HERITAGE

This building, which stands in Arnold Street, is in need of some restorative tlc and is an important remnant of Lowestoft’s military past. Built and opened in 1872 for the Lowestoft Artillery Volunteer Company which (along with accompanying Rifle Volunteers) was formed in 1860. Designed by local architect W.O. Chambers.

What you see is the remains of the base of a beacon, one of a pair erected in 1552 (on the orders of the Marquis of Northampton), to warn of attack from the sea. Its companion was located just to the north of what is now the junction of Gunton Drive with Corton Road.

Kirkley Cemetery is a burial ground in the Kirkley area of Lowestoft in Suffolk. Located on London Road South, the cemetery is maintained by Waveney District Council and is open for traditional and Green Burials.  Thr two Memorial Chapels were designed by local architect J.L. Clemence in Early English gothic style.

A number of rules and fees payable (applying to both residents and outsiders) surviving from the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods is to be found in documentation relating to the town, with Robert Reeve’s handwritten, unpublished ‘A History of Lowestoft and Lothingland’, vol. 4 (c. 1810) – Suffolk Archives (Ipswich), 193/3/4 – being a main source of information. A practising local solicitor, he was also Steward of the Manor during the late 18th and early 19th century and therefore well placed to be familiar with various aspects of its day-to-day running.

It is stated in the Book of Fiefs/Fees (al. Liber Feodorum) – an Exchequer listing of feudal estates compiled at the beginning of the 14th century – that Lowestoft was a manor in its own right by the year 1212. This possibly being when its status was raised from that of mere outlier to the Lothingland Half-hundred manor (as recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086), whose hub was Gorleston.

Former Names for Lowestoft Streets, Roads and Scores

All of the older names listed below in italic font derive from documentation of one kind or another relating to the town – particularly those manorial records recording the transfer of property 1582-5 & 1616-1756, to the Revd. John Tanner’s transcriptions of these done up until 1720-25, and to the Manor Roll of 1618. All found as Suffolk Archives (Ipswich), 194/A10/4, 194/A10/ 5-19, 454/2 and 194/A10/73.

Lothingland Half-hundred

1. Ashby: St. Mary’s Church.

2. Belton: All Saints Church – Old Hall – Browston Hall.

3. Blundeston: St. Mary’s Church – The Rookery – The Pound – Blundeston House – The Plough inn.

4. Bradwell: St. Nicholas’s Church – Bradwell Hall – Hobland House.

5. Burgh Castle: St. Peter’s & St. Paul’s Church – Old Hall Farm – The Grange – Roman Shore Fort Gariannonum.

One of the most interesting features of local landscapes during the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods in any community (and Lowestoft was no exception) was the presence of areas not used for agriculture – usually because the soil was unsuitable for crops or too difficult to work, for one reason or another – and being generally referred as either common or waste. The former term referred to the land being available to people for various kinds of use and the latter derived from the Latin word vastus, meaning “empty” or “open”.

Faith and Duty opposing Earthly Ambition - A Local Story

Introduction

(LT 649)

If upon your port is seen 
A little German submarine, 
Do not fire shot nor shell. 
Just turn around and run like hell! 
(Fishermen’s parody of a navigation rhyme)