1845.
Jan. 20th. Schooner “John,” of Jersey, stranded on the South Beach.
Jan. 26th. The yawl “Phœnix” and seven lives lost. Meeting convened on the 29th to relieve the widows and orphans left destitute.
April 16th. First stone of Unitarian Chapel, Middlegate Street, laid. Opened October 13th. Built on the site of the Old Meeting House.
May 2nd. Fall of the Suspension Bridge. 400 persons precipitated into the water, out of which number 79 were drowned. An immense crowd were attracted to the bridge and its precincts by a fête on the River Bure. The bill announcing the entertainment for the evening was headed, “Is it to be a benefit or not?” and underneath it a clown pointing to the above words. Then follows an address by Mr. Nelson as “a candidate for public favour,” who announces that “Friday night will be a grand banquet night,” and adds, “The following extraordinary fête will most positively be achieved, Mr. Nelson, the celebrated clown and modern Yorick, will sail on the River Bure, starting from Yarmouth Bridge to Vauxhall Gardens, at 5 o’clock on the above day in a common washing tub, drawn by four real geese, elegantly harnessed and caparisoned.” The tub was 18 inches deep. The annexed verses were on either side of a wood cut of the clown:—
Dear public, you and I of late
Have dealt so much in fun;
I’ll give you now a monstrous great
Quadruplicated pun—
Like a grate full of coals I’ll burn
A great full house to see;
And if I am not grateful too
A great fool I must be.
The following artistes were to appear at the Circus (a wooden structure on the Theatre Plain)—Master Barlow, the four sons of Siberia, Mr. Alfred Cooke, Signor Germani, Mr. Charles Adams, Mr. George Cooke, Madame Culine, and Mr. W. Cooke.
Sept. 24th. Mr. Henry Teasdel’s warehouses destroyed by fire.
Gorleston Wesleyan Chapel re-built.
Yarmouth exported 327,000 quarters of corn; and in 1855, 258,000 quarters.