North Denes Liver Trench 

• A large, filled-in trench is visible on the North Denes, a little to the east of the net-drying spars. Its presence is indicated by a slight depression in the ground and by the vegetation growing along its length. The latter is much lusher and of a different type from what is to be found on The Denes generally, showing that the trench’s infill is of a different type from the soil around it.
• The dimensions of this feature were originally eighty to ninety paces in length, on a north-south alignment, and c. three paces in width.
• The creation of Ness Park removed the northernmost section with construction of an area of walkway, but this did reveal that the trench’s main infill at this point consisted largely of late 18th-early 19th century building rubble – probably indicating spoil from redevelopment of some kind taking place.
• The presence of the remainder of the trench is indicated by slightly raised, grassed, low-profile bunds (ridges) on either side of it, accompanied by post-and-rope edgings.
• In his An Historical Account of the Ancient Town of Lowestoft, p. 110, Edmund Gillingwater says that the trench in which the iron coppers had once stood (for the reduction of cod livers to oil) was still visible out on The Denes. The book was published in 1790, but there are suggestions in it that the text had been completed some years before it went into print.
• The Northern fishery for cod (off Iceland and Faeroe) began in the early fifteenth century, with vessels from East Anglia and Yorkshire taking part from c. 1410 onwards. The boats sailed during March-April and returned June-August, depending on weather conditions and the amount of fish caught. They didn’t necessarily go every year, as most of them were also used for trading voyages as well as for deep-sea fishing.
• The cod (caught on hand-lines) were decapitated, gutted, split open down the backbone and dry-salted on board, with the livers being kept in small, sealed wooden casks. On return to the home-port, the fish were used in all kinds of culinary dishes and the livers boiled in large iron coppers and the oil extracted from them. 
• It was known as train-oil (from the Dutch traen, meaning “oil”), which was mainly used to fuel household lamps and and treat new leather. Lowestoft had two or three tanneries in operation at one time (located in the Lighthouse Score-Sparrow’s Nest area), which would have used considerable quantities of the oil.
• The fishery itself was a notable part of Lowestoft’s maritime and economic activity for well over three hundred years, altogether..
• The trench on The Denes is almost certainly the one referred to by Gillingwater, where the liver-reduction coppers were located and the fire-pits situated. It is a feature which could date back to medieval times and which was definitely present by the end of the sixteenth century.
• The last few Lowestoft vessels working off Iceland are recorded in the parish tithe accounts during the 1730s and 40s.
• Among the sources of reference to cod-liver oil extraction is a manorial survey of 1610, which says that a man named Symon Fyfyld (merchant and shoemaker) held land on The Denes for processing blubbers – a term commonly used of cod livers as well as whale-fat. In 1636, a document recording the disposal of the assets of Thomas Mighells (merchant), deceased, mentions a quantity of oil and old barrels left at the coppers. Finally, in 1720, Joseph Smithson (merchant) left his oldest son Samuel blubber-pans and other utensils on The Denes.
• Fyfyld (al. Fifield) lived in the house now numbered as 43-44 High Street; Mighells dwelt at No. 27; and Smithson resided in a dwelling which once occupied the site of Nos. 92 & 93. 
• The trench is an important part of Lowestoft’s maritime and industrial past and worth careful archaeological investigation.

                                                                                                                                         David Butcher - 12.8.2024.

Picture Caption 

An engraving of the North Denes, published by Rock & Co. of London in 1872. James Gowing’s rope-walk can be seen in the middle of the print, while drift-nets are being laid out to dry in the foreground – the scrub vegetation present (not shown) assisting in the process. Note the absence of any net-drying spars at this time. In the upper right-hand corner, the three houses now numbered 2, 3 & 4 High Street can be clearly seen – the last having long been known as “Arnold House”. The tall building in the middle of the frame is the former No. 13 High Street, which once served as the parish vicarage house. It was destroyed in an enemy bombing raid during World War Two, along with properties on either side. The open green space of today between Nos. 4 and 26/27 is where they once stood.