ROW ONE -
RAMPART ROW (Ramp Row)
Rows 1-20
link No additional names)
Until the First World War, the majority of all the
residents in Great Yarmouth lived in the narrow passages between the three main
streets known as the rows. These all had their own names, and they kept
changing, being generally known by a pub or shopkeeper at one end or other.
There must have been great difficulty finding the way about therefore, until
the rows were first numbered in 1804. Even then, although some sequences were
logical enough, the rows had been clearly given their numbers by walking around
with a paintbrush. In 1804 there was no readily available printed map, and the
numbering was done "on the ground".
There were 84 rows in the town in 1598 according to
Nash, and in 1619 there had been 140. The rows averaged 6 ft in width, but some
were as narrow as 3ft. or even less.
Most houses previous to the reign of Queen Elizabeth had been covered
with reeds or thatch, but in 1571, that method of roofing was utterly
forbidden. In 1555 an act had been made by the Corporation that no-one should
let a house without a chimney, the fine being 10 pounds.
The first row was the longest row in the town and ran
absolutely dead straight and parallel with the wall. At its west end was the
north-west tower. Also at the west end, on the south side, was the old White
Swan public house.
The dwellings in this row certainly were very
dilapidated. In the 19th. Century the
north side ones against the wall were demolished. In about 1875 there had been
buildings on both sides of the row. At that time, those at the west end of the
row were leaning severely outwards towards the centre. Of course all houses in
Gt.Yarmouth are built on sand, or made ground, and in those days foundations
were very poor.
All drainage took place down the open drain, as can be
seen on the old drawings of Row One, which no doubt aggravated the settlement.
Indeed the buildings on the south side appear to have been leaning outwards by
about 10 degrees, held only by cross braces against the houses on the north
side of the row.
In another photo looking in the opposite direction it
can be seen that the row was cobbled, with a drain on its south edge.
Trees were growing out of the roofs of some of the dwellings.
Since 1618 an ordinance had been made that all doors
opening outwards into rows should be altered and made to open inwards. The
owners were fined 5 shillings apiece if they had not complied, and the
constables were ordered to nail them up.
The dwellings in Row 1, always those of the poorer
inhabitants, were very small, and never had any gardens or yards.
The houses built along the north wall had originally
been built without permission, and in 1641 a
Committee was formed to view them and enquire as to who had erected
them. The arches in the wall were used as bedrooms*1. They had been used as
alms houses in the care of the church wardens, but the Town Council owned the
ground. Many of the houses were cleared
away, and it was hoped to provide a wide thoroughfare for carts, but we can see
from the photographs in the mid 1800's that this in fact never really happened.
The houses on this side were never given numbers, and in the Kelly's
Directories that have been used to find out who lived where at subsequent
times, the numbering runs down the south side, commencing at Northgate Street.
St.Andrew's School (The Council School), was in fact
built well outside the town wall. The wall itself was right in the middle of
Rampart Road, and so we can see just how small these houses actually were. At
the south-east corner of the row, up by the North Gate was a public house,
which was at one time called "The Plough", and thereafter the
"Jolly Farmers". In Palmer's time it became a granary, and later a
malthouse. There were two substantial malthouses in Row 1, which latterly
belonged to Lacons, and the western one
was not demolished until 1971. It had been built in 1705, and rebuilt in
1912. The next public house along
Northgate Street appears to have been the "Bird In Hand", afterwards called the
"Black Horse", and in Palmer's time the "East and West
Flegg", which was between rows one and two.
The gap in the wall, and the gap between the White
Swan public house and the other houses of rows 1 and 2 can clearly be seen on the 1855 map by Laing, which shows the
railway tracks that pass through the gap in the wall. A photograph shows the
White Swan from the west side; the doors are now in slightly different
positions, and the
level crossing gate can be seen on the left of the
photograph. Another view of the White Swan shows the railway tracks. The narrow
gap is again nicely seen in the photo. of the floods dated January 7 1905. This
photo. has been taken from a point just south of the end of Fullers Hill. The
shops that can be seen on the right hand part of the photograph being those
between rows 8, 9, and Fullers Hill. The print which is captioned "Inside
The Town Wall", is of the inside of the wall along Rampart Row when the
houses on the north side had been demolished. This view is looking from the
site of the North Gate. The North Gate had of course been demolished in 1807,
whereas the town wall stood here until 1875.
Proceeding down Rampart Road from Northgate Street, on the south side,
past the end of the Standard Motorist Centre, there is now Ashley Printing,
which is a small firm printing stationary that occupies some low sheds, which until recently were
used by an upholstery business where a Mr. Kelly did upholstery under the name
of "Gt.Yarmouth Upholstery". The next 2 buildings down Rampart Road
are nos. 9 and 10 Rampart Road, a pair of
semi-detached houses, at the back of which are some warehouses that belong to
the printing works. They are pre-war houses with some wooden dormers in the
roof, but with modern aluminium white PVC covered windows. There were only five occupants listed in
this row in 1886, some 11 years after the wall had been demolished. It seems
likely that Bowles the labourer was at no. 9, and Neaves' fish office at no.
10. This would put J.Dawkins into no. 8. If so this would have been a tiny
dwelling on Swinden's plan.
Most likely no.25 was the last house
on this side of the row, and the malthouse that was rebuilt by Lacons
obliterated the houses up to number 22, leaving William Tindall in number 23,
Arthur Burwood in 24, and James Grimmer in number 25. In 1990 David Grimmer of
King Street is a fisherman, who has a small boat moored by the Haven
Bridge. There was always a small cross row into Row 2, as is shown on
Swinden's map, and also in 1906, and is numbered as Row 2a on the surveyor's
map. The rest of the space beside Rampart Road is occupied by the British
Telecom car park, and then their telephone exchange, a three-storey brick built
building of somewhat square proportions, and rather unsightly. The best thing
about the new Court-House that has been built on the site of St.Andrew's School
is that it is outside the old town. It is not until one looks across the river
from North River Road, that it looks so completely out of place. Unfortunately,
although it could elsewhere be
described as an attractive modern building, here it is completely out of
place, and becomes a hideous eyesore. Looking at the comparative drawings
showing Swinden's original plan, subsequently published by Faden and the 1906
survey map: The malthouse at the
south-east corner, which was on the edge of Northgate Street and the beginning of Rampart Road, was one belonging
to Lacons and demolished in about 1880.
The site was last occupied by the Standard Motorists Centre, the front
part of this had been a shop for some years run by the same Company. Later, the
entire building was been taken over for tyre fitting and exhausts, motor
accessories having been discontinued. One of the Senior fitters there was a
Peter Griffen, a local family some of whose members live in Cobholm. An unfortunate effect of the recession is
that one day this Motorists Centre was in business, and the next the staff were
informed of its closure(1990). The line
of the wall at this point can be observed by standing out in the roadway. Having run directly down Northgate Street,
the row would have been to the left of the centre white line in the road. The
footings of the old wall are still present under the road and interfered with
the gas pipes when they were being laid in 1986.
The Row Survey says- "Rampart
Row is the ancient north boundary of the town. There is nothing specially to
report or urge for attention, though a number of houses were built between 1870
and 1900, and are structurally in fair order"(as written in 1936 for the
archaeological society, by Major Gerard Davidson, F.S.A., of the society for
the protection of ancient buildings). *3
*1 Palmer. (One such bedroom was evidently present in the
house knocked down prior to Cotman's drawing)
*3 Rumbelow, diary, 1936, p.33