Lowestoft

“ Lowestoft people doubtless baked at home. The hokemaker, doubtless had a good trade in supplying hooks for sea fishing, as well as for catching fish in the “fresh water.” The tower was a man skilled in “hanging” herrings in the curing-house.
Other Trades.
Besides these trades connected with our fishing and shipping business, there are several others, which show that Lowestoft was much resorted to as a shopping town by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. In these trades we must observe the enormous number of tailors—no less than 39. ”

“ Industries include ship and boat building and fitting, and motor engineering. The town is governed by a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area 2178 acres.
Lowestoft (Lothu Wistoft, Lowistoft, Loistoft) owes its origin to its fisheries. In 1086 it was a hamlet in the demesne of the royal manor of Lothingland. The men of Lowestoft as tenants on ancient demesne of the crown possessed many privileges, but had no definite burghal rights until 1885. For several centuries before 1740 the fisheries were the cause of constant dispute between Lowestoft and Yarmouth. ”

“ The obnoxious charter proved to be perfectly harmless to Lowestoft, if not entirely useless to Yarmouth. It was beyond the power of Yarmouth to enforce it effectually. The statue of Herrings, forbidding the “forestalling” of the Free Fair by buying herrings from ships at sea, applied to the Yarmouth merchants as well as to Lowestoft men. The anomalous right given to the Yarmouth Bailiffs of exacting harbour dues from ships anchored in the sea, at a distance of several miles from their harbour mouth, must have been incapable of enforcement, without a fleet of armed bailiffs. ”

“ At the early part of Henry VIII.’s reign Lowestoft appears to have been a small town on the cliff, containing some 20 or 30 merchants—in a very small way of business—the richer men among them owning one or two ships; most of them having fish-houses at the bottom of the cliffs, and doing a good deal of business during the autumn season in buying fish from the foreign and west-country fishermen in the Roads, and selling it to fish merchants coming from inland towns. ”

“ Lowestoft is the only market town in the island of Lothingland, which island is situated in the North-east corner of the county of Suffolk, and is formed by the German Ocean on the East, by the river Yare on the North, by the Waveney on the West, and Lake Lothing on the South. Its length from North to South is about ten miles; and its breadth, from East to West about six miles. It contains sixteen parishes, and during the Saxon heptarchy was part of the kingdom of the East Angles. ”

“ They had in their harbour a large ship, probably the Queen’s ship which we have before heard of as used for war-like purposes. They fitted out this ship as a “man of war” and sent her to ride in the roads off Lowestoft. The ship was formally “commissioned” by the Yarmouth bailiffs under the command of Thomas Allen, a namesake of the Lowestoft champion, to prevent the Western fishermen and other strangers selling their fish to the Lowestoft merchants in the roads; with power to seize their ships, etc. ”

“ In London we get the best—the smaller herrings go to the North, as the dwellers in those parts will not pay the price the Londoner does. Great is the joy and rejoicing, as well can be imagined, at Lowestoft when the herring season comes on. It is true, the Lowestoft p. 60fishers do not have it all to themselves. Yarmouth is a fierce rival in the race, and, as it has now superior accommodation, many a boat makes for that far-famed port. Then, the Scotch, when they have done their fishing, make for the English coast, and manage, as Scotchmen ever do, to gather a fair share of the spoil. ”

“ There, in the winter-time—that is, from Lowestoft to Covehithe—I have seen the beach strewed with wrecks, chiefly of rotten colliers, or ships in the corn trade; but inside ‘Lowestoft Roads,’ to which they were guided by a lighthouse on the cliff, they were supposed to be secure. Lowestoft at that time, with its charming sands, was little known to the gay world, and depended far more on the fishing than the bathing season. ”

“ It is well paved, particularly High street, and consists of about 445 houses, exclusive of fish-houses, which are chiefly built of brick. Several of the houses have been lately rebuilt in the modern style, and make a handsome appearance. It is probable that the town consists of much the same number of houses now as it had many years ago; there being very few houses erected upon new foundations, but only rebuilt upon the old ones. Lowestoft contains about 2,231 inhabitants.” [92]
p. 93Part II.—In the Time of Charles II. Third and Last Contest with Yarmouth about their Charter.—Conclusion. ”

