BLACKFRIARS ROAD
Gladys
Hogg from Row 139 (Paget's), married
Leslie Gibbs, the son of the Butcher in Blackfriars Road. Gibbs owned
the house on Blackfriars Road, looking up the Road towards the north. The shop
can be seen in the picture.
The
rooms above the shop were used for store rooms. Gibbs father died, and left two
other sons, George and Norman, and a daughter, Joan. The other son, Norman,
took a butchery business in Lowestoft.
The fishmerchant, Howes, can be seen on the boat evacuating people in
the flood. There was never a cellar, but the shop was flooded, and suffered
some damage. In 1972, the shops and
houses were all demolished, and the modern square flats now seen were erected
by the council. There was another butcher across the road‑ Mays. Between
them they supplied meat to the whole of the south of the town. The Gibbs also
delivered meat to Belton.
Middleton's
had one of their newsagent's shops in Blackfriars Road. The Blackfriars Post office, now run by
Sidney and Marjorie Critoph, was started by Mr.Welch, who had the Middlegate post office until it closed.
The building was owned by the Leslie
Gibbs. Child's newsagents shop was at
one time a butchers. The Gibbs family
all stayed in the town during the war.
Gladys and Leslie had one son, also Leslie, who has married Diane. They
have two boys, Iain and Niall.
Fred
Bultitude lived with his Aunt Hilda at 132 Blackfriars Road whilst still at
school. He took an interest in the Jew's cemetery, and although only a young
lad and with difficulty getting about, he voluntarily kept the burial ground
clear. He expressed a desire that there should be a history of the burial
ground at the site, and that it be better looked after.
Augustus
Wilson (2nd.), had a shop in Blackfriars Road, his father having the shop in
Middlegate. He was trained as a carpenter, and in the second war went with
Boulton and Paul building the R.A.F. stations. In 1951 he was the foreman for
Bovis, re-building the Marks and Spencer Store. He was photographed by
P.E.Rumbelow at the bottom of the excavated hole awaiting the foundations.
(described in the opening treatise) He was also on the team building Erie
resistor. His father Augustus had been in the team building the Watney's
maltings before 1900. His son augustus was in the construction crew re-building
St.Nicholas Church in the 1960's. There are photos of all these construction crews.
Percy
Brown, father of Doris, son of a lifeboatman, followed in his father's
footsteps, assuming the father's position on retirement. This then meant a move
to Gorleston to live near to the life-boat shed. He had to be within ready
cycling distance. In those days the crew owned shares in the boat. His father,
John Brown, was master of the dredger
the "Industry"*3. This dredger was used in the river, and the mud
dumped into "hoppers", barges that then took the mud to be dumped out
at sea. In the first war he was in the
navy, serving on H.M.S. Inflexible a battle-cruiser, which was in the Falkland
Islands during 1916-17. In the second war he joined the merchant navy. John was
married to Basilesa Bream of row 59, a beatster.
*3 photo G.Y.M., 7th.April 1989.