ROW FIFTY SIX ‑  EXCISE OFFICE ROW (Palmer)                  

 (No additional names by Johnson)     

Red House Row, 1920 (Alice Wilson)

 

Rows 52 - 56 link 

Row 56 map (Swinden)

Row 56 map (Meall)

Row fifty six from Howard Street to the Market Place, was called excise office row from the house at the  north‑west corner,*1 which was used by the excise  officers,  the excise tax having been introduced by Sir  Robert Walpole in 1773. 

This house was subsequently purchased by the Trustee Savings Bank, and they transacted business there until  they  moved to new premises in the Market Place. It was, when Palmer wrote, the property of Mr. J.W. Diboll. The house no longer exists; here now is the entrance to the public carpark. 

David Frosdick at rear, Janice front, John on right. See below.

 

The  house at the south‑east corner, and fronting the Market Place, extending to the next row,  no.58, was a public house, which for upwards of a century was known as the "Elephant and Castle", and which was rebuilt in 1831. There were formerly some good houses in the row, says Palmer, standing back and fronting south, showing that  the rows in former times were pleasanter places to dwell than at present. (1874)  

 

This row now runs along the side of Palmers Store. (1993) The south side of the  row  appears to have always been composed of a number of warehouses, as can be clearly seen on the maps. The north side of the row was however residential, like the previous row north, 54. There were nine dwellings numbered, and nine can be counted on the map, although numbers 2 and 4 do not appear to have been occupied as dwellings during the period 1913 to  1936. During this period the Pratts were in residence at No. 3 from 1913 to 1927, George Goodson  likewise,  and right up to the second war. W. Marshall was there at No. 9 for the whole period between the wars.   

"When Yarmouth was less populated, the excise office was situated at the north‑west  corner  of  the row, and the south gable gives evidence of  the flint and brick remains.*2  There were several old protruding beam ends, an unique dentalled overdoor, and an old  window  frame,  all  worthy  of notice. At the north side  at  nos. 3 and 4 could be seen some iron figures ‑68‑ probably the first and last letters  are  missing,  once belonging to 17th century  property".  *2  

In the Row Survey‑ "Excise Office Row. A good house used for employees by  "Palmer's" the drapers near Market Place, a red brick house of date approx. 1700,  with string course, and sash barred windows,  well maintained. Door jamb of entrance of an earlier type, say 1650."  

 

After her husband's death (see row 58), Gertrude Wilson moved here in about 1918, she had a family of four  young  children, and was a widow at the age of 26. She then married Frederick Wright, and they lived at no. 5.  Alice Wilson spent most of her childhood here, and left school at the age of fourteen. Her mother then  told  her  that she would be working at Johnson's on Monday. She started there as a runabout,  and earned five shillings a week. (25 new  pence) She kept one shilling, and mother needed the rest.  

 

Frederick Wright was a docker, and worked for Lee Barber's on the South Quay.  He and Gertrude had a daughter, Irene,  who  was  born  on 13th.Nov.1923. Fred was a modest sized man with a moustache, who liked his drink, and was often to  be  found in the Great Eastern on Howard Street. Alice was often sent to drag him home before he got into a fight. (he usually got that way in due course) 

 

As a child, Alice only went to the pictures on an "occasional" day when the children could barter their way in  for admission with an egg. Otherwise there were  no special treats, and no birthday celebrations either. 

The house at no. 5 had an entrance into a yard, with an outside toilet. There was one single room on the ground floor,  which  had a range to keep the whole house warm, as  well as to cook. There was a copper and a tap under a lean‑to shelter in the yard. The main bedroom on the first floor had a smaller bedroom behind. There was another small attic bedroom above.  In about 1928, they moved to row 55.  

 

Next door at no. 3 was Frank Pratt, whose wife Ethel had a crippled leg, so she employed young Alice  Wilson to do her shopping, for one shilling a week.  Ada Goodson lived at no. 6. The Goodsons had 5 children, Alice, Ada, Frankie, Georgie, and one other. George Goodson was a baker.  John Clutton lived at no. 7 in 1926, the  house  mentioned  below.

 

"At no. 8 was Robert Brown, with a wife, and son Robert. Most people in the row then would  stand  on  the  doorstep  and gossip, but Mrs. Marshall at no. 9 kept  herself to herself".  

Janice Frosdick.

The last family to reside in this row was that of Frederick James Frosdick, and his wife, Evelyn Pearl. Fred was born in 1915, and died aged 67 in  1982. Evelyn at the end lived in the St. David's home in Nelson Road South, aged 83. (until her death  in 1993). Fred  was  born in Halvergate. The family resided at no. 3, which was the first of two dwellings side by side, and immediately behind the  premises of Palmer's store. Opposite, on the south side of the row, was a long building, a warehouse belonging to Palmer's. There were three  stone steps up from the row into the yard at the front of the house, and the house was entered through the scullery. Outside was the doorway into the cellar, which was as big as the  house below, and there was a steep flight  of stone steps. Along the side of the  yard  was  a high wall, dividing it from the next house. Father used to paint this wall every year.   

Up the row toward the Market Place, was the back door of the property of Charles Hanton, living at 22  Row 58. He always lay in his bed in the room there, where everyone could see him, with the door wide open. An elderly man, he terrified the children that lived in the row.  

 

In the Frosdick's house there was just one main room and the scullery on the ground floor, and two bedrooms above. Even at the end there was never electricity in this house, but they had gas for a cooker and for a gas lamp in the living room. Washing was  done in the copper in the scullery. There was no hot water, and no bath.  (this was in 1956)  Upstairs, the only light available was that from a candle. 

