property had once been a “common score” - and the Revd. John Tanner’s listing of copyhold properties in the town (compiled c. 1720-25 and previously referred to in Crown Score and Martin’s Score) gives the following description of the messuage as follows: “One messuage, with a decayed malthouse and yard”, in the tenancy of Thomas Ward (who was member of a well-known Nonconformist family of merchants and brewers). The document also makes no mention of a score being present.
At a later date (not known, but possibly recorded somewhere) it must have gone back into use, still associated with No. 88 High Street and, at some point, having the entry-point incorporated in the building - a feature still to be seen. The Manor Roll of 1618 refers to the property as being a house belonging to Robert Skarth (brewer), who also held another dwelling, almost opposite, on the other side of the High Street - this particular messuage having a brewhouse and barn built thereon. Thus, a strong connection with the brewing of beer and the malting process which preceded it is associated with this part of town during the earlier years of the 17th century and probably with a certain period of time during the 16th as well.
This means that the name of the score may possibly have some kind of residual element in it, going back to the time when the malting of barley took place nearby. But there is another, perhaps more likely explanation which is to do with No. 89 High Street immediately next door. This building, for a relatively short period during the middle of the 19th century, functioned as a public house known as The Jolly Malster (1851-67) - one of the tied houses belonging to Morse & Woods, whose brewery was located on the south side of what is now Crown Street West. By 1871, the property had become a bakery - but with reference being made in the Census Return of that year to “Maltsters Score”.
The book Jack Rose’s Lowestoft, p. 28, also makes reference to it having once been known as Salter’s Score - which may have had a connection with Salter Street, located dead opposite across Whapload Road in the Beach Village, with the name presumably deriving from that of a one-time local resident. Another name found referred to (though without specific reference) is Garden Score - though not in the publication mentioned above. The Crooked Score has been given an airing, as well - apparently a reference to the sudden right-hand turn at the end of the tunnel-like entrance from the High Street, with some irregularity of alignment thereafter. Stories grew up (probably during late Victorian times, when all kinds of local myths and legends were concocted) that drunken seafarers making their way home down to the Beach Village area were assaulted there and relieved of their valuables. Stories which do not stand up to documentary study.
About two-thirds of the way down, the score is blocked off from reaching Whapload Road and is diverted to the right into Spurgeon Score. But not before revealing to the passer-by what is perhaps its most distinctive feature: the presence of two sections of brick-built serpentine wall (or crinkle-crankle walls, as they are usually referred to in Suffolk, which has the largest surviving concentration of them in England). They largely date from the 18th and 19th centuries and there is no mystery as to the mode of construction. It is simply the means of erecting a barrier one brick thick, without having to create buttresses or pillars at periodic intervals to support it. The opposing curves do that themselves and the result is a pleasing length of wall (usually of no great height), whose vertical undulations give added visual interest to something which might otherwise go unnoticed.
There has been a lot of speculation over the years as to the origins of crinkle-crankle - but, while Edward Moor, Suffolk Words and Phrases (1823), p. 91, has the word crinkled (adjective) meaning “twisted”, there is no reference to crinkle-crankle itself. Nor is there in Robert Forby, The Vocabulary of East Anglia, vol. 1 (1830), p. 82, where crinkle (verb) is said to mean “wrinkle” or “twist”. J.G. Nall, An Etymological and Comparative Glossary of the Dialect and Provincialisms of East Anglia (1866), p. 536, replicates this and it is not until A.O.D. Claxton, The Suffolk Dialect of the 20th Century (1954), p. 28, is reached that Crinkly Crankly [sic] is specifically referred to in relation to serpentine walling. Therefore, it looks very much as if the term was comparatively late in formation. Late 19th century, perhaps, or even early 20th. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
11. Spurgeon’s Score
Not referred to in the Revd. John Tanner’s Listing of copyhold properties in the town c. 1720-25 (see Nos. 6, 7 & 10) and must therefore have become a score at some point later on. The likelihood is the mid-late 19th century, when redevelopment of this part of the High Street was taking place, also apparently leading to the building of terraced cottages on the lower part of the cliff-face. These still remain in place and the score was obviously created to give their occupants ready access to the High Street itself, with steps constructed at the top end for ease of passage. The surname Spurgeon must presumably been that of an individual person or family associated with the score - as is probably the case with Titlowe’s and Acton, which are two titles found cited in Jack Rose’s Lowestoft, p. 28 (again, without any further information being given). | See on StreetStroll | back to map
12. Herring Fishery Score
This seems to be the score with most names attributed to it over the years - Jack Rose’s Lowestoft, p. 28, mentioning Christchurch, Porter’s, Nelson, Spendlove’s and Penloo’s (Penlow’s ?). Whether or not this list is in time-sequence is not known. Christchurch is easily accounted for, in terms of naming, as it is the church which stands at the bottom of the score and which was built in 1868 (to the design of W.O. Chambers) to largely serve the Beach Village community. Porter, Spendlove and Penloo/Penlow can all be accounted for as people’s surnames - which leaves Nelson. Again this might be an individual person’s surname, but there is also the possibility of it being connected with Old Nelson Street, which it opened onto at the top end. And a few doors down, on the same (east) side was Thomas Huke’s Nelson Printing Works - he who published and produced an annual directory of the town during the late 19th century.
