ROW 9 - BESSEY'S HALF ROW *1

The Occupants, Row Nine, 1886

(from Fuller's Hill to North Quay)

1. Hall, G., shoemaker

2. Howes, J., mariner

3. Sewell, Mrs., mangler

4. Bacon, Mrs.M.

5. Webster, Mrs.

6. Crisp, G., fisherman

7. Barrett, Mrs.

8. Parker, J., bricklayer

9. Barrett, Mrs.

The Occupants, Row Nine, 1913

(from 14 Fuller's Hill to North Quay)

North side

1. Kerrison, William

2. Todd, William

5. Cushing, Adam

6. Baldwin, Mrs.

7. Hawkins, John

South side

12. Ashby, Frank

10. Harding, Frederick

9. Spinks, Ernest William.

The Occupants, Row Nine, 1927

(from 14 Fuller's Hill to North Quay)

North side

1. Grimmer, William

2. Todd, William

5. Read, Charles, William

7. Pestell, Arthur

8. Anderson, Mrs.E.

South side -

9. Hanton, Charles

10. Crowe, George

11. Hodgson, Harry

12. Saunders, Daniel Charles

The Occupants, Row Nine, 1936

(from 14 Fuller's Hill to North Quay)

North side

1. Spurgeon, Richard Alfred

2. Todd, Mrs. (still there!)

3. Wells, Sidney

5. Pilgrim, Arthur

6. Bacon, Mrs.Elizabeth

7. Pestell, Arthur

South side

9. Hanton, Charles

10. Vince, David Ellis

11. Hodgson, Harry

12. Eke, Charles Victor

Fuller's Hill

Fuller's Hill became the roadway leading from North Quay to the end of Northgate Street, although it originally did not run as far west, since it only ran as far as the end of Row Nine.

Fuller's Hill was in the seventeenth century, the residence of some prominent people in Yarmouth, including Sir Thomas Meadowe, who was recommended by Charles 1st. to be elected to the office of Bailiff. Thomas Meadowe, the father of Sir Thomas, had been elected in 1617, 1629 and 1638. His son Sir Thomas Meadowe also entered the Corporation, and was friendly with Sir John Wentworth of Somerleyton Hall. He was responsible for paying one thousand pounds of ship money gathered from the Yarmouth citizens to Sir John Wentworth, but had resisted this. Sir John Wentworth was the High Sheriff at the time. Sir Thomas Meadowe had lands in Herringfleet, and owned the Manor at Herringfleet which he had built in 1650, and also re-built the great barn there. In 1662 he was selected to fill the office of bailiff, and at that time the townsfolk disowned Henry Cromwell as High Steward, and elected in his place Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor. Whilst in office Sir Thomas entertained the Bishop of Norwich, Lord Townshend, Lord Richardson, Sir William D'Oyley and the Dean of Norwich, and provided an "entertainment extraordinary" for Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of Commons. This cost thirty five pounds.

In 1682 he was once again bailiff, and had to personally attend the King in Council on the affairs of the town. In his house at Yarmouth he had the Earl of Yarmouth as a guest, when the latter came to be sworn in as High Steward. Palmer also relates how Sir Thomas Meadowe, as prime bailiff and his colleague Nathaniel Symonds, at that time the junior bailiff, had a squabble as the duties which were in dispute. Nathaniel Symonds will be mentioned in the matters concerning 55 King Street and the White Lion public house. On the south side of Fuller's Hill, adjoining Conge Street, towards the west, Sir Thomas Meadowe had a Brewery, which he purchased from Augustin Bloomfield. This was probably the oldest Brewery in the town according to Palmer, and was conveyed in 1698 to Christopher Brightin, beer brewer. Sir Thomas Meadowe's house was rebuilt in 1642. He had obtained leave to extend the walls so far as the former buttresses projected, and to enclose a piece of ground to the west. At that time the only substantial piece of building on Fuller's Hill with a large piece of ground enclosed is that on the south end of Fuller's Hill to the west of George Street. (This is the site of the former Zebra bus depot, now divided into Comet and the D.I.Y. shop.) The only substantial building that might have been Sir Thomas' brewery would be that on the south-west end of Row Eleven, in the middle of the site which is now Brewery House, or the Brewery Stores, previously the Falcon Brewery; eventually this absorbed Row Thirteen.

