1600s

One of the things most dreaded during the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, in townships of any size with a concentrated nucleus of houses and other buildings, was fire. And so, it can do no harm to start by giving an account of the most disastrous fire to have occurred in Lowestoft throughout throughout the whole of its recorded history.

The top end of Rant Score – with the road still bearing the name of a family which held all the land between what is now 80 High Street and the score itself, from the end of the 16th century until the middle of the 17th. Looking at both road signs, at the top - with the smaller blue one advising motorists to “Beware oncoming Cyclists” - it is hard to imagine how cars going down the slope would ever be met by cyclists “tanking up” that gradient at any real turn of speed!

Some idea of the vulnerability of the Lothingland coastline during times of trouble may be had from an incident which occurred during the Second Dutch War (1665-67). The Lowestoft parish registers have this entry, made on 7 February 1666 [1665, in the old-style calendar]: “Maijer Thomas Willd of Yarmouth, was kild at Corton by a musket shot that went into wessan”. The grave-slab of this man is set into the floor of the middle aisle of St. Margaret’s Church, not far from the chancel screen and next to that of his parents, John and Mary Wild(e).

#LowestoftDaysOfChristmas 10th day.. FROM SWAN INN and CROMWELL's HQ to well loved shops in many guises. Nos. 41-42 High Street, as seen today, are replacement buildings for "The Swan" inn, which once occupied the site and served as one of Lowestoft's premier hostelries during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was where Oliver Cromwell stayed overnight on 14 March 1643/44, when he came to Lowestoft (from Cambridge) with a force of cavalry, having heard tell of a shipment of arms either entering or leaving the town (it has never been established which).

1670's The Lowestoft Lights were re-built again. A few years previously John Clayton had erected a coal-light a couple of miles north at Corton. Clayton's efforts to build lighthouses at various locations around the coast were seen by Trinity Brethren as being a threat to their monopoly.

The naval Battle of Lowestoft in June 1665 was the first of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Held 40 miles (64 km) off the coast, it was a clear victory for the English over the Dutch.

Thirty-three years after she first prepared Lely’s Flagmen of Lowestoft for display, Senior Paintings Conservator Elizabeth Hamilton-Eddy prepares them for the Queen’s House.

credit: National Maritime Museum 

1685 A sea survey by Greenville Collins showed the Standford Channel just off-shore (the name eventually contracted to the Stanford Channel). 

see also our Lowestoft maritime timeline page

1676 Samuel Pepys was elected a Master of the Trinity Brethren, and immediately sanctioned a new Lowestoft lighthouse. A  new Lighthouse tower was constructed, built of brick, this time on the cliffs. This became known as Lowestoft High Light. Trinity in its earlier records sometimes refers to the northernmost of the two Ness Point foreshore lights as the 'upper' light, which can be confusing.(drawing p93).