GREAT YARMOUTH HISTORIC QUAY TRAIL - Heritage Explorer

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GREAT YARMOUTH HISTORIC QUAY TRAIL Welcome and instructions This trip is designed to take you on a ‘Then & Now’ tour around the Historic South Quay area of Great Yarmouth. It starts and ends at English Heritage’s Row House and Merchant’s House. Simply stop at each point on the map then: Use the map to guide you to each of the ‘Then & Now’ spots. At each spot hand out copies of the old photograph marked ‘Student’s Copy’ for that spot. Ask students to look at the photo and their view today. Then to try and spot what is the same and what is different. They could then use coloured pens/pencils to mark these changes onto the picture. Refer to the sheets provided for each point that will give you additional information about each point and (where appropriate) a copy of the photo marked ‘Teacher’s Copy’ highlighting some of the main changes that the students might spot. Start exploring Great Yarmouth’s amazing history! Book a visit To book a visit or for more information on planning a school trip, please contact the Educational Bookings team. T 0870 333 0606 F 01793 41 4926 (mark faxes FOA Education Bookings) E [email protected] or visit http://services.english-heritage.org.uk/educationbookings/ Access these images online Digital copies of all these images, and more, can be found on www.heritageexplorer.org.uk

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Row 117, Gallon Can Row

Changes The archway at the entrance to the row has gone. The buildings immediately to the left have right have been replaced by new buildings in the same place. The Merchant’s House is the only one to survive intact.

Facts The row was named after a pub that used to be on the corner and was called the Gallon Can. Most of the rows were only 90 – 150cm wide. This meant just opening a door could bash a passer-by. This led to a law being passed that meant all doors had to open inwards. The rows were not numbered until 1803. The black painted squares with white numbers on can still be seen on some of the buildings today.

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Row 117, Gallon Can Row, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken 1860s

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Row 117, Gallon Can Row, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

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Date Taken 1860s

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The Fishing Industry

Changes These two images were probably taken further down the quayside towards South Denes/Fish Wharf. However the whole of the quay area used to be filled with fishing boats. Today there are no small fishing boats. The buildings on the opposite side of the river today are still more industrial than domestic.

Facts Tax records from 1334 show that Yarmouth raised more money from tax than most other towns in England (apart from York, Bristol and Newcastle). This wealth was based entirely on the herring fishing industry. The number of herring caught was counted in ‘lasts’. A last was made up of 13,200 herring. The 1904 Trade Directory states that in the 1902-3 fishing seasons more than 50,000 lasts were caught. That adds up to around 660 million (660,000,000) herring! Scottish fishermen followed the migrating herring down to Great Yarmouth and arrived in October/November each year to fish for them. They brought with them women (known as herring girls) to gut and pack the fish and men to make the barrels to pack them in. At its peak in the early 1900’s Great Yarmouth’s population would increase by 10,000 during these two months. (See Row 111 House). The herring girls could gut up to 30 herring a minute – one every 2 seconds. They worked long shifts of 12-15 hours and often wore rags on their fingers to protect them from the razor-sharp gutting knife. The smell of fish guts would have been intense! 1913 was a record year for the herring industry. There were 1163 boats using the port and over 1200 million (1,200,000,000) fish were caught! The industry also created many ‘on shore’ jobs as well as those for fishermen. A large number of local men and women worked at salting and curing the fish to preserve it. Fish that were first salted and then smoke dried were known as ‘red herrings’. This is because the colour of the fish turns red during the process. The ‘fish finger’ was first invented in Great Yarmouth in the 1950s at the Bird’s Eye factory.

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Fishing boats at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken November 1947

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Herring Girls on South Quay, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken November 1947

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South Quay and the Town Hall

Changes The building on the corner, to the right of the Town Hall has now gone, there is just an empty space. The Town Hall is still as it was in 1897. The Star Hotel is still very similar. The NatWest is the same building but has had a new/different frontage put on it. The next group of buildings was the Crown and Anchor hotel, but they’ve gone and have been replaced by HSBC. What is now Lloyd’s is still the same building, but the street frontage of columns has been removed. The upper two storeys still look the same. The Star and Garter pub is still much the same. The next building has been demolished and replaced with a more modern building – now an estate agents. The second to last building highlighted is still very similar to how it was in 1897 with the distinctive triangular bit on the front, it just has a more modern shop front. The last building highlighted is Barclays and still looks much the same as it did in 1897.

Facts A top tip for spotting the older buildings on any street is to look up. Whilst shop fronts often get changed or modernised the upper storeys are less likely to be altered.

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South Quay and the Town Hall from across the river, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken 1897

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South Quay and the Town Hall from across the river, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

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Date Taken 1897

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The Rows

Changes This photograph taken in 1896 is just titled The Rows. It isn’t Market Row, but it does still give a good impression of what the rows were like.