Brewery Street is on the site of what was formerly rows

seventeen and eighteen, at Sayer's Corner. Fuller's Hill was originally much higher and was thought traditionally to be the oldest part of the town where the settlement first began. Even in Palmer's time the road had been much lowered for the convenience of traffic, and the houses on the south side became much elevated above it. These houses are evident in the photographs of Fuller's Hill, as it was then; these houses have of course all been entirely swept away, and the space between Row Ten and Row Nine completely obliterated and filled by the road. Here the Surveyor's plans showing the outline where the road was to be prior to demolition, are most useful.

Fuller's Hill passage would now be situated in the car-park on the north side of Fuller's Hill. Lacon's brewery, mentioned above, was one of the first premises to be connected to the telephone, in 1888, and had the number - Yarmouth 12. At the foot of the hill at the west end of Fuller's Hill there was an old public house called the "Sawyer's Arms". This was destroyed by fire in 1841, and a new house erected on the site called "The Albion", and then set back eight feet in order to widen the road, which had been very narrow. The Albion public house can be seen on the 1797 and 1906 maps, becoming wedge shaped as re-built after the 1841 fire. This pub. is seen as a rather square Georgian style building with very tall chimneys in the 1880 photograph, looking over the top of the hill. The large house likely to have originally belonged to Thomas Meadowe, can easily be seen in the photograph to the left of the Albion. Immediately in front of this was George Street, commencing with no. 116. Rather nearer, the next houses situated on the very high ground faced by a wall and which were approached by steps, are seen in three photographs, one with a gathering of people, and one with a clear view of the south side, showing the "Jolly Waterman", which was closed in 1903. The Jolly Waterman was no. 32 Fuller's Hill, and on the elevated piece were nos. 34, 35, 36 and 37. There was a passage-way between nos. 35 and 36, the entrance to which looked like a doorway, but which had no door and passed under no. 36. nos. 38 and 39 had a double shop front, 38 had a bay window, 39 had a flat window with many panes, no. 40 was the square two-storey house with the sign board in front, and what looks in the photo. like a passage way goes into a yard as seen from the surveyor's drawing, on the 1906 plan. No. 41 can then be seen which is a rather pretty georgian private house. No. 116 George Street, looked very dilapidated indeed, possibly empty and semi-derelict, judging from the state of the windows. As seen on the surveyor's plan, no. 116 had the corner cut off. I feel that this must have been demolished earlier in order to improve the view into Fuller's Hill. It looks in a better state in the 1880 photograph, but has all its main windows looking east, and a very small window with a rounded top at ground floor level- or between floors; perhaps on a stairway looking north into Fuller's Hill. Between this house, (no. 116) and Sir Thomas Meadowe's house there appears tohave been a fairly tall garden wall. No. 31 had a first floor platform, projecting into Fuller's Hill, which must have been used for loading carts - perhaps there was a grain loft.

Irene Newman*3 lived at the Albion from the age of 7 with her family (1929) until she was in her twenties, at which time the old Inn was demolished to enlarge the roadway. The house had already lost its licence as described by Harry Johnson, and had been lived in by the vagrants, so it was in a poor state. Her brother aged 18 did all the decorating, and subsequently became ill. The Newman family comprised seven girls, three boys, and their parents. There were four large bedrooms on the first floor, and they used these rather as dormitories, with 2 cots and 2 beds in one room. The Council owned the house then, and when they later pulled it down, Irene

was moved to Milton Road. In a modern house (no. 3) on the north side, (modern as described by Palmer) Dr.Alfred Impey commenced practice in Yarmouth as a physician, and obtained considerable eminence. He died in 1852 at Cove Hall, Suffolk, at the residence of his Father in Law, William Everett Esq., at the early age of thirty eight. There was a mural monument to his memory in the south aisle of St. Nicholas Church, with an inscription on brass "Erected By Friends Who Appreciated His Worth And Abilities". At the south-east corner stood an old house which in 1751 was the property of John Hurry, and was occupied by Martha Palmer, widow. It was re-built as two dwelling houses in 1777 by John Vout, liquor merchant*4, and they were partially pulled down in order to widen the approach to Fuller's Hill. In 1903 Mr.Howes removed the mound and demolished some cottages to make way for the widening of Fuller's Hill.*5 These must have been either 41 and 42 Fuller's Hill, or possibly what was subsequently shown as 16 Church Plain. These buildings are again seen on this corner during the demolition taking place in January 1971. There are two photos showing D.H. Folkes' Antiques Shop and the Public House to its left or south side in Brewery Plain. Previously the Folkes' shop seems to have been the Tobacconist behind the belisha beacon in the 1930's photographs. Buttings is no. 42. -the number can clearly be seen. The end house in Fuller's Hill on the south side (no. 41) is Cubitt's Yarmouth Bloaters and Kippers. In Northgate Street at the south end, on the west side, we still of course have the Crystal Public House, on the corner of Fuller's Hill. nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 remain much as they were. There is now a Hairdressers at no. 2. Nos. 3, 4 and 5 are Cox's Jewellers. No. 6 was owned by Mr. Doughty, no. 7 was in 1991 Keith Lawson's Antique Clocks, and no. 10 is part of Wheatley's establishment, the Antique Merchants.

