Lowestoft in olden times

by Francis Davy Longe

Old Chapels.

There appear to have been two chapels in the town at this time, which the people could attend while the parish church was closed—a very little one, the chapel of the “Good Cross” at the south end of the town, and a larger one in the centre of the town, which was replaced after the Reformation by a Protestant chapel. This chapel, after having been restored and enlarged in the 17th century, was in use until St. Peter’s Chapel was built, when it was given over to secular uses, and has been since appropriated by our Corporation as their Council Chamber.

Other Structural Relics.

We have a few other structural relics still surviving in very much their original condition, which belong to this period—probably to the early part of the 15th century. These are the old vaulted cellars, which are to be seen under houses near the Town Hall. There is nothing in these structures to fix precisely the time when they were built; but they have all the character of the 14th and 15th centuries. The bricks of which the groins are made are small and roughly moulded, and would appear to belong to an early date after the revival of brick-making—a trade which seems to have been beyond the capabilities of our ancestors from the time the Romans left the country to the beginning of the 14th century. The bricks in these cellars are similar to those which are to be seen in the Yarmouth walls, which we know were placed there in 1336, and which we are informed by old records cost 20s. a last—the cost of two bricks being equal to that of one red herring at the time. There are vaulted cellars under old houses in Norwich very similar to those at Lowestoft. A large cellar of this kind is to be seen in good preservation under the house known as “The Old Bridewell,” it having been used until comparatively recent times as an underground prison. This house was built by William Applegard, the first Mayor of Norwich, in 1404. The Lowestoft cellars were evidently the basements of separate houses; although near each other they are entirely disconnected. They are much smaller, and the groins less strongly constructed than those in the Mayor’s house at Norwich. The houses above them would also have been much smaller. The doorways into these cellars are arched, and not very long ago an ancient house was in existence above one of these cellars. This house had an arched doorway, which with the vaulted cellars underneath—so like the crypts of old churches, induced the belief that these houses had a monastic or ecclesiastic origin. The doorways in the Mayors house at Norwich were of the same form. Such features were common in houses of this period, and in no way imply any monastic origin. 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 order to form a tolerably correct idea of what our old town was at the beginning of the 15th century, we must dismiss altogether from our mind’s eye the large populous town with which we are acquainted, and picture to ourselves a village of small cottages with thatched roofs being gradually improved by the erection of houses of a better class. 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. They would also be doing a little business with their visitors in light merchandise, which could be brought in the fishing boats, or taken away after the season was over. Profit would also be made during the season in victualling the visitors’ ships. A few handicraft tradesmen and shopkeepers and a number of working men and sailors would complete the adult population. In fact the town would be very much what it was some 60 years afterwards in Elizabeth’s time, which will be the subject of our next lecture.

LECTURE III.
Lowestoft in Elizabeth’s Time.

Part I.—The Parish Register.

Part II.—Lowestoft and Yarmouth at the end of the XVI Century.

Part I.—The Parish Register.

Much light has been thrown on the character of Lowestoft some 300 years ago by the copies of the parish register, published in the “Parish Magazine,” which, I doubt not, many of you have been in the habit of studying. The existing parish register dates back to 1561. The first volume of the book, so to speak, which would tell us who were living or dying in Lowestoft in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, was unfortunately burnt in the fire which destroyed the old vicarage house in 1606. The register was kept from 1561 to 1583 by Mr. Benjamin Allen, the parish clerk. From this year to the end of our period it was kept by Mr. Stephen Philip, the first master of Mr. Annott’s school, of whom we shall speak again soon. Mr. Allen was probably one of the few persons in Lowestoft at the time who could write—at least, well enough to undertake such an important and responsible task. I cannot say much for his spelling, but variety rather than uniformity in spelling was as yet a fashion of the day. He belonged apparently to one of the upper, or as they would have said, one of the “bettermost” families in the town, which produced one of our naval heroes of the following century.