HERITAGE

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.

Recorded on Suffolk Heritage Explorer (Internet) as Monument record LWT 368.

Centring on OS 1:25000 Series Map reference TM59 539939. 

Lowestoft 

The Domesday Survey details (1086) relating to these two communities have been presented and examined in another article, so there is nothing to be gained from repeating what was said there. What can be usefully done, by way of follow-up, is to look at what is known of their function during the centuries following on from William I’s great audit of his realm and reveal something of their manorial status and history.

Lothingland

The original grant of a market in Lothingland Half-hundred was made by King John in the year 1211 – three years after Great Yarmouth had received its charter of incorporation (March 1208) with specifically stated preferential trading rights in its own local area. With Crown income solely in mind, the monarch either had no idea of the contention and strife these opposing privileges would cause or was not concerned about them in any way.

The collection of superstitions which follows is not seen, in any way, as definitive. It simply records a number of the more commonly held beliefs once current in East Anglian fishing communities. Not all of them were peculiar to fishermen only; some had (and may still have) currency among seafarers in general, while others can be traced well inland. But no matter how extensive their area of circulation, all of them are interesting for what they tell us of the human mind and the way it works when faced with natural powers beyond either its understanding or its control.

The term denes is an earlier version of dunes. It derives from OE dūn, meaning “a hill”, and became applied to coastal sandhills during the late medieval period – being first identified in a printed source dating from the year 1523. In Lowestoft’s case, any undulating effect may never have been very great as a result of tidal action and the effect of the wind, and the progressive development of scrub-growth of one kind and another would have moderated this even further.

Produced to assist with the building’s regeneration and future uses

1. The Lowestoft community relocated itself (onto what is now the High Street area of a much expanded town) from what was probably its original location about a mile to the south-west, in an area now occupied by a large municipal cemetery between Normanston Drive and Rotterdam Road.