Eras

Many readers will know know something of London’s so-called “Great Plague”, which began in May 1665 and stretched into January 1666, and in which an estimated 100,000 people may have died out of a population of 350,000-400,000. A total of 68,596 burials  is accounted for in parish records, but so intense was the rate of death from July to September that many people’s burials went unrecorded.

On Tuesday 23 April, 2024, a silver medallion commemorating the naval victory of the English fleet over that of the United Provinces of the Netherlands during the Second Dutch War (1665-67) was offered for sale at an auction staged by Charles Millar of Fulham, specialists in maritime and scientific models, instruments and fine art. It fetched the sum of £550, plus seller’s and buyer’s commission.

During the period of the two English Civil Wars (1642-46 and 1648) - and both earlier and later on - parish churches up and down the length of the land were visited by authorised (and, in some cases, unauthorised) local inspectors whose task it was to ensure that the worship being carried out was both simple and unadorned, in line with Puritan taste and leanings and free of the “High Church” ritual and practice associated with King Charles I and the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, who was executed for treason by Parliament in January 1645.

869-70 - Township’s name possibly changed to the Scandinavian form of Hloðver’s toft, following the great Danish invasion of these years. For about 100 years, East Anglia was part of the so-called Danelaw and eight of today’s sixteen parishes in Lothingland have place-names which have Scandinavian elements in one way or another. 

They are as follows: Ashby, Corton, Flixton, Gunton, Lound, Lowestoft, Oulton and Somerleyton. There is some debate about Ashby, which may have its first element deriving from Old English aesc, meaning “ash tree”. 

Mid-late 6th century? - Founding of Lowestoft as Hluda’s toft, meaning “the homestead of Hluda” - with Hluda itself translatable as “the loud one”. On the evidence of the layout of ancient tracks and other landscape features, the location was possibly somewhere in the north-eastern sector of what is now Normanston Cemetery. 

May 1535 - Muster Roll of Lothingland Half-hundred, dated 23rd of the month, listed and named 292 able-bodied men for its defence. Lowestoft provided 130 of these (46%), with three widows included for their late husbands’ weapons. Armaments consisted mainly of bills (a hatchet-like metal attachment on the end of a pole) and bows and arrows, with a minority of the men also possessing helmets and body armour. No firearms are recorded.  

“All Because of the Herring”

The first part of this extended article (Suffolk Review, Spring 2020) dealt primarily with the commercial and civic contention between Great Yarmouth and its nearest neighbours on the Suffolk side of the River Yare: Gorleston and Little Yarmouth.

“All Because of the Herring”

Great Yarmouth’s disputes with its near-neighbours in Suffolk, during the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, are generally well known in outline – if not in detail. The following series of notes (summarised, by the writer, from the sources cited) relates to the long-running conflict between the Norfolk borough and its Suffolk neighbours, regarding the former’s legally granted ommercial rights and its control of the local herring-trade.

Compass Street originally formed one track with Dove Street - known as Bier Lane during the 14th century, because it was the track by which corpses (placed on a hand-bier) were taken from town for burial in St. Margaret’s churchyard. The track extended westwards over Church Green, more or less following the line of what became - much later on - Wesley Street and Church Road. During the 16th and 17th century, the named changed to both Fair(stead) Lane and Almshouse Lane, since the annual fairs were held on Fair Green (which is the St.

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.