*3. interview, 1991.

*4. John Vout was referred to as owning houses on the corner now called Brewery Plain, and owned the King's Head public house on the east side of Northgate Street.

*5. ref. Ecclestone's extracts.

FULLER'S HILL : Occupants 1874

North side

1. Parker, William, wine and spirit merchant

1. Deeks, Thomas, Ham curer

3. Bensley, Thomas, Ham carpenter, "Impey House"

4. Goose, James, gardener

5. Goffin, Alfred, marine stores

6. Emes, Suzanna

Fuller's Passage

1. Wisker, John, marine stores

2. Pillow, Charles, carter

3. Millard, Charles, musician

4. Thomas, Benjamin, fisherman

7. Thomas, John, shopkeeper

8. Farner, Rebecca, Lodgings

9. Whittaker, George, brewery

10. Bullimore, George Robert, carter

11. Barker, Zachariah, blacksmith

12. Hall, George, shoemaker

13. Cobram, William

14. Thompson, John, victualler, "Albion Tavern"

15. Atkins, Philip, cowkeeper

16. Forder, shoemaker

17. Harbord, Robert, barman

18. Rowland, Mrs., dressmaker

Blake, William, shrimper

20. Waters, James, coal porter

21. Gown, James, coal porter

22. Chandler, Samuel, coal porter

South side

23. Ratcliffe, John, coachbuilder, house,

26. Caister Road

24. Scotten, Sarah, shopkeeper

25. Rainford, Rosanna, shopkeeper

26. Rogers, Louis, fisherman

27. Gooch, T., basket maker

28. Fulcher, Mary, laundress

George Street

29. Allcock, James,John, beer retailer

30. Wells, John

31. High, Henry, shoemaker

32. Campher, Robert, basket maker

33. Watson, James, basket maker

34. Long, Mary Ann, laundress

35. Bexfield, Stephen, miller

36. Symonds, Harriet

37. Woodrow, Wm., brewery

38. Clarke, George, fisherman

39. and 40. Watson, George, Game dealer

41. Ramm, Cornelius, haberdasher

42. Cooper, J.W., shoemaker, (and Church Plain)

THE WRESTLERS INN. ("Hardy's"*3,1992)

In 1743 the Wrestler's Inn was purchased by Samuel Killitt, a merchant, who becoming bankrupt, it was sold by the assignees of his estate to Job Smith. It was then the most considerable hostelry in the town, and in 1764 he established what he called a new flying-post coach on steel springs, carrying six inside passengers. This was apparently to encourage visitors from Norwich.

Ives Senior, in his Journal, frequently mentions the Wrestlers where occasionally he had a very good supper.

Job Smith died in 1784, Mary his wife having died in 1779, and in 1787 the heirs by law of Smith, who were very difficult to locate, conveyed the property to John Suckling, Vintner. Suckling himself died in 1799, leaving the "Wrestlers" to Sarah his widow. In the following year an incident occurred which greatly contributed to the celebrity of the hotel.

Nelson filled Europe with his fame by victory at Aboukir (14th. March 1797), and on the 6th November 1800, landed at Yarmouth, accompanied by William and Lady Hamilton, proceeding to the Wrestlers. His return had been anxiously expected by all England when he arrived in the Yarmouth Roads. The weather was stormy, and the coxswain of the Admiral's barge hesitated to undertake the responsibility of a landing, but Nelson would not wait. The townsfolk, frantic with delight, received him on landing with loud cheers, and taking the horses from a carriage which was ready for his use, drove him triumphantly to Church Plain. Standing at an open upper window of the Wrestlers and surveying the vociferous multitude below him, Nelson, much gratified, exclaimed, "I am myself a Norfolk man, and I glory in being so." Soon afterwards the Mayor and the Corporation attended upon Nelson, and presented him with the Freedom of the Borough. Accompanied by the Mayor and Corporation, by Admiral Dixon and all the naval officers then on shore, and by many of the principal inhabitants, Nelson repaired to the Parish Church, giving thanks to Almighty God for having preserved him amidst so many dangers, permitting him to return in safety to his native land. When Nelson entered St. Nicholas's Church the organ played 'See The Conquering Hero Comes'. The troops then in the town assembled on the plain before the Hotel, salutes were fired, bands played, and every means used to express the joy of the inhabitants and their admiration for the great Captain. In the evening Nelson dined with the

