ROW TWENTY TWO *1
Shuckford The Basket-maker's Row, 1829*2
Felstead's*2
Bumpstead's, 1867*2
Barnes' Row*2
Row no. Twenty Two ran
from Charlotte Street or Brewery Plain to the Market Place, the south‑west corner facing Charlotte
Street was an old house having the letters "E.C.I." in iron,
probably the residence of Egilius Call, who in 1634 was a strenuous opposer of
the exaction of the Ship Money. The site now of course is Futter's
Furniture & Carpet Warehouses and premises.*3
At the south‑east
corner of that row was a house (no. 9, Market Place) whose site would now be in
the centre of the Conge, then an ironmongers shop, as Palmer described. When
Louis the Eighteenth under the assumed name of the “Count De Lisle” had landed
at Yarmouth on the 30th. October in
1807, he was taken to the same house, which was then occupied by Admiral Billy
Douglas. Louis XVIII came on shore from a Swedish frigate, the "Freya",
in the Admiral's barge, accompanied by
the Duke D'Angouleme and the Duke D'Berri and others. He was received by
Admirals Douglas and Essington. Their carriages took them all to the above
house, where breakfast was served. Also present were Sir Samuel Hood, Admiral
Russell, and several naval captains. Douglas was the Port Admiral of Yarmouth,
and esteemed as a “bluff but brave and
good sailor”. His son also attained the rank of Admiral, and one of whose
daughters married the Reverend Augustus Bellman, Rector of Moulton.
Apparently the Count
D'Artois afterwards Charles the Tenth, then called "Missure", as
being heir presumptive to the throne of France, had come down from London to
meet his Royal brother. Also present
was the Prince D'Comday, the Duke D'Bourbon and the Duke D'Grammont.*1
No.8, in the Market
Place, is now Claxton's Menswear Shop, on the edge of the extended Conge, Row
Twenty Two would have run along the northern pavement of the Conge. The position of Row Twenty Four would now be
just covered by the northern edge of the National Westminster Bank, no.1, The
Conge.
Row 22 had been
demolished prior to the row survey of 1936.
Frank Futter’s first
shop.
Frank Futter started his furniture business in St.NicholasRoad, and
Stanley Bircham from Row 27 worked
there with him as his upholsterer.
Stanley had some furniture of his own sold in the shop, but was never a
partner, indeed when business was slack he was laid off on the Labour. There
was a store-room above the shop which ran along over all three shops, and here
the upholstery was carried on, and mattresses re‑stuffed. Most boarding
houses would have all their mattresses re-stuffed each year, prior to the
season, as there were no spring mattresses available then. Some modern proprietors
could benefit from this practice still, judging from many beds in low class
lodgings and hotels that I have had the misfortune to inspect!
On the left (as seen
in the photo of the shop) were the
stairs to the store room. All the furniture was hauled up to the store room by
the pulley and hoist seen above the
first‑floor doorway. The only other employee before the war was Wilfred
Bircham, who was a bound apprentice. Five shillings a week was the pay of an
apprentice starting in 1934.
The hours of an
apprentice then were from half past eight in the morning, until ten at night.
Frank Futter, whose father had worked the horse cabs, had been apprenticed at
Boning's and Arnold's (King Street, site of Marks and Spencer). He became a
master tradesman.
This row was latterly
called Barnes' Row from the grocer's shop in the Market Place (See Market Place
for details).
*1 Palmer vol
1.,p.198,199.
*2 Johnson
*3 Wilfred
Bircham