ROW 4 - (Palmer gives no name)
Wiltshire Arms Row, 1834 *2 (at N.E.corner)
Thornton the Grocer's Row *2
Ecclestone the Grocer's Row *2
Rolling's Row *2
"In Row 4 the walls on either side are mostly original, especially the wall on the south side. Although it is supported by both props and girders, its antiquity makes it of great interest. Again there is another old row door, a front door into the row which is labelled as no. 21, Row 4."
I was horrified to find in 1991, only a year after writing the above note, that the council had allowed the old south wall to be completely removed and replaced with modern brick. The door described also is not in current use . The front of this building has been rendered, to look as though it is stone squares, although the paint is peeling off, and it is currently in use as a bakery. The name above the shop-front is C.Rolling. The name on the front door of the shop is " G.A.Bales". This was the present incumbent's grandfather, Mr.(A.J.)John Bales is continuing the business.
"Rolling" was also the name on the machinery in the shop, used for rolling out biscuits. Perhaps these were the biscuits sold to the sailors. Four years ago*3 they pulled out a huge brick oven at the rear of the property inside the back wall, and some fifty tons of brick work were removed. There was no date on the oven, but Mr Bales thinks that it would have been put in around about 1830 when it first became a bakery. The present oven is a large oil fired one. I saw the staff making sausage rolls, meringues, tarts, bread and bread rolls. The back part of the present building was at first a separate cottage, and Mr Bales owned some property on the north side of the row, which had what he refers to as an "Angel Cupboard" in one room. -One of the painted Yarmouth cupboards which are in evidence in a few of the old buildings. The row had been known as Lambert's Row, from a grocer's on the north-east corner, or alternatively as Rolling's Row, from the bakery that I have just described. Mr.Bales tells me that his grandfather said that the shop was in use as a grain merchant's prior to his use of it as a bakery, or conversion of it should we say.
The house was re-roofed some 4 years ago, and the front was rebuilt in about 1890. A post-war dig in the area behind the house during the demolition of war damaged properties is said to have revealed some three sets of old footings at a depth underneath the row houses then existing. Most likely these are still present for archaeologists in the future, should someone wish to pursue further investigations. There are still a few Dutch gabled fronts around; very few, I should say. There used to be one on Clowse's establishment on Hall Quay, and there still remains one here in Northgate Street. It can be seen from Laing's 1855 survey that the Norfolk kitchen, formerly the grocers, was in 1855 and earlier "The Wiltshire Arms" public house, and Row 4 contained some 12 very small cottages on the north side, between Northgate Street and the cross row, and seven very small cottages on the south side, east of Cross Row. Many of these cottages were demolished before the war, since the 1935 photograph shows a Silver Jubilee party of 1935 in an open space between rows 4 and 5, and certainly no such space had existed in either the 1855 or the 1906 maps.
The "Norfolk Kitchen", at the north-east corner of Row 4, had been the "Wiltshire Arms" public house in 1850, and was still a pub in 1906. Much of the north side of the row was open space in Swinden's time, but by 1850 it was very much a residential row. Rollings rusk shop is at the S.E. corner, which manufactured Norfolk hollow biscuits.*2 This row is not mentioned in the 1936 survey. At the silver jubilee of King George V in 1935, there was a big celebration, and the inhabitants of rows 4 and 5 had an outdoor party, with tables set out in the space south and west of no.16, the space created some years earlier, when some of the buildings had been demolished. The party was attended by families living nearby, not exclusively from this row, but those from row 4 included: from no. 5, Mrs.England and her daughter Ethel; from no. 6, Tessie Rice, whose father, John Francis Rice, a Caister man, had at one time had a horse and cart in London, then worked for Purdeys, and at this time as a maltster for Watneys. He was a maltster 30 years, but eventually succumbed to asthma caused by his work. His wife Hannah survived him by many years, living into extreme old age at Admiralty Road.
Hannah Rice.
See printed work for details.
In the party photo., from no. 7, are seen Mr.and Mrs.Marshall, whose son George was a well known boxer at that time. Bella his wife was a chorus girl, but he pushed her down the stairs to her death when pregnant. He later married a blonde haired girl, who bore him two sons- Rodney and Ronnie; from no. 9, we see Mrs.Saunders; from no. 11, the mother of Mrs.Weldon, wife of Bert the grocer; from no. 12, Mrs.Ash, wife of Roland; from no. 13, Mrs.Clutton, wife of John, and sister of Mrs. Brunson, here from row 2 (no. 25, row 2); from no. 16, the house on the left of the photo, were Mrs. Wilgress and her daughter Doris. Also in the picture is the vicar from Gt.Yarmouth Parish Church, the Rev.Aitken, much loved, a man of the people. There is a memorial to him at the east end of the church, near to the alter. He was vicar during the period 1920-1941, dying on 14/12/41. His wife survived to see the re-consecration of the church in 1961, dying in 1962. The Rice family had been in the same house even before 1913, since Hannah Rice was the daughter of Michael Harvey. She previously married Michael Barber and had a daughter Louise, but Barber died in the first war, and Hannah took her child to live with her parents. One son, John, ("Joe") was in the army during the war, and later employed as a porter at St.Nicholas Hospital. He lived in extreme poverty, so it appeared, and after his mother's death he could not cope, but when he died in 1992 he left some £40,000, and no will! (died 24th. Nov 1992.) George Barber* and Hannah Myhill had seven children: Matilda (Tilly), was the eldest; then came- Hannah Louise, Hilda, Mary Bertha, Olive, Edward (Ted), and youngest was Isaac (*information amended 07.02.2009, see further detail). The girls were herring girls in the season,the rest of the year working at Grouts. This was entirely typical of those days, when one seasonal employment blended well with another. Also see re Barber's Wherry
In the picture of Hannah and her sisters, there were from the left, Hilda, Mary, Hannah, and Olive.