Mayor, Samuel Barker Esq., and at night there was a great firework display. On the following day Nelson wrote to the Admiralty expressing his desire to serve again immediately. Nelson had been away from England for a period of two years and eight months. He had been ordered home from the Mediterranean by Lord Keith*4. He had been in command of the blockade of Malta, although much distracted by having the Hamiltons on board. He and the Hamiltons travelled across Europe from Florence, stopping in Vienna a month due to the poor health of Sir William Hamilton (they left Florence on 11th. July). At a ball in Vienna, Haydn and other musicians played, but Lady Hamilton ignored them, gambling at cards, winning some £300-400. After Vienna, they spent a week in Dresden, and reached Hamburg on 21st. October, having stopped every night on the way. On 31st. they embarked on the mail-packet, and after a stormy passage, landed at Yarmouth on 6th.November. The whole party after their short stay in Yarmouth, went to London, where they arrived on the 8th. Emma Hamilton was at this time some 7 months pregnant to Nelson, carrying his daughter Horatia. The Yeoman Cavalry under the command of Captain Sir E. K. Lacon had the honour of escorting Nelson out of the town. Before his departure he left fifty pounds with the Mayor, to be distributed amongst the "necessitous poor", and a request was made by Mrs. Suckling to allow her to call the Hotel in future the "Nelson Arms". "That would be absurd", said the hero, "seeing that I have but one", and "Nelson's Hotel" was substituted. Nelson was in Yarmouth again on 7th. March 1801, when he came ashore from the "St.George", a three decker, and his flagship for the time. There were six hundred troops on board, that had embarked at Spithead. Nelson came ashore to visit the Commander in Chief, Sir Hyde Parker, who was staying in town with his young wife (Parker was then an old man). The couple had arranged to give a great Ball in the town on 13th.March. Preparations were in hand for the Battle of Copenhagen. Parker and Nelson, at least at first, were not on good terms: Nelson arranged that the Admiralty despatch them on 12th. March, and they sailed with a fleet comprising fifteen ships-of-the-line, and two fifties*5, as well as frigates, sloops-of-war, brigs, cutters, fire-ships, and seven bomb-vessels. Nelson was at this time aged 42 years (Battle of Copenhagen, April 1st. 1801). Suckling's widow married -in 1801- William Wood, and went to reside at Horsley Down in Surrey. In 1803 "Nelson's Hotel", i.e. the "Wrestler's" was purchased by William Rowe, and after many subsequent changes of ownership, became in 1817 vested in

John Atkinson, on whose death it was sold and divided. Part of the Wrestler's was then re-converted in Palmer's time into a liquor shop called the"Anchor of Hope". The war-time photograph shows the Wrestler's very much as it looks today, though one of the pilasters there now apparently came from Steward's in the Market Place after that was demolished by a bomb. There were however the old pilasters still present in the Wrestler's Inn after the war and another building on the west side in the right of the photograph- (E. J. Woodcock)- the bottom part of which is all boarded up with corrugated iron in the photograph. Presumably the buildings of D. Yerrell and perhaps those to the left of that also, were originally all part of the Wrestler's, and Yerrell's may well have been that which was converted into a liquor store in the time of Palmer. North of Row Nineteen, fronting Church Plain, says Palmer, stood a large and stately house demolished in 1868, which in the previous century had been the property and residence of the Wards, a family of great wealth and influence in Yarmouth. This house would appear to be that which became Lacon's Brewery. The east front is shown in the line drawing of 1700. Palmer says it was demolished in 1868; this would then be when the new brewery was built. The first of the Wards who settled in Yarmouth was Toby Ward, the great- great-grandson of John Ward of Kirby Bedon, who lived in about 1363. Sir Edward Ward of Bixley was created a Baronet in 1660, and he married Susannah, the only child of William Randel, a very rich merchant of Yarmouth, and all his wealth came to her, not only increasing Sir Edward's Estate, but also administering to the further improving of the splendour of his seat at Postwick by beautifying it with canal, gardens and courtyards. Susan the only surviving daughter of Sir Edward Ward, married in 1764, Neil, the third Earl of Roseberry, and on the death of her brother, Sir Randel, she inherited the large property of her family, including the Postwick Estate, which still belongs to the Earldom (says Palmer). William Randel died in 1719 aged 55 and lay buried in St. Nicholas Church, under a slab which bore his Arms.

