ROW SEVENTEEN - NORTH SAYS CORNER ROW*1
Say's Row*2
Say was a prominent trader at the west end of this
row, in a many windowed shop. Norwich has its "Says Court" in Barrack
Street. *2
Row number seventeen, from North Quay to George
Street, was called North Says Corner Row. The dwelling house at the north-west
corner fronting the Quay was an old house faced with white brick, which in the
seventeenth century was the residence of Brightin Wakeman Esq. This house at
the end of the eighteenth century and
beginning of the nineteenth was the property and residence of Thomas Girdlestone Esq., an eminent Physician who had been born at Holt, Norfolk in 1758. After passing some years with the army in India he settled in Yarmouth, where
he succeeded Dr. Aikin, and practised with great success for thirty seven years.
Dr. Girdlestone was tall, slender and upright,
scrupulously dressed in black with silk stockings and half gaiters, a white
cravat, an ample shirt frill, powdered head and pigtail. He could be seen
walking through the town with his gold-headed cane. He was the author of several medical works, and contributed to the professional journals. In 1805 he
published an address to the inhabitants strongly urging the advantages of
vaccination, and rebutting all the arguments then brought against it. Dr. Girdlestone died suddenly in 1822 from
an aneurysm of the heart. He was
walking on the Quay and staggered and fell. He was taken into the nearest house, number two, but was dead.*1
*1 Palmer
*2 Johnson
The Occupants, Row Seventeen
In 1886 and later, there were no occupants, as the
brewery was here.