The New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
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Introduction to the History of Old Great Yarmouth
The Historians and Histories, Chapter 4
Chapter Four, Maps and Plans of Yarmouth
perlustration\maps\Maps Master Link
The maps of the town from various periods have been important not only
in describing features of the town at different periods, but also because they
have had a distinct impression and influence upon the historians and their
writings. Therefore I make no apology for describing them, and critically
examining their relationship to the histories and to events. During the
sixteenth century, the fortifications of the town came under close scrutiny
because of the threat of invasion from Spain.
As a result, it was agreed by central government that the town should be
better protected, since it remained a most important naval base. A Royal
Charter provided for improvements to the protective curtain wall, and the
armament of the town. Rutledge drew
attention to the fact that the plan known as the “Hutch” map, which had been
presented to the town, (it came from the “Hutch Chest”
then in possession of Bailiff Bartlemews, and is kept at the town Hall at Great
Yarmouth), is in several details not the same as that later copied by John Ives
and Charles Palmer.[1] He supposed that there must have been a
second plan in existence. This is
indeed the case, since I found the plan in the Bodleian Library.[2]
The “Cottonian” Map is a pictorial
map of some importance, which is preserved in the Cottonian Collection, in the
manuscript room of the British Library.
It is a watercolour picture depicting the walls and towers in some
detail. It is on vellum tightly rolled
up in a cardboard box, and looks as fresh as the day that it was drawn. Notable on it are features not found on the
"Yorke" map. It was first
brought to attention by Charles Palmer.[3]
The “Yorke” Map of 1588, is preserved at Hatfield House, in the archives
of the Marquis of Salisbury. It is
signed by “E.Y.”, who is considered to be its author almost certainly the
Queen’s ordinancer, Edmund Yorke. There
are a number of important features on this non-scale, pictorial plan of the
defences. I suggest that it was drawn up as a proposal, rather than a
representation of an executed work.
There are good reasons for this supposition, as will be seen in a review
of the work of the twentieth century author B. St. John O'Neill.[4]
In 1942, B. H. St. John O'Neill and W. Edgar Stephens, published a short
treatise entitled A plan of the fortifications of Yarmouth in 1588. This treatise examines the nature of the
evidence provided by the map of fortifications drawn up by or for, the Queens
ordinancer, Edmund Yorke, having the initials “E.Y”. on it. An invasion was threatened from Spain, and a
survey of protective measures for the town of Great Yarmouth was carried out. The plan can be compared with the slightly
earlier Elizabethan plan that is preserved at the British Library. and with the
map of the following century by Henry Swinden, also with those parts of the
fortifications that remain today.
O'Neill and Stephens seem to have examined the plan by Yorke very
carefully, and describe it in detail, but they failed to examine the other
Elizabethan plan, and admitted to only examining superficially a small part of
the remaining wall in situ. As a result
their findings and suppositions are open to question. O'Neill and Stephens have made the assumption that the works as
per the “Yorke plan” were entirely executed. In reality there is evidence I
suggest, that they were only partly correct.
O'Neill and Stephens drew attention to the ravelins and the rampiring of
the walls. These features were also mentioned by Swinden and Manship. The Yorke plan also shows a moat around the
very edge of the entire length of the wall, something at variance with
Swinden’s accurate scale map of 1738/58 and also with recent archaeology. Swinden and Manship describe the licence for
a ditch, rather than a water filled moat. I suggest that such a moat would have
been most unwise, and not practicable.
The town is entirely built upon sand.
The evidence from the archaeological examination of the new sewer trench
in 1994 was that the original sand base of Yarmouth is undisturbed glacial
terminal outwash moraine, exactly the same ground make up as at Gorleston,
Caister, Cromer and Scole.[5] Norwich in contrast stands upon a chalk
hilltop standing “proud” through the deposit of glacial sand. I suggest that a
water filled ditch around the wall at Yarmouth would be extremely difficult to
keep full of water without the sides continually collapsing. The water would rapidly seep away in the sand,
and the walls themselves would be in extreme danger of collapse if surrounded
tightly by water as shown upon the Yorke plan.