“ We cannot infer from the three specimens of these cellars that survive, that there were many houses of this character in our old town, nor from what we know of the wealth of our merchants at this time, can we suppose that there were many who could indulge in expensively-constructed cellars, however convenient they might be for storing their “movabyll goods.”
We know well that Lowestoft in these old days was not what we see now, but it is as difficult to substitute any clear idea of what she was, as for a grown up man to picture himself when running about in a short frock. ”

“ In the Roll for 1525 we find Lowestoft occupying an entirely different position with respect to her agricultural neighbours. Instead of appearing as a poor village of less taxable capacity than Somerleyton and Blundeston we find p. 48her contributing a larger amount to the subsidy for this year than all the rest of the Lothingland parishes together, even including Gorleston and Southtown. The contribution from Lowestoft is £29, just 20 times what it was in 1327. This sum was collected from 140 of her inhabitants ”

“ They have six or seven North Sea boats: but they of Lowestoft make benefit yearly of buying of herrings of the Hollanders; for likewise these Hollanders be "hosted" with the Lowestoft men, as they be with the Yarmouthians.
In all His Majesty's kingdoms, not any town, comparable unto it for brave buildings.
To the northward, two leagues, is the town of Great Yarmouth, very beautifully built upon a very pleasant and sandy plain of three miles in length. This town is a place of great resort of all the herring fishermen of England. ”

“ A Flemish trader has sailed from Antwerp to Cadiz. Something happens to her on the way, and she never reaches her destination. At midnight carts and horses run down to the sea over the sand at Lowestoft. ”

“ Let him, after leaving the house, proceed southward to the Railway station and bridge, turn towards the sea on the Lowestoft side of the harbour, and, leaving Baron Alderson’s abode on the left, proceed to the Battery green; here he may see the Bath house, occupied by Mr. Jones, where hot and cold baths can be obtained; where also, in the Reading room, the principal newspapers may be consulted at a moderate charge. ”

“ At eighteen years of age, after a period of probation and training I had imposed upon myself as ordinary seaman on board a North Sea coaster, I had come up from Lowestoft—my first long railway journey in England—to “sign on” for an Antipodean voyage in a deep-water ship. Straight from a railway carriage I had walked into the great city with something of the feeling of a traveller penetrating into a vast and unexplored wilderness. No explorer could have been more lonely. I did not know a single soul of all these millions that all around me peopled the mysterious distances of the streets. ”

“ The Lowestoft life-boat sustained damage to a considerable amount.
“The Suffolk Humane Society (President, Sir T. S. Gooch, Bart.,) maintains and keeps in repair the two life-boats, and gives a stated sum to the crews whenever called into service, out of funds raised entirely by private subscriptions from Lowestoft and its neighbourhood, but which cannot afford adequate reward to the men for their intrepid service.” ”

“ We can hardly believe that the richer men undertook a much larger share of the burden than their property demanded, and we may reasonably infer that their assessments did not represent the full value of their property. But anyhow our richest merchants of those days must have been very poor men according to our modern ideas.
Lowestoft was of course still a very small town as compared with Yarmouth. As Yarmouth was exempted from all taxes during Henry VIII.’s reign on account of the expenses of her harbour, the Subsidy Rolls do not enable us to compare the wealth of the two towns. ”

“ It was while our merchants were suffering from their losses caused by the great fire, that the Yarmouth people made a third effort to enforce the privileges of their ancient charters now confirmed and strengthened by the charter of James I. It appears that for some years before 1659, they had sent boats into the roads off Lowestoft to exact harbour dues from fishing boats, but in this year they took a much stronger measure. ”

“ There are lodgings to be had there, and for a place combining the attractions of lake, river, and sea, it has few equals. Of course, the Broad is within easy reach of Lowestoft, the most attractive watering-place on the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk. It has a fine pier, good houses, cliffs, a capital harbour for yachts, a harbour for fishing vessels, where the artist will find much that is picturesque, and an old part of the town on the higher ground to the north, which has many features of interest. It has not the noise and bustle of Yarmouth, but it is gay enough for reasonable people. ”

