And, again, in the 36th of Charles II. a new charter was granted to Great Yarmouth, wherein the said incorporation was confirmed, and other grants and privileges subjoined; and was afterwards confirmed again by another charter, granted in the reign of Queen Anne, and remains incorporated to this day.
It appears from what has been premised, that this island, as part of the ancient demesne of the crown, was held in the time of Edward the Confessor, by Earl Guert; in the time of William the Conqueror, by Earl Warren; [12a] and in the time of Henry III., by Roger Fitz-Osbert [12b] afterwards it descended to the Baliols; but, upon John de Baliol’s renouncing his homage to Edward I. and thereby forfeiting all his English estates, it again reverted to the crown, and king Edward I. in the 34th year of his reign gave the island to his nephew John de Britainy, earl of Richmond, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the greatest part of the island belonged to Sir Henry Jerningham [12c] In the reign of Charles II. the part contiguous to Gorleston was in the hands of Sir Robert Paston, knight.
History informs us, that the island of Lothingland has experienced a variety of vicissitudes from the irruptions of the sea; and that the coast which is washed by the German Ocean, was, in former ages, very different in its appearance from which it is at present. A large arm of the sea, at the time when the Romans were in Britain, extended itself, on the north side of the island, several miles westward of the ground whereon Yarmouth is now situated; and the mouth of the Yare, or, rather, arm of the sea, at that time, was very large, and discharged itself into the ocean by two channels, (being separated by the sand-bank on which Yarmouth was afterwards built) the one near Caister, and the other near Gorleston. It is highly probable that before the Christian era, this extraordinary effect of the secret operations of the ocean, had not commenced; and that previous to that period, the Yare discharged itself into the sea by one channel only.
The reason why this sand-bank was not formed before that time, is one of those secrets of Providence which, to us, continues unexplored.
The north-east winds appear to have been the apparent cause of forming the sand-bank at the mouth of that river; and is an inconvenience to which it is subject, even at this present time.
The original name of the bank was, the Cerdick Sand; from Cerdick, a warlike Saxon, who, about the year 495, landed here; and who, after having routed the opposing Britons, and greatly harassed the Iceni with a very grievous war, sailed to the western parts of Britain, where he founded the kingdom of the West Saxons.
The mouth of the former of these channels being entirely choaked up by the north-east winds, the whole stream fell, afterwards, into the latter; and this last-mentioned channel having its entrance so frequently blocked up by the sand-banks formed by these winds, that its course was greatly altered, and extended a considerable distance to the south of Gorleston, before it was able to discharge itself into the sea. These obstructions still continuing, the mouth of the haven kept proceeding still further to the south, till, at last, it reached even to the south of Corton, before it was able to force its passage into the ocean.
The mouth of the haven, from these obstructions, being carried thus far to the south, and having such numerous sands and shallows formed therein, especially between the 10th and 20th of Edward III, that its navigation became extremely dangerous, and but few ships of burthen could enter there with safety; and, consequently, was so detrimental to Yarmouth, that it greatly affected the trade, which for many years had subsisted there, as well as the commerce of the adjacent country.
Whereupon, the bailiffs, burgesses, and commonalty of Great Yarmouth, presented a petition to king Edward III, in the 20th year of his reign, for liberty to cut a new mouth to the haven, nearer to Yarmouth than it was at that time; which petition being granted, a new communication with the ocean was accordingly opened, and confined with piers, opposite to the parish of Corton. This great undertaking was accomplished at an immense expense, and was confined to this place for the space of twenty-six years; (46th of Edward III), when it began again to be so much choked up with sand, that no vessels of any considerable burden could enter, but were obliged to unload their cargoes in an adjoining place, called Kirkley Road, which was near the mouth of the said haven. The king, being informed of the great difficulties which the town of Great Yarmouth laboured under, from the dangerous state of its haven, and how utterly unable they were thereby rendered of paying the fee-farm rent due to his majesty, from the great quantity of merchandise that was obliged to be unladen in the adjoining place called Kirkley Road, and which, by that means, escaped paying the usual customs to Yarmouth, his majesty, in consideration of these misfortunes, was pleased to grant a charter for uniting the said Road of Kirkley unto the port and haven of Yarmouth; [13a] upon condition, that the said burgesses of Great Yarmouth would pay to the king and his successors, an additional rent of 100s. yearly: and also granted unto the said burgesses full power to demand and receive the same duties in the said Kirkley road, as in the port and haven of Yarmouth, for ever. [13b]
It is very evident, to an attentive observer, that the whole of the flat country, which lies between Caister and Burgh, extending about four miles, and forms a considerable part of the water called Braydon, was once covered by the German Ocean; and that the mouth of the Yare, at that time, was an estuary, or arm of the sea, and extended, with considerable magnitude, for many miles up the country. Tradition, the faithful preserver of many a fact which history has overlooked or forgotten, confidently and invariably asserts it; and the present appearance of the ancient bed of the river, from Yarmouth to Harleston, in Norfolk, tends to confirm it. Probably the points of land whereon Beccles, Bungay, and Homersfield are situated, and which protruded themselves into the ancient river, might serve as convenient situations for placing beacons and other signals, announcing the approach of an enemy, at the time when the Romans, Saxons, and Danes invaded and gained possession of the island; and might, from thence give birth to the origin of those towns. The case may be the same in respect to other places situated on points of land on the borders both of the Yare and the Waveney. What is here suggested may receive farther confirmation from an inspection of the above ancient map of Garienis Oestium, or mouth of the Yare, as given in the Ives’s Garianonum, [14a] which represents this part of the country as it appeared in the year one thousand; and which, also, affords considerable assistance in forming a just conception of the ancient boundaries of these rivers, at the time when the Romans and other foreign invaders were in possession of this island.