The name Herring Fishery derives from that of a public house which once stood at the top of the score, immediately to the north, and is recorded as such in White’s Directory of Suffolk (1874), p. 735. By 1892, Huke’s Lowestoft Directory of that year, p. 76, has the premises named as Fisheries Hotel. A licensed premises still occupies the site at No. 108 High Street, but had changed its name to The Spreadeagle by 1937 (Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk, p. 654). At some point, during the later decades of the 20th century, it had become The Wheatsheaf and has most recently (2023) changed its name to The Carousel. During the later 16th century, the score itself was known as Barringforth’s Score, after Ralph Barringforth (mariner) and this continued under his son William - though, for how long, is not known. They lived in a house at the top of the score, on its southern side. The Revd. John Tanner’s 1720-25 Listing simply refers to it as a common score. And that is as much as can be said regarding this particular footway. | See on StreetStroll | back to map
13. Frost’s Alley Score
Once again, Jack Rose’s Lowestoft, p. 28, gives Bowler’s Score and Brown’s Score as previous names, without accompanying information - but with both seeming to be the surnames of people associated in some way with the passage and with the “alley” element hinting at its narrow nature. Construction of a new Lowestoft Police Station in 1978-9 removed all trace of it on the eastern side of Old Nelson Street - but, again (as with Spurgeon Score), there is no reference to a score at this point in either manorial documentation or in the Revd. John Tanner’s 1720-25 Listing. The latter source gives a continuous, unbroken line of dwellings from what is now Herring Fishery Score down to the bottom of Old Nelson Street - a name which seems to have come into use at some point during the early-mid 19th century.
It is possible that Frost’s Alley Score was one of the oldest ones of all, simply because it was situated at the end of a late medieval track known as the Mill Stye - which ran in a westerly direction along the alignment of Milton Road (East and West) and Love Road, and then past the Hill Road/Halcyon Road area where the town’s windmill once stood. Then, from there, it went across Rotterdam Road, along the bottom of Lowestoft Cemetery, over Normanston Park (to the north of Leathes Ham) - eventually finishing up in the Harbour Road area. The whole of this track, from end to end, had once been known as the Old Way and it had served to provide access to the beach in one direction and to the western end of Lake Lothing in the other - at a time when the township had been situated somewhere in the area now occupied by the Cemetery.
Once this had relocated to the top of the cliff, during the first half of the 14th century, the eastern sector of the track then assumed the name of Mill Stye because that was the means of access to the facility - which had been left isolated after the centre of population had moved. As the town grew in size and spread southwards, during the 15th and 16th centuries, the last stretch eastwards down the face of the cliff was built over as there was no need of it to access the beach and Denes any longer, because of the number of other scores available. At some point - possibly during the early-mid 19th century, as London Road North began to be developed in earnest (on either side of a stretch of turnpike road authorised by Act of Parliament in 1785) - it looks very much as if the score was re-created. This led to the passageway between No. 182 (The Welcome public house, formerly The Adelaide Stores) and 181 London Road North and a similar alley on the other side of Old Nelson Street - the latter of which was obliterated by the construction of the Police Station.
