ROW NINETY SEVEN ‑ BARNES' ROW ,
17TH.C.*1
BUCK ROW , 1785*1
BELL'S
ROW 19TH.C.*1
Barnes's Row,
1690*2
Buck Row, 1780*2
Lawyer Bell's Row*2
Nightingale the Confectioner's Row*2
Norfolk Hero's Row, 1878 *2
Row 97 was from Middlegate to King Street, called Barnes'
Row in the 17th.century, afterwards (in 1785), Buck Row, and more recently,
Bell's Row, the house at the south‑east corner having been for
many years the residence of Samuel Bell, solicitor.*1
This house (and below) was once in the possession of John, then Sam Bell.
The name of Bell had existed in
the town from an early period. Samuel Bell was the son of John Bell, sometime collector of
customs, and a
leading politician, who had an
estate at Hopton in Suffolk (See also row 93. This was Hopton Hall, now
in Norfolk, where I was residing and
writing in 1990-91). John Bell was a subscriber to Swinden's History. In
1770 he is mentioned in the diary of Sylas Neville, having dined with the
latter on January 30th., the anniversary of the death of Charles I, also present were Mr.Whiteside and Robert
Barber.*3
Hopton Hall,
This estate at Hopton descended to Samuel Bell, and by him Hopton Hall
was greatly improved by building some fine rooms in front. He died there
suddenly, in 1844, aged 75. It was quite astonishing reading this for the first time, as previously I had surmised that there had been a major rebuild
in 1832, from the date on the coach‑house
wall, and this ties in well. (there is
also a full separate section on
Hopton Hall)
Samuel Bell was a captain in the local militia, in 1804, and described as
a fine, portly man by Palmer. William Bell
his brother, had died in 1796 at
Lound of Yellow Fever*4, aged
23. Charles Bell,
solicitor, had a good
collection of engravings,
which were sold at auction. John Bell
the sculptor, was a son of
Samuel's, who was born in the Yarmouth house in Row 97. Anne, a daughter of
Samuel Bell, married Alfred Landes,Esq., and died at Frank Ville, Upper Canada, in
1870. The Arms
of this family were a fesse erm. between three bells, as shown in
P.P., vol.II, p.160.
Row
97 on the right
Row 97 certainly had it's Naval
connections. Indirectly, as
several residents of Hopton Hall were very much connected‑
Admiral Plumridge, and the descendants of
Admiral Noel. In the
row itself, however, resided
Thomas Bly, who died in 1820, aged 91.
In early life he entered the Royal Navy, and was present at the execution
of Admiral Byng at Portsmouth in 1757;
a sad tale, which he was fond to
relate*6. Mrs Bly used to tell how
her Grandmother received a pound of tea for a wedding
present, then a rare and valuable
thing. Another wedding present was a ham, which was boiled with tea,
and the two were then said to be
improved! (Pepys first tasted tea in 1660)
Byng was involved
in the war which broke out in
the Mediterranean in 1755, and was
involved in action against the
French. As a result of defeat, he was to leave Minorca and return to Gibraltar. Subsequently, when he
arrived at Spithead on the 26th of July, he was arrested and conveyed to
Greenwich, and kept there in a room in the Hospital under close arrest.
For neglect of duty he was adjudged to fall under the 12th article of war, and
sentenced to death. They recommended mercy, but the King
refused to entertain this and the sentence was duly carried out. Admiral Byng
was shot on the quarter‑deck of the "Monarque", in Portsmouth
Harbour on 14th March, 1757.)
"At Nos. 10 and 11 may be seen two water cistern heads with the
initials W.D.P. 1815. There are several rough flint buildings in this
Row".*2
In 1936, the report on the rows
said that‑ "Row 97 has a considerable quantity of old walling, mostly flint
masonry, with some brick and flint".
Gladys Plane was born*5 in
Row 97, at
No.10, the house in the 1913
directory of her
father, John William Chapman. This house
mentioned above as
having a notable water cistern head, and the date 1815. She was one of a family of 12. There
were all boys first‑ Freddy,
George, Raymond. They all were obliged
to join up in the Army, as there was insufficient room in the
house. Some younger children
in the household included Bessie, still living in Gorleston, and Violet, now deceased.
John Chapman worked as Chef at Goodes' Hotel on the sea front. He
used to wake the children up on his return home at night, when he
brought home the food
left over at the Hotel. Without that they were very hungry indeed. The
food would have gone off by the
morning. Sometimes he would bring ice‑cream
home in a bowl. Ice-cream was made daily from ice and cream in a drum. John
Chapman worked for John Goode for
45 years before
he retired. The Chapman children
also had the
chicken drumsticks, which the
Hotel never used. (presumably the guests
only wanted breast!)
There were only
two bedrooms in the house in the
row, and the children slept on the
floor, five in a room, and Gladys says
that her mother would cover her
with a coat, but tell her not to crease it or lie on it as she needed to pawn it the
next day at
the pawnbrokers in King Street.
Her mother never had a holiday
in her life. They moved out of this particular house in due course as Mrs.Emma
Chapman was always having more
children, and the house
became too small for them. Emma
always slept with a bible at her bedside. Gladys got herself a job as soon as
she could, and at the age of 11, she arranged to take out
Mrs.McNally's five children out once a
week. Mrs.McNally's father,
Mr.Ceiley, had a
job putting up the stalls in the
Market, and used to get drunk every saturday. Gladys received threepence a time
(every week) for taking the children out each
saturday.
Gladys went to school at the Nelson School in St.Peters
Road. She remembers Mrs Parker,
living up the
row at no.25., they were rather
better off than the Chapmans.
Gladys was always running to
the midwife for assistance, a Mrs.Tait of Tottenham Street, which cost
half a crown (two shillings and
six pence, now
12.5p.!) for the confinement.
Mother was confined in the upper room
on the second floor in an
iron bedstead. On the ground floor was a front room with a
tiny fireplace, and a tiny back
kitchen with a
black stove. The children would play up and down the rows. The lamp lighter came along the row in the evening
to light the lamps in the row. There
were also gas lamps in the house, the
mantles were always breaking.
*3 P.P., vol.I.,p.381.
*4 If this really was Yellow fever, then Bell must have travelled
to the tropics. It is much more
likely I think, that he had yellow jaundice attributable to Hepatitis A.
( Infectious Hepatitis) *5 G.Plane, 1991
*6 Admiral John Byng 1704‑1757, was a fourth son of George
Byng, Viscount Torrington.
He entered the Navy in 1718 on
board the "Superb".
There is a piece of some length about
him in the "Dictionary of National
Biography" vol 8, p.118.