Facts The Rows of Great Yarmouth are first mentioned in 1198. They developed in the 1200s – 1300s forming a unique town plan. They were so narrow that only a special cart, known as a Troll Cart, could fit along them. Ordinary carts and carriages were just too wide. There were 145 Rows all crammed tightly in to the city’s medieval walls. People just emptied their waste into the street, so raw sewage ran along the Row. However their natural slope, along with a stiff sea breeze would have carried some of the waste and smells away. When the Black Death (Plague) hit Great Yarmouth in 1349 it was devastating. It spread quickly through the tightly packed Rows and around two out of every three people died. The Rows survived reasonably well until World War Two. The town was heavily bombed, damaging and destroying many buildings. After the war many more were torn down as they were considered to be ‘slums’. They were replaced by new housing estates.

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The Rows, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken 1896

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Market Place

Changes The church no longer has a spire. It was destroyed in 1942 during a German bombing raid. The rest of the church is still recognisable. All of the buildings on the eastern site of the Market Place have gone and been replaced by newer buildings. There are no longer tram lines in the pavement, or the electricity cables above that powered them. The market stalls are still in the same place with some permanent stalls, but they are no longer built of wood.

Facts There has been a market here since at least 1384, when it is recorded that the area was partly paved and had a pillory. A pillory was a pole with hand/foot restraints on it used for punishing people, very similar to stocks. A statute of 1351 had made it law for every township in England to provide and maintain a set of stocks. They were used to punish people who were guilty of petty (less serious) crimes. The 1st Market Cross was built in 1385. The Market Cross was where the buying, selling and other business took place. In 1509 the Market Cross from 1385 was replaced with a new one. Between 1509 and 1729 three more Market Crosses were built as the market was extended. This shows that the town was becoming more and more prosperous, with a bigger and bigger market. In 1819 a pump was added to supply fresh water to the Market Place. In 1897 21 schools were given a free dinner in the Market Place to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.

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Market Place, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken September 1904

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Market Place, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

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Date Taken September 1904

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Regent Street

Changes The large building on the right is still almost exactly the same. The building on the left has completely gone and been replaced by a different building. The tram lines in the road and their electric cables above have now gone.

Facts The building on the right was originally the London & Provincial Bank Limited. This company ran from 1864-1917. It was eventually taken over by Barclays. The building on the left was Beazor’s Antique shop. According to trade directories it was owned by a John Beazor. Electric trams were introduced to Great Yarmouth in 1902 and ran until 1933. Regent Street was the first deliberate east-west street built outside the Row pattern. It was intended to provide a better route from the quayside to the seafront. It was formally opened on the 29th September 1813 and at this time was all private houses, not shops.

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Regent Street, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken September 1904

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Regent Street, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

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Greyfriars’ Cloister, Row 92

Changes The remains of medieval cloisters have now been preserved by English Heritage. The buildings around the cloisters have all changed since the photograph was taken.

Facts A Franciscan Friary was founded here by Sir William Gerbrigge in 1271. The Franciscans were known as Greyfriars’ because of the colour of their habits (clothes). The Franciscans were a religious group who followed the rules of St Francis of Assisi (c1181–1226). The main rule was a vow of poverty. These remains were part of the friary’s cloister. The main part of the friary (church) was north of these ruins, in what is now Queen Street. In 1538 the friary was dissolved by King Henry VIII and granted to Thomas Cromwell. Then in 1569 it was acquired by the Great Yarmouth Corporation. Later parts of the premises were leased to various prominent and wealthy townspeople. By 1582 a condition of the lease was that important visitors to the town should be lodged there. In 1657 the whole site was sold to a John Woodroffe, on condition that he built two new Rows across it. It was later sold again and developed piecemeal. However some of the medieval walls were incorporated in 17th century and later buildings. Some of the remains of the cloister were opened up (rediscovered) towards the end of the 19th century. The site was bombed twice during Word War Two, both in 1942, the second time was on the 25th June 1942. The original caption for this photograph reads “showing further damage by enemy action on 25.6.42”.

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Greyfriars’ Cloister, Row 92, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken June 1942

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Greyfriars’ Cloister, Row 92, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

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The Tolhouse

Changes The Tolhouse is the only building to survive from the time of the photograph until the present day.

Facts The Tolhouse was built in c1150. It was probably originally a fortified merchant’s house. At this time merchants (people who sold something) would have kept their goods to be sold in their homes. This meant their homes needed to very secure to keep them and their goods safe from thieves. By the 1300s it was being rented out to the ‘Borough’, like a town corporation/council. It was bought by the Borough in 1552. It was used as the town prison from 1261-1875. It was also used as a police station, court house and toll office. It was used as the Town Hall until a new one was built in 1882. After this it was used as a museum and library. The word ‘toll’ is Saxon and refers to dues or taxes that had to be paid. This suggests the building was probably where merchants going to the ‘Free Fair in Herring’ paid their dues. It was bombed twice during two raids in the Second World War but was then restored.

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THE TOLHOUSE, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Date Taken 1880-1930

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THE TOLHOUSE, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

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