In a sense, this particular score had the experience of coming full circle on two occasions. Once, during the late medieval period, when the spread of the main street southwards led to it being cut off by houses somewhere towards the top of what is now Old Nelson Street. And twice, when the building of a new police station in the same area, during the late 1970s, inflicted a similar fate upon it. back to map
14. Henfield Score
The most southerly, but one, of all the Lowestoft scores, which must presumably have taken its name from that of a resident who had lived close to it at some stage. This writer first encountered the score, by name, when transcribing the manor court extracts (written in abbreviated Latin) relating to property transfer, compiled by the Revd. John Tanner c. 1720-25 to accompany his Listing of copyhold real estate in the town. Basically speaking, it was a footway at the bottom of what is now Old Nelson Street (south side) where it curves down to meet the roundabout into which it feeds - along with Whapload Road, Hamilton Road, Battery Green Road and Gordon Road. It is mentioned in the manorial records with specific reference to a hostelry of some kind called The Cock, which was located to the north of it and which itself stood next door to a premises named The Shoulder of Mutton. Using other information available, the track obviously ran westwards up the slope (hardly a cliff any longer, in this location) more or less on an alignment with the present-day No. 148 London Road North - Norton Peskett Solicitors. What is perhaps even more revealing is that the records reveal that what had become the “King’s Highway” (relating to George I) had once been known as Henfield Score - thereby indicating that the outward growth of the township southwards had turned this footpath into the common roadway.
One other interesting thing is also revealed: that before it was known as Henfield Score, it had been called Mildram’s Score. This would have been after the surname of Thomas Mildram (mariner) - the man referred to as Thomas Meldrum (alternative spelling) in the section above, entitled “The Armada Post” - who had lived on the other (southern) side of the score, before it had become the public road. His was the first one of six dwellings which ran along what is now Battery Green Road down towards the former multi-storey car park and it would be lost today below the roundabout. A relative of his, called Ann Mildram (relationship not known), is shown in both the Manor Roll of 1618 and in the Revd. John Tanner’s transcribed manor court proceedings to have once lived in a different property three or or four plots down from Barringforth’s Score(Herring Fishery Score). Hence, this particular family group has a definite connection with this part of town during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. back to map
15. Lyers Score
The most southerly score of all, located not far from Henfield. Again, this footway or track manifested itself in manorial court records and seems to have run from the easternmost extremity of the South Field (one of the parish’s late medieval three common fields used for agriculture) down to the beach area - passing between two of the six houses referred to in the paragraph above. It would have been more or less in line with the row of former Coastguard cottages at the eastern end of Gordon Road. With specific regard to the local topography, the slope of the land from west to east at this point would probably have been even less than that of Henfield Score - with both of them not being remotely comparable with the gradients of the cliff-face negotiated by all the others. back to map
As a summative comment, it may be said that the Lowestoft scores remain to be seen as an integral aspect of the town’s physical structure following its move during the first half of the 14th century from an earlier inland location (as referred to in the opening paragraph). Together with the terracing of the cliff-face into usable stages, and including also the High Street following the sinuous alignment of the cliff-top itself, they help to form a specific type of urban layout whose shape and function was the direct result of human response to a particular set of topographical features. And, in this case, ones that were not immediately conducive to establishing a new domestic environment. The fact that this was able to be achieved, at all, is due in some considerable degree to the fact that the original surface-water runnels down the face of the cliff were able to be used as an initial means of access to and from the Denes below. And then, with the passing of time, be given permanence by fencing them on the sides (possibly, wood or wattle to begin with, followed by masonry) and by paving them under foot.
Documentary Sources used
- Lowestoft Manor Court Minute Book, 1582-85 (Suffolk Archives 194/A10/4).
- Lothingland Half-hundred Court Minute Book, 1588-94 (Suffolk Archives 192/4).
- The Lowestoft Manor Roll of 1618 (Suffolk Archives 194/A10/73).
- Lowestoft Manor Court Minute Books, 1616-1756 (Suffolk Archives,194/A10/5-19).
- Revd. John Tanner’s Listing of Copyhold Properties, 1720-25 (Suffolk Archives 454/1).
- Revd. John Tanner’s Manor Court Extracts (Suffolk Archives 454/2).
Printed Sources used
- Butcher, D., The Town of Lowestoft c. 1720-25: People and Property in a Pre-industrial Coastal Community (Lowestoft Heritage Workshop Centre, 2019).
- Butcher, D. and Bunn, I., Lowestoft Then and Now: 1618 & 2021 (Lowestoft Heritage Workshop Centre, 2021).
- Rose, J. and Others, Jack Rose’s Lowestoft (Panda Books Publishing, Lowestoft, 1981).
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