The North Gate and Other Items

The North Gate was a superb edifice with two magnificent towers. The opening within the gate was 12 feet wide and the whole building 66 feet wide. There were strong wooden doors and a portcullis. The structure was altogether demolished in 1807. How splendid the town must have looked approached through gates such as these. If only they could be reconstructed as authentic replicas the town would be enormously enhanced (This sort of work has been done successfully abroad at such places as Bruges). The road from here led out of the town towards Caister. Not far from the gate lay the Lazar's or leper's house. Henry Swinden has drawn a separate map of the ground and gardens just outside the gate, at which time the moat was certainly a dry ditch. The work-house at the north-east of the street was taken over by the National Health service as a hospital. This remained the main hospital of the town for medical and maternity cases until a year or so after the opening of the James Paget Hospital at Gorleston in 1992. In 1994 the Northgate Hospital inpatients are all long-stay elderly, except that the former maternity wards have been recently adapted (1993) for the use of psychiatric in-patients, and the Psychiatric Hospital of St.Nicholas has been entirely closed. The latter remains at present (1994) empty, and devoid of any use.

White Horse Plain.

Northgate Street now runs from Fuller's Hill to Caister Road, but once it was continuous in a southerly direction with the main centre street that ran through the town from the North Gate through George Street and Blind Middle Street to end at row 90. One wonders whether there may be some structure preserved at a deep level at the junction with row 90 that this road once led to.

On Wednesday February 18th. 1942, there was a mid-day raid on the town. Just before 1 o'clock in the afternoon, a 'plane, flying low from east to west, dropped a stick of four high explosive bombs on Northgate Street. The first bomb was a direct hit upon numbers 38 and 39. Number 39 was then the office of the Refuge Assurance Company. The second bomb fell upon the road, severing both the gas and the water mains. The third bomb fell upon the previously cleared site of H. Stone's house. The fourth bomb fell upon Bulman's nursery, destroyed 5 or 6 small houses, severely damaging the rest. Other premises badly damaged included Buddery's Livery Stable, Jary's Undertaker's premises, and Mills' fish shop. Houses were also damaged in Garrison Road. Debris was hurled over a wide area. Some eight people were killed, including the refuge superintendant, his wife and son, the assistant superintendant, and a lady clerk. Mrs. Shreeve of no. 38 was killed, and two others in Nursery Place.*3

*3 ref. W. H. Codd’s Diary.

Rodney Road 1947 by PER.

the pipes were all frozen, Feb 1947.

A few items "outside" of the North Gate:

As reported in Yarmouth Archaeology bulletin no. 43., John Ives' personal copy of Henry Swinden's History, was found to be in the possession of Mr.Norman Scarfe, F.S.A., of Suffolk. As might be anticipated, several additional manuscripts were enclosed with this copy. One such document was a "Survey of the gardens, marshes etc., situated out of the North Gate of Yarmouth, belonging to the Children's Hospital of Great Yarmouth". Some buildings just north of the moat, on the west side of the road are called "Maison de Ladres", presumably the leper's house. An ancient house on the east side of Northgate Street had its own enclosed grounds and orchards extending to over seven acres, and occupying the whole of that square area outside the wall and north of the churchyard. The old house no. 221/2 Northgate Street, is just inside the wall and gate, and therefore not drawn on this particular map by Swinden.

221 front and back.

It is however shown in the drawing of the gate which is a view from the north. Considerably further north, gardens on the west side of the Caister Road (now Northgate Street) were called "New England". The Union or work house was not then present. About where the bus depot can now be found is marked and drawn as a mound, the "green Hill". From Swinden's depiction, I suggest that it might even have been a pre-Christian burial tumulus. There is a similar one at Belton.

Later, the 1842 map is most illuminating concerning this area. It shows gardens still present outside the north gate, with virtually no building.

"Union House", can be seen (now the Northgate Hospital), and east of Northgate Street, opposite the Apollo Gardens, was a pound, and two rope walks, that stretched right to the sea. Further south, the Regent Street well is shown, and there are further rope walks where now are Trafalgar Road, Rodney Road, York Road, and Lancaster Road. A ship-wreck is marked, the "Wreck of the Iron Duke", immediately on the south side of a line extending east of Euston Road. Perhaps it is still under the sandy beach there.

Regarding Weldon's the grocer's shop. Annie Nichols, (18/9/03), relates how her husband worked there from 1932, and subsequently bought the business from Mrs. Weldon, his aunt, who was then a widow. Annie was a Londoner, and met her husband when on holiday. They lived and worked at the shop until retirement, when they moved to Gordon Terrace, and subsequently to 134 Mill Road.

There are some photos of interesting items, such as the Barrack Estate (above) being completed in 1929, and a photo about the same time, of Beatty Road before any houses were built along it. (below)

This view looks north towards the race course, which was then in use, whereas there was a racecourse on the South Denes during the previous century. In Southtown, an interesting property on the Southtown Road, was the Westbourne Lodge, where P.E. Rumbelow photographed a whalebone arch as late as 1939.

Early picture of Acle new Road. (narrow)

In 1893 there was an outing by the employees of the Bass Company to Yarmouth. This was an enormous undertaking, with hundreds of their staff being brough to Yarmouth for the day trip, in a series of 15 trains including 250 carriages. An extensive programme of events was laid on, many of which were provided at no extra charge. Mr. John Nightingale, owner of the Royal Aquarium, and of the Theatre Royal and Queen's Hotel, helped to mastermind this great event.

There had been three railway stations in Great Yarmouth, and there is shown here a picture of the last train to leave the Beach Railway Station, on 28th.February 1959, when the train was driven by Harry Sheen. The Beach Railway Station site is now the coach park on the east side of North Denes Road.