It so happens that one of the houses which I went to look at, when it was for sale in 1981 was the Roseberry's house in Postwick. At that time it was for sale with some twelve acres of land, and was owned by an Architect in Norwich. The rooms were rather small and square, but had been opened into each other through square archways. At that time it was for sale at £120,000, and seeming somewhat overpriced, we did not consider it further. With regard to the Yarmouth family of Wards, Toby Ward married Thomaseen, daughter of Edward Fisher of Great Witchingham, and had a son and heir, Thomas Ward, who left three sons, Augustin, Joseph and Edward. On the breaking out of Civil War, Geoffrey Ward, Joseph Ward, Richard Ward and Dionis Ward, brought in money and plate for the use of Parliament. In 1648 Geoffrey Ward signed the Solemn League and Covenant, and in 1850 filled the office of Bailiff, and was re-elected in 1661. Ward by then owned the brewery and this business then absorbed two others at least, one of which had belonged to John Victor on the east side of Middlegate Street. George Ward filled the office of Bailiff in 1671 with Sir Thomas Meadowe, and

they had the honour of entertaining at dinner, King Charles Second and his retinue.

George Ward was constituted the first Mayor of Yarmouth, by the Charter granted in 1684. George Ward, the younger, filled the office of Mayor in 1728, and in 1734 he contributed ten pounds towards the purchase of the gold chain. He died in 1755 aged seventy four. Gabriel Ward, the nephew and devisee under the Will of the first named, Geoffrey Ward, married Mary, daughter of Robert Mackye, merchant. He filled the office of Bailiff in 1689 and 1700, and left a son, Robert Ward, who was Mayor in 1729. He inherited the old family house on Church Plain, which was depicted in Corbridge's map. As Palmer says, it had a gable at the south end, and the remainder of the house had two storeys, the second in the roof with three dormer windows.

The adjoining house on the right, as I previously suggested, north of Row Sixteen (the row being through the archway), was a Public House called "The Lamb", and afterwards the "Anchor of Hope", and taken down with the adjoining house in 1868, when absorbed by the brewery. Robert Ward married Caroline, daughter of the Reverend William Beevor, by whom he had two daughters and co-heirs. The eldest, Elizabeth, married John Lacon Esq., son of Edmond Lacon Esq., of Otley in the County of York, who settled in Yarmouth and became the founder of the Yarmouth family of that name. John Lacon, the second and youngest son of the marriage, resided in the house on Church Plain until his death, unmarried in 1811, aged fifty three, after which his sister Miss Judith Lacon lived there until her death in 1817. Palmer says that two half-timbered houses remained standing on the south side of Row Nineteen until 1868. At the south-west corner was a house having a stone tablet let into the front bearing the date 1635, and the letters H. T. E.- the initials of Henry Thompson and Elizabeth his wife, by whom it was erected. He was a member of the Corporation during the Civil War, but immediately after Charles the First was executed, resigned his Office. When the house was demolished in 1865 to allow the "Tun Room" to be erected on the site, several fragments of carved stone, apparently the remains of some ecclesiastical structure which had been used as mere building materials, were discovered, in particular, two stone cups and some fragments of a fine quatre-foil corbel mounding. These houses must be those beyond the garden previously described as belonging to the Wrestler's Inn. Since the house fronting Church Plain, between rows nineteen and twenty-one was owned by the Ward's, it cannot have been part of the Wrestler's. It seems much more likely that the public house, the "Lamb" and the "Anchor of Hope" was in fact owned by the Wrestler's, indeed this seems to be the case from the reference on page 188, volume one of the perlustration. Palmer's description of it there is somewhat confused.

*3 It seems inconceivable that this famous public house was, in 1992 renamed by new owners as "Hardy's".

*4 Lord Keith was Admiral, second in command to St.Vincent in the Mediterranean.

*5 Fifty gun warships.