Swinden, some one hundred and fifty years later shows a ditch much
further from the walls, and only running as far as the south side of the
“Pudding” gate. Swinden also made
another plan, of features outside the north wall. This second plan was a representation of the land use of an area
of 71 acres outside the north gate.
This plan was preserved by John Ives in his personal copy of Swinden’s
history,[6] and was brought to light by the owner of
that book, Norman Scarfe, in 1976. In this plan, the ditch is also shown
standing well away from the walls of the town, and clearly looks on the plan to
be a dry ditch.
Unless it was very rapidly removed, and never described in the written
histories, then it certainly appears that the ravelin at the north gate was
never built. The line of the surviving
ditch in Swinden’s plans makes no allowance for it. On the other hand, his accurate scale map of 1738 shows the
remains of a fortification rather further to the east, on the very far
north-east corner of the wall. This is
clearly drawn by Swinden and captioned by him as “the remains of an old fortification”
It does not tally with the Cottonian plan, and it is not shown upon the Yorke
plan, but it is exactly as though the detached ravelin “K” of the Yorke plan
had been built at the north-east corner instead of outside the Market Gate as
shown on the Yorke Plan. Some other
flourishes of wall that do not look very functional were already in this area
if we are to believe the Cottonian plan, and the materials furnished by these
would certainly have been most welcome.
The licence for a wall and ditch had been granted in 1260 by Henry III,
by letters patent, on 28th
Sept. in the 45th
year of his reign. Swinden
thought that the work was started in about the 13th year of the reign of Edward I, and finished
126 years later, in the tenth year of Richard II. The building of the wall was much delayed by the great plague of
1349. Henry Swinden quoted from an old
document “Besides, whereas for the aforesaid wall, there is granted by consent
of the commonality of the town aforesaid, a certain old wall, without the said
town, for the augmentation an expedition of the work aforesaid. There is paid by the hand of the said
wardens, the same year to Thomas Wency, Robert King and John Mole, breakers
down of the said sort of wall, at times, 40 shillings”.[7]
This appears to indicate the presence of some re-used in a new wall,
“and for the stones stone wall, constructed prior to 1260, broken down the same
year for the new wall, £1 19s l0d. The town wall ran for about 2,238 yards,
with ten gates and fifteen towers. Swinden
quoted Manship, saying “passable with boats and keels which did convey things
necessary for such as did inhabit upon the Deneside or east part of Yarmouth”[8] Just what
this may mean in terms of the ditch or moat seems to me to be unclear. There is no original document referred to in
this matter. Swinden also states that a
number of fines were levied upon persons for filling up the ditch with stones
or rubbish, but again doesn’t quote any actual documents, although from the
details given, it seems reasonable that they did indeed exist. Swinden, says that in the 36th
year of Henry VIII, war having been proclaimed against France and Scotland, a
special commission was directed to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, to examine the
fortifications of Yarmouth, and he ordered all the gardens adjacent to the wall
to be cleared, and a great part of the wall to rampired or backed by
earth. “Duke Thomas caused all the
little sand-hills on the Denes to be brought into the town and laid at the back
of the walls, and the whole town was thus strongly fortified against France and
Scotland within the space of 14 weeks”.[9]
In 1557, work to strengthen the walls with the earth backing resumed,
taking place three days a week until 1587, by which time they were banked on
the inside from Blackfriars to the Market Gate. A year later the Blackfriars and Priory walls were rampired as
well, and a ravelin on the east side of the Blackfriars was constructed (which
had been removed again long before Swinden described it.) In 1588, a boom was
constructed across the Haven, between two jetties. Outside the town, in 1590, east of the boom, and outside of the
South Gate, was built a mound of earth, much higher than the town wall, to
command the river and the denes, and on which was placed several large
cannon. The cost of raising this mound
was £125. This information appears to
have been gleaned by Swinden directly from Manship.[10] Similarly,
Manship had stated that the ruins of the charnel house of St. Nicholas church,
was used to build the lower walls of the mount by the New Gate in 1588. Although also on Swinden’s
map, on the Cottonian plan, the two market crosses are evident, but in
addition, the stocks, the windmills, the castle, and the ducking stool. The
towers show considerable accuracy of rendition, with their striking brickwork. Swinden
gave with his usual precision, the dimensions of all parts of the wall
and the breadths of its gates and towers, whereas dimensions are only artistic
on the Cottonian plan.
