The Old General Hospital

The Great Yarmouth General Hospital was initially a voluntary hospital*3 not only for the Borough of Gt.Yarmouth, but also for the East and West Fleggs, also Mutford and Lothingland Hundreds. It started as a dispensary established by philanthropic gentlemen in Gt.Yarmouth in 1822. At a meeting on 31st.May 1838, it was decided to establish a small hospital for the area. In due course funds were acquired by legally appropriating the "members contribution fund" of the council, which was money to provide for widows and orphans of councillors and Aldermen. In 1822 the hospital was just a dispensary in Queen Street. On 28th.June 1839, William Steward proposed "that a fund be raised towards erecting or purchasing a suitable building for carrying on the establishment." A month later, the land at chapel mount was applied for, and the council granted a lease for 75 years. By the generosity of an unknown contributor, a south wing was added in 1854, at a cost of £800. In 1887, the governors acquired the freehold of the land, and other land to the south. The hospital was rebuilt commencing 7th.March 1887, with the foundation stone laid by the Prince of Wales on 18th.May 1887, the hospital being opened by Sir James Paget on 20th.September 1888. In 1896, the hospital was enlarged by the addition of a new ward for female patients, which was erected on the site of the former out-patients department. The last addition was made in 1910, when the children's ward was built as a memorial to King Edward VII, whose name it bore. In 1939 the hospital was treating over 400 in‑patients per annum, and annual out‑patients of nearly 4,800, at a running cost of £3,200 per year.

Wartime with walls of sandbags

Doris Allen (ex row 108) lived at the house on the carpark now behind Pyper's Chemists, then no.38 Deneside, a house with bay widows on the ground and first floor, and a plain window on the third floor, looking directly down Lancaster Road. The bomb that flattened ten houses south of row 126 destroyed this house. Doris was still living with her mother, they had moved out of the house next to the cobbler's where her father had had his business in row 108. There was a passage between no.38 and the next house north, that was also destroyed. At the north side of row 126 on Deneside, where the lorries now deliver the beer to the club, was a small dairy where there were kept a number of St. Bernard dogs! Numbers 39 and 40 Deneside were demolished by a bomb that fell during a raid on Thursday 27th. February 1941. This raid started at about 2.30 P.M., a raider flying from east to west across the town dropped a stick of 18 bombs, the first of which destroyed Reynolds garage in Apsley Road. St.Peter's Vicarage suffered damage at the front and the back. Amongst other buildings, Kay's grocers in King Street was wrecked*4.

William Weldon, (see Northgate Street) born 1922, lived at a house with a small courtyard, behind the methodist chapel. (no.29) Later they moved to no. 21. Weldon’s Uncles, Bert. and Harry, were the grocers in Northgate Street, a business which they set up. His father, Frank, worked for Grouts, and then for the hauliers‑ Andrews. Frank's wife Ethel, came from Beccles. William's brother Stanley, worked for Frank Johnson at Johnson's factory. At Weldon's grocers in Northgate Street worked Mr.Nichols, who, when the Weldon brothers died, bought the business off his aunt. His wife, Annie Nichols is now a widow, living at 134 Mill Road, Cobholm. At the age of 14, William went to work at Mumford's building workshop, which is now Bird's wickerwork factory between King Street and Deneside.

In 1937 St.Peter's school was being used as a physical culture club, and after the war it was pulled down.

At No.21 Deneside, during the war there was an Anderson shelter outside in the little yard.

*3 ref.Peggotty's annual, 1939.

*4 W.H.Codd's Diary, vol.III, p