Lowestoft in olden times

by Francis Davy Longe

It was at this time that she was brought into prominence by a long Parliamentary contest with Yarmouth about the right to buy and land herrings at Lowestoft from foreign and west country fishermen anchored in the roads opposite her shore, then called Kirkley Road.

That you may understand the full import of the circumstances which brought about this contest with Yarmouth we must take a glance at the history of that town up to that period.

Rise of Yarmouth.

The origin of Yarmouth is unique; the bar of a wide Estuary, a sandbank in the sea, seized upon for human habitation before even nature herself had trusted it with any vegetation beyond a few patches of marram grass to bind the sand together.

Who the bold fishermen were—whether Angles or Danes (probably Danes) who first dared to build cottages on such a site we know not, nor when the occupation of this sandbank first began. The name of the “Cerdick Sands” which the Saxons had given it, implies that it was well above water in the earliest part of the Saxon period, whether Cerdick did or not pay his traditionary visit to this spot. It must have been in that condition several years before the time of Edward the Confessor, when, as we have already learnt from Domesday, Yarmouth was a town of some wealth and importance. The following well approved tradition of the origin of Yarmouth is given by an old writer (Jeakes) in his History of the Cinque Ports.

“Beside the staple trade of these towns (the Cinque Ports) consisting much in fishing, not only of fresh fish at home, but of herring every year in the season thereof at Yarmouth, where bringing them ashore in the sale and delivery among the multitude, divers differences and stirs arose for want of a settled order in that town, or as tradition still reports, before there was any town or any show of a town than some huts and cabins set up near the waterside like the booths and huts in a fair; and that during the time of the herring fair there the Ports were forced to agree and join together yearly to elect and send thither their Bailiffs to abide there during the herring season allowing them a certain sum for their expenses.”

The rapid growth of Yarmouth from a few fishermen’s “huts and cabins” to one of the most important and populous sea ports in the country was evidently due to her great natural advantages. She possessed a large and deep harbour, with a long natural quay, the inside face of the sandbank. Her position commanded the entrance to four rivers which were navigable by light craft for many miles into Norfolk and Suffolk. Last but not least the town was most conveniently situated as a rendezvous for fishermen coming from the Cinque ports, and other places in the South of England, as well as from France and Holland to take part in the autumnal herring harvest.

From William the Conqueror downwards our Kings were well aware of the importance of Yarmouth, for the defence of the East Coast, and of the value of the herring fishery. Charters and ordinances were issued to regulate the autumnal Herring Fair, and to insure its being conducted on strictly free-trade principles, while the Yarmouth merchants made good use of their position as the seat of the trade, and produced in a few years a fleet of ships and sailors, which in Edward the III.’s time was able to take a leading part in our naval history.

We first hear of Yarmouth’s naval exploits in her quarrels with the Cinque Ports. After Yarmouth had obtained “Home Rule” under the charter of King John, she resented being any longer nursed by the Barons of the Cinque Ports, in the management of the autumnal Herring Fair, and she grudged the rights given to the western fishermen to use her harbour and her denes during the season for their own advantage.

In times when it was a common practice for Parliament and the Crown to give special privileges to towns or other bodies, without providing any adequate means for securing their enjoyment, the practice of taking the law into your own hands, which is proverbially a mistake in these days, was the only means by which the possessors of privileges could maintain them, and accordingly we find Yarmouth and the Cinque ports repeatedly engaged in what can only be described as naval wars, arising from some conflict in the provisions of their respective charters.