“ Lowestoft tailors probably met the requirements of the inhabitants of all the Lothingland parishes, and other parishes near. Doubtless they had got a reputation for a better cut than the tailors of either Yarmouth or Beccles; or was a trade in ready-made clothes carried on here? These men, were of course, all journeymen tailors. The materials were probably supplied by some of the merchants mentioned, from Norwich or elsewhere. The persons mentioned as shoemakers, cordwainers, and cobblers (11) are comparatively few. These names represented the same trade with different pretensions. ”

“ The effect of this attack upon the Dutch and French fishing in what was called the British seas was felt by Yarmouth and Lowestoft immediately. No more could their merchants rely upon their foreign visitors for their supply of herrings. If they were to retain their trade in herrings they must now catch them themselves or have their supplies limited to the produce of the English fishermen from southern ports. ”

“ Lowestoft had been a market town for more than a hundred years, but it does not appear that the market was ever much of a success. There was no large population like that of Yarmouth requiring a large supply of provisions and vegetables in addition to the produce of the townspeople’s own gardens and the neighbouring farms. Nor could a place with only half the environment of an ordinary inland town be a convenient centre for the sale of general agricultural produce, particularly with another large market at Beccles.
Population. ”

“ It was stated in this Petition that the town had then increased its shipping to the number of 60 vessels—a rapid advance on the 25 ships possessed 9 years before. As we are told by Gillingwater that the number of boats employed at Lowestoft in the herring fishery during the years 1722–1781, averaged about 33, there could have been no further advance in the fishing business until quite recent years. It is evident that our old townspeople had been bestirring themselves, and were making good use of the opportunity which the absence of Dutch busses from this side of the North Sea now offered. ”

“ This prohibition against “forestalling” the Fair, although aimed directly against the Yarmouth merchants themselves, evidently applied equally to all persons coming from Lowestoft, or any other place, to buy herrings from ships in Kirkley Road. It was not, however, the intention of Parliament at this time to give any monopoly to Yarmouth; and within two years after the passing of this statute, we find that an ordinance was issued expressly exempting Lowestoft and Winterton from this prohibition. ”

“ These, in the growth of the nation have become obsolete. One profitable exemption, p. 42however, the townsmen yet enjoy, that is, from serving on juries, either at the assizes or quarter sessions.
Lowestoft has once seen a king: George II. landed here on his return from Hanover, January, 14th, 1736–7, and when the royal barge approached the shore, a body of sailors belonging to the town waded into the sea, took the barge and its freight upon their shoulders, and carried it to the beach. ”

“ The tradition that the Waveney, or a branch of it, used to enter the sea at Lowestoft, has been reproduced by several writers as part of a picture which represents Norwich and Beccles, and other places on the borders of our marshlands, as ports and fishing towns on the shore of a large inland sea or estuary over which ships sailed freely, and to which herrings innumerable used to pay their autumnal visit which they now confine to the sea outside. That the sea at some time flowed over at least a great part of this area is probably quite true. ”

“ When the foreign and west country fishing boats appeared in the Roads in the autumn, and the Lowestoft men went out, as usual, with their boats to buy herring from the ships at anchor off the denes, officers appeared from Yarmouth armed with authority from the Bailiffs, to enforce the new law, and to seize any ships selling or discharging herrings in contravention of their charter. ”

“ We shall understand somewhat better the picture which Domesday gives us of Lowestoft if we take a glance at the accounts which it gives of some other parishes in the immediate neighbourhood.
The parishes in Lothingland, in which the greatest number of estates are returned are Somerleyton, Lound, and Belton. I believe that these parishes contain the best agricultural land in the district. The church in Somerleyton is mentioned as having 20 acres of glebe belonging to it, but the parish priest—or parson as he was afterwards called—appears to have possessed a small manor of 40 acres in addition. ”