 

There was a solitary coal fire, with the coal kept in the cellar, though it used to flood down there when it rained, so that the coal got wet. There was gas latterly for lighting and cooking. When the gas was about to run out on the meter, the light began to dim, and there was then time to rush to the  meter  to  put  another penny in  before it went out. Bath time was once a week in the tin bath,  the water heated on the  stove,  and then used again for each child. There were three children, John, David and Janice. There is a photo of them taken inside this dwelling. Perhaps once in six months was the great treat of  visiting the slipper baths with their seemingly huge bath‑tubs of steaming  hot water. 

 

The children would in those days (1950's)  roam the streets and rows seeking out the  Americans, and badgering them for chewing gum.  If  none  were forthcoming they would press them for pennies to buy some. Frederick Frosdick worked at Bunn's the grain‑merchants, and walked twice a day from row 56, over the bridge to the warehouse on the quayside, where it still is today. In  those days all the work was done manually, and the grain was shovelled into sacks on board  each  ship,  and carried over the shoulder  up  the  gangplank to the warehouse. This was backbreaking work,  now carried out by  a mechanical screw and suction. Fred would return home  bent over like an old  man.  He  worked  until  lunchtime  on  Saturday as everyone  did.  (Saturday  morning  work  for most businesses except shops  ceased in the sixties) Holidays did  not  exist for Fred.

Leisure then was either  to visit one of the pubs‑ generally  the  "Great  Eastern"  or  to listen to the Radio. He came home to lunch every day.  The  children  went to school at Runham Vauxhall, and were warmed  up  by  their mother before leaving, in-front of the gas fire. 

At the end of the row was  a second‑hand shop run by an old lady called Dolly Harrison, and on the corner was the Selbourne House. It took a long time to walk down the row from the market  place to Howard Street, and the fashion for women then was to wear high heeled shoes. The sound of the high  heels  clacking  away up and down this narrow row with its concreted  pavement was seemingly never‑ending,  coming  gradually up to the house and then fading away again into the distance. At  night the noise as the customers emptied  from Selbourne House was enough to waken any child. (there is more about Selbourne House under "Howard Street") Selbourne house was then a house of  ill‑repute, kept by Frank  Keller. 

 

At the Market place end of the row was the "Red House", kept by Teddy Moore, who had a large gauge clockwork railway running around the inside of the pub. He was a model-maker, and made the trains himself.     The Red House was the pub facing the Market Place between rows 56 and 58. It had been the "Elephant and Castle" in the 19th. century, the sign being changed between 1904 and 1908 to the "Distillery", after which it became the "Market Distillery". From the 1930's the feature of this public house was a model "O" gauge railway that ran around the walls on a high shelf. The track was more than 70 feet long, the work of the landlord, Mr. Moore. There was a Hornby Flying Scott loco, and four illuminated carriages. The train passed various tableaux, depicting such places as London, Switzerland, America, and Egypt, as well as Yarmouth central! The model railway had taken 22 weeks to build, and four days to erect. It first ran on 30th.March 1939, and the pub. closed when bought by Palmers in 1961. The site is now that of Mackay's store.*3  

In the deeds of no. 13 in this row, it was sold by Samuel Aldred   in  an auction  at  the  Star Hotel on Thurs.April 3rd. 1884, at 7 pm. It was then described as a small  freehold dwelling-house, containing sitting‑room,  pantry, coal closet, yard, partable  pump  of spring water, and two bedrooms, let to Mrs.Rowland at 6 pounds 10 shillings per year! In 1809 it had been sold by Mary Cameron, and John Larter, a carpenter, also Edmund Girling, and John Fountain, to Robert Cory, and Edmund Girling, Shopkeeper. It should  be remembered that Cory was prominent in the town, and has written a manuscript history and extracts of the council's records,which unfortunately he never had printed, and most importantly, made the copy of Manship's history that Palmer used to produce the printed version.  Cory has signed the deeds of this small property.  In 1861 the property then owned by Robert David Barber,  gentleman,  was conveyed to Charles Burton, town painter. (by Henry Palmer, Town solicitor). In  1884 there was an  indenture  between  Edmund  Crisp, gentleman, and Charles Gourlay Burton, painter, Jonathan Skipper, brewers labourer, and William West Temple, master mariner, and  Priscilla his wife. on 9th. March 1872, with a mortgage for 200  pounds. 

 

Most astonishingly, when the building was sold in 1939, between Ernest Newton West, of  5 Parsons Green Lane,  Fulham,  in  London, and Palmers, Gt.Yarmouth Ltd., it was sold for the mere sum of 15 pounds. Number 13 was eventually numbered 9. The number had been changed between 1884 and 1921.

 

*3  Rows of Gt.Yarmouth, M.Teun.

 

The Occupants, Row Fifty Six, 1886

( from  Market Place to Howard Street)

Timber, E.

Stewart, Mrs.

Brighton, Mrs.

Breeze, Miss

Turrell, W.H., builder

Chace, B.

Beevor, M.

Sharp, V., chair mender

Flowers, Mrs.

High, R.

Pitchers, R.

Chesham, J.

Angell, W.

Barrow, Mrs.

Stewart, Mrs.E.

 

The Occupants, Row Fifty Six, 1913

( from  Market Place to Howard Street South)

3. Pratt, Mrs.

5. Wright, Elijah

6. Goodson, George

8. Read, William

9. Higgleton, Walter

 

The Occupants, Row Fifty Six, 1927

( from  Market Place to Howard Street South)

1. Neve, Thomas

3. Pratt, Mrs.

5. Wright, Frederick

6. Goodson, George

7. Clutton, John Alfred

8. Brown, Robert

9. Marshall, William

The Occupants, Row Fifty Six, 1936

( from  Market Place to Howard Street South)

1. King, Miss M.

3. Anderson, Thomas

5. Plane, William

6. Goodson, George

7. Hamilton, Albert

8. Brown, Robert

9. Marshall, William