Tilly Harvey married a policeman by the name of Day. Millie, another daughter of Edward Harvey, attended one year, a Christmas Party at Johnson's Rooms. Using a candle to light the way when visiting the toilet, she caught fire to her dress. In her fright she ran out into the street and all the way down the row to the house, where the decorations and cards also caught fire. Taken to hospital by ambulance, she died from her burns in a bed next to another girl also called Tilley Day, who heself died - but in her case - of peritonitis.
Francis Rice had been born at Catfield, but went initially to London to work as a coachman. Wearing a top hat, he drove a horse and carriage for a Mr.and Mrs.Purdy.
Tessie Rice’s Wedding.
Francis Rice and his wife Hannah brought up five children at the row house- they were Tessie, born 16/12/20, who married John Ecclestone; Gladys, born 26/2/22; John; Sewell; and Arthur. Tessie and John Ecclestone had a daughter- Louise; Gladys and John remained single. Arthur's wife was Daphne, they were childless. Sewell married Sylvia and their son is Roger. In the wedding photograph, Tessie is in the white dress with pleats. To her left is Billy Ecclestone, brother of the bridegroom, then John Ecclestone, Arthur Rice, Hannah Rice, and on the extreme right of the photo is Jack Ecclestone, father of the bridegroom.
John Ecclestone worked for H. Holmes as a bricklayer when they built the estates at Gorleston and Caystreward, and also Havenbridge House. He suffered an accident with a dump truck that damaged his knee and caused a thrombosis. He later suffered a heart attack, dying suddenly in 1983. During the war he was moved to Fleetwood.
In 1913, William George Edwards lived at no. 14 on the south side. He was away in France in the first World War, where he is shown, second from the left whilst on active service. After returning to his wife and family, he worked for a while in the employ of Palgrave Brown the timber merchant. He and his wife Emma started their family well before the first war, the elder daughter, born in 1908, was Maud Lillian, pictured as a little girl, she appeared then to be about six years old, making the date of that picture, probably 1915. Also depicted are William Samuel, the oldest child, born in 1904, and their second daughter, Lillian Florence. Lillian Florence, who was born in 1913, is also seen as a handsome lass of perhaps 22 years,
Lillian Edwards.
but she died young, in 1948, whereas Maud Lillian lived until 15/9/92.
May Rose Edwards, seen at Northgate School, (extreme right) and the youngest, Sidney, were born post war, in 1920 and 1921.
Maud Edwards.
Their Grand-mother became ill, so their mother gave up work, and putting the two small children either end of the pram, their elder sister Maud wheeled them down to Louise Close, never to return to the row. As a result, William Edwards changed his employment, then working at Henry Sutton's fish house. Called out to all types of work there, at all times of day and night, he evidently contracted a chest complaint and after only a three day illness, died in 1937. His sister Lucy was an unmarried mother, of Tom. Another sister, Sarah, married Tom Clements, of row 3. There is a photo of May and Sidney in Louise Road, which is seen to have been a cobbled street in about 1926.
see also Row 27 Row Twenty Seven - Edwards
*2 Johnson, 1927
*3 written in 1990
Row Four, Occupants, 1886:
from Northgate Street
1. Page, C., labourer
2. Cook, C. wherryman
3. Rogers, W., carpenter
4. Smith, J. fish hawker
5. Crow, G., fisherman
6. Mace, Mrs.
7. Page, J.
8. Carr, W., labourer
9. George
10. Wilson, W. caulker
11. Warden, G., labourer
12. Woods, W., wherryman
13. Porteus, R.
14. Hubbard, Mrs.
15. Burton, F., beachman
16. Overton, Mrs.
Wales, Miss.
17 Fulcher, C., basket maker
Row Four, Occupants, 1913:
from Northgate Street
North side
1. King, Frederic
2. Tye, Mrs.
3. Pole, George
4. Balls, Samuel
5. Russell, Charles
6. Harvey, Michael
7. Cook, William
8. Mapes, William
9. Saunders, Walter
10. Rose, George A.
11. Wales, Mrs.
12. Sampson, Mrs.
South side
13. Plane, Arthur
14. Edwards, William George
15. Matthews, Henry
16. Mc Carthy, James
17. Wales, Mrs.
17 Edwards, Miss
Row Four, Occupants, 1927
from Northgate Street
North side
2. Cook, Harry
3. Pole, George
4. Hunter, Henry
5. England, William George
6. Rice, John Henry
7. Marshall Frederick Henry
8. Mapes, William
9. Saunders, Walter
10. Spivey, Arthur.
11. Weldon, Bert. Robert
12. Gaze, Charles Benjamin
South side
13. Baker, Bertie
14. Wright, William Charles
15. Patterson, Ernest
16. Willgress, Arthur
17. Lambert Charles William
18. Edwards, Miss
Row Four, Occupants, 1936
from Northgate Street
North side
2. Maskett, Frank
3. Pole, Mrs.
5. England, William George
6. Rice, John Henry
7. Marshall Frederick Henry
8. Runniff, Gilbert Nelson
9. Bargewell, William
10. Spivey, Arthur.
11. Weldon, Bert. Robert
12. Ash, Roland
South side
13. Clutton, John Alfred
14. Wright, William Charles
15. Porter, Alfred
16. Willgress, Arthur
17. Payne, Percy William
17 Clements, Thomas William George