The left (North)
end of Henry Swinden's Map (1738)
The fort at Great Yarmouth was visited by Parson Woodforde on 4th June 1778,[11] and he was
able to fire four of the cannon himself.
In his notes, Robert Cory junior records that the fort included a
furnace for heating shot, installed during the French war, and that on Monday 5th May 1832, “the south bastion fell down with
a great crash, in consequence of alterations at the north pier. The influx tide was so rapid & scoured
the channel shore so powerfully that the sand was washed from its
foundations. This bastion was gradually
undermined, and the face fell, leaving a breach of about 10 feet”.[12] There is an
engraving of the fort in Preston’s Picture of Great Yarmouth. The design for the fort is referred to by
David Papillon in his book of 1645 as an “avant gardes”, and Frank Quant, in a
letter to C.J.N.Trollope, written from the University of Liverpool 22nd February 1982 describes the design as “quite
phallic” but “useful because they would have allowed the garrison to double up
on the number of guns firing at any specific target”. He also sees “no reason
why C.J.Palmers stated date (of 1653) for the building of the castle should not
be correct”.[13] Preston’s Picture
of Great Yarmouth however tells us that “upon a square stone in the wall,
upon the north side, appears ‘1653’, the year in which this fortification is
supposed to be built”.[14] The date therefore
seems to have been noted from the stone plaque on the building itself.
It can be seen from these descriptions that the various historians
generally took their own viewpoint, and used maps features or documents to
provide a confirmation of their work.
The possibility that the features might be in error or conjectural seems
not to have been contemplated.
[1]Paul Rutledge, “Thomas Damet and the Historiography of Great Yarmouth”, Norfolk Archaeology, vol.xxxiii, (1965) p119.
[2]Bodleian Library, “Plan of the view between Yarmouth and Lowestoft”, MS Maps, England, a.2.30629.
[3]British Library, map of Great Yarmouth circa 1590, MS Cotton 7594.
[4]B. H. St. J. O’Neill, and W. E. Stephens, “A Plan of the Fortifications of Yarmouth in 1588", Norfolk Archaeology, (1946), 28, pp.1-6.
[5]Mark Rumble, The New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, (Breydon Books; Great Yarmouth, 1994). I, p4.
[6]Yarmouth Archaeology Bulletin (no.43, December 1976) p.4.
[7]Henry Swinden, The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Borough of Great Yarmouth in the County of Norfolk, (John Crouse, Norwich; 1772) p.80.
[8]Henry Swinden, The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Borough of Great Yarmouth in the County of Norfolk, (John Crouse, Norwich; 1772) p.99.
[9]Henry Swinden, The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Borough of Great Yarmouth in the County of Norfolk, (John Crouse, Norwich; 1772) p.92.
[10]H. Manship (junior), History of Great Yarmouth, ed. C. J. Palmer, (Gt.Yarmouth; 1854)
[11]Rev. James Woodforde (1758-1802), The Diary of a Country Parson ed. J. Beresford (5 volumes;1924-31)
[12]Great Yarmouth Central Library, C3075, p.146.
[13]Letter from School of Architecture, Leverhulme Building, Liverpool, 22nd. February 1982, P. G. Trett’s Collection, 80 Victoria Road, Great Yarmouth, filing cabinet 1.
[14]Preston, Picture of Great Yarmouth, (1819) p.161.