HERITAGE

“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.

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).

A constant matter of concern during the reign of Henry VIII (1509-47) was that of foreign invasion - particularly by France with the aid of its ally, Scotland. In 1535, a national audit of England’s defensive ability against foreign aggression was ordered by Henry VIII. With there being no regular Army of any kind at the time, lists had to be made of adult males able to fight in all areas of the country – and it was all done, hundred by hundred, to total up the numbers for every shire.

700,000 years ago - Early humans (hominids) present, using flint tools in what is now Pakefield. These anthropoids long pre-dated Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. The cores and flakes found date from roughly halfway through the Lower Palaeolithic age, which stretches from c. 1.5 million to 200,000 years ago.

Introduction

An account of this trip, taken by two young men, from Saffron Walden to Lowestoft and back, took place between Saturday 26 August and Sunday 3 September 1797. It is written on two pieces of rag-paper 7½ inches by 63/8 in size (190mm X 162), folded to form eight pages, and with a half-piece serving as the first two – the outer one of which is the title-page itself. Originally hand-stitched down the middle of the fold (and with this either failing or being removed, at some point), the document was later secured by a single staple in the middle.