ROW TWELVE - GEORGE AND DRAGON ROW *1
Row no. Twelve from
George Street to Church Plain was called the George and Dragon Row, from the
sign of a Public House at the north-east corner.*1 On the south side were some
very old houses overhanging the row in Palmer's time- exhibiting in front a
very good specimen of herring bone work of which there were, according to
Heart, but two other examples to be
found in Norfolk.
The row was in part only three foot four
inches wide. This row appears to have
been substantially unchanged over the two centuries to 1906. Now it would be
between Falcon Court and Tesco's. There is a line drawing of Lacon's Brewery
East Front dated 1700. The brewery subsequently came to occupy all the space on
Brewery Plain, between Rows Fourteen and Twenty One, by 1906.
The 1894 picture would appear to show the end
of Row Nineteen on the left hand side, and the end of Row Fourteen on the right
hand side. The 1700 drawing certainly shows a covered over row, and if this is
within the Brewery, then that may well
be Row Fifteen. But from the appearance
of the 1758 map, it is in fact more likely that the larger house represents
that between rows Sixteen and Nineteen, and Row Fifteen would have been to the
right of the smaller right hand building, with Row Sixteen being that within the passageway in the middle. The "George and Dragon" has long
been a link between the village and the
town.*2 James Outlaw the genial host 100 years prior to 1928, gave
shelter to man and beast. Here the Catfield carrier in 1829 made his headquarters
on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In 1835 Abraham Tooley was the landlord.
This well-known local family were at this period represented by Robert Tooley,
miller, factory gate and church square; Tooley and London, coach-builders,
Fullers Hill, and Edward Tooley, market gate beer-house. In 1844 King Street possessed a George and Dragon tavern,
and William Flaxman was the tenant.
Formerly many publicans were tradesmen, and in 1844, William Hallett the
cork-cutter was the host at the church Square Tavern. Some four years later the Curtis family of
cork-cutters was firmly established on
White Horse Plain, moving to the S.E. corner of the George and Dragon Row later. The trade of cork cutting seems
to have been a close trade for
families, and in 1928 Mr.J.R.Palmer was successfully continuing an
old established business on The White
Horse Plain. It was William Curtis, cork-cutter, who was summonsed in 1857
for non-payment of church rate (perhaps
equivalent to today's despised poll-tax) together with other primitive
methodists. James Blogg was landlord in 1850, and was followed by William
Trevett Read, a well-known carpenter 60 years ago. (sixty years prior to
1928) In 1886 Tom Shreeve was the
landlord, he having been Ostler here when a lad. Later he became landlord at
the Saracens head opposite, and
successfully established a hay dealer's and jobmaster's business on
Priory Plain. He died on 9th. May 1928, and left an estate value £20,614.
Mr.David Hollis was the landlord in 1928.
In 1928 travel was by charabanc or railway, now by bus or motor-car, and
in 1850 you could go with carrier Bullimore from the George and Dragon to Happisburgh, or carrier Plane to Horsey, or
with carrier Betts to Upton. Lady Whall apparently drove an old London coach
and three horses from Stalham.