Lowestoft in olden times

by Francis Davy Longe

The operations of nature which have brought about the filling up of the hollows in the glacial land have been (1) the flow of water from wide drainage areas in Norfolk and Suffolk carrying silt into the lower parts and depositing it there,—(2) the incessant action of the sea in building up a shore boundary against itself, and blocking up the gaps in the glacial highlands through which its waters would flow inland. This action of the sea on our eastern coast is due to the inexhaustible supply of sand and shingle which is being constantly pushed along the shore southwards by the tidal wave. How persistent is the action of the sea in blocking up every outlet, whether river or harbour mouth, which man would wish kept open, has been a matter of costly experience to Yarmouth for some 800 years, as it has been to the Great Eastern Railway Company during the short time that they have undertaken the task of keeping open the mouth of Lowestoft Harbour.

The Waveney.

The ground formed by the deposit of alluvial soil from the interior, and the drifting inwards of sand and shingle from the sea is in some places not easily distinguishable from the old glacial ground on which it has been imposed. As regards land well above high water mark, no doubt can arise however similar the sand of which it is composed may be to the sand on our shores. Such deposits must have been formed before the land had risen to its present level. But as regards deposits which are beneath or nearly on a level with high water mark, on the edge of what is now water or marsh-land, the difference in their origin may be difficult to ascertain and easily overlooked. The sand in our cliffs and on the shore is indeed the same:—the sea using the material which it has robbed from some projecting cliff, to fill up some bay or make an addition to the land to the southward. That the supposed ancient outlet between Lake Lothing and the sea was blocked up by sand and shingle in the same way as other outlets along the coast, was a very reasonable supposition, until the cutting of the channel for the new harbour disclosed a ridge of old glacial soil between the head of the lake and the sea, extending across the dip between Lowestoft and Kirkley, which proved that no deep river had ever flowed out there. This ridge was excavated to a depth of 30 feet below high water mark. “It consisted” Mr. Edwards tells us “not of horizontal stratified sand and shingle, as was found on the beach, but of precisely such strata of sand, as that of the rising ground on either side of the valley, the like of which may now be seen on Pope’s Farm.”

Although this ridge was too high to admit of a deep river running into the sea from Lake Lothing, it was not so high as to prevent a shallow overflow from the lake on to the beach, producing a small channel, between the lake and the sea. Evidence of the existence of such a channel in remote times has been preserved by its having been adopted as a boundary between the parishes of Lowestoft and Kirkley. It appears from an old enclosure map, that the boundary at this part had varied, as the channel shifted from north to south, until it reached the rising ground of Kirkley Cliff, where it formed the line of the existing boundary.

Tradition assigns to this part the name of Kirkley “Haven;” and the fact that the Roads along the coast from Pakefield to Yarmouth had in very remote times acquired the name of “Kirklee Road” is proof that Kirkley must have been known to sailors more than the other villages on the cliffs. It is probable that the low coast, and its proximity to the Roads, to which ships resorted for anchorage in remote times as in recent years, led to it being used by sailors as a convenient place for communication with the shore; which would be quite sufficient to give it the name of “Kirkley Haven,” whether any use was or was not made of the little channel in question as a waterway for boats or other light craft.

After the fens had been reclaimed, and converted into pasture lands, it became necessary to protect them from the inundation of the extraordinary high tides which occurred occasionally in ancient times, as now, under the influence of a prolonged spell of north west wind. An embankment or “fortification” was erected along this ridge with the object of preventing any irruption of the sea though Lake Lothing into the interior. We have a full account of the measures taken in 1660 for the reparation of a former embankment in the same place. In Queen Elizabeth’s time Lake Lothing was purely a freshwater lake, and it was called “The Freshwater” by Lowestoft people. The ordinary outlet for the water was not towards the sea, but through Oulton “Fen” into the Waveney. Camden writing at this time describes Lake Lothing as—

“That long and spacious Lake Lothing, which beginning at the seaside empties itself into the river Yare.”

A similar ridge of glacial deposit extending between Oulton Broad and Lake Lothing, formed the foundation of the ancient and existing roadway which connects Lothingland with the mainland. This ridge placed another effectual bar to the outflow of the waters of the Waveney Valley in this direction, though here again there seems always to have been a small shallow dip, the old “Mud-ford,” through which the water on either side was connected. No such ridges blocked the wide mouth of the estuary at Yarmouth, which was open for the flow of water out and in until the sea had blocked it up with an accumulation of sand and shingle to the depth—Mr. Edwards says—of some hundred feet.

the silting up of the estuary.

The natural process by which the valley of the Waveney became gradually filled up with silt, and covered with aquatic vegetation is carefully explained by Mr. Edwards. How many thousands of years the process was going on before nature had converted the wide and apparently deep estuary into an expanse of fen and bog, with the Waveney, the Yare, and the Bure, flowing through it in well defined channels we know not; but Mr. Edwards mentions an interesting fact showing that nature’s process of substituting land for water is still in progress. We know that some hundreds of years ago man took advantage of the work already done by nature, and converted these fens and morasses into dry marshlands by raising banks along the river sides to keep out the flood and tidal waters. Between these banks and the river there are margins several yards in breadth called “rands” or “ronds.” These rands have been left open to the overflow of the river, and they are found to be raised from one to two feet above the level of the inclosed lands on the other side of the banks. Another process by which nature has been and is still slowly substituting land for water is the advance of the reedy margins of the broads and the gradual diminution of the water area.