Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LOWESTOFT

LOWESTOFT-popularly LAYSTOFF- a town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Mutford district, Suffolk. The town stands on the most easterly ground in England, on the summit and slopes of low cliffs, at the inlet of Lake Lothing from the sea, and at the terminus of two branches of the Great Eastern railway system, 9½ miles S by E of Yarmouth. lt was known at Domesday as Lothu-Wistoft, signifying the toft or cluster of houses by the Loth or slow river. But the name is understood by some as a corruption of "Lothen's Gistoft, ''signifying "the guest-house of Lothen;'' and is presumed, by those who so understand it, to indicate that the site of the town was made a colonv for Danes by Lothen and Irling, after the conquest of Essex in 10 47. A considerable seat of population was here before the close of the 16th century; was visited by plague in 1603; and suffered a loss by fire, estimated at £10,297, in 16 45. Cromwell entered it, in 1643, at the head of 1,000 cavalry; and, seizing a few of the principal inhabitants, sent them prisoners to Cambridge. A great sea-fight occurred adjacent to it in 1665, between an English fleet of 114 ships under the Duke of York and a Dutch fleet of 100 ships under Admiral Optam; was seen by the inhabitants from the cliffs; and terminated in the defeat of the Dutch, with a loss of eighteen ships taken and fourteen burnt or sunk. George II. landed here in 1736, and was much imperilled through the unskilful driving of an inhabitant who volunteered to act as coachman; and J. Adams landed here in 1784, as the first ambassador from the United States. Captain Arnold, who took trophies from a Spanish man-of-war, Admiral Sir Thomas Allen, who captured the Smyrna fleet in the time of the Commonwealth, Sir Andrew Leake, who figured in the capture of Gibraltar, Sir John Ashby, Admiral Uther, Admiral Mighell, and Lord-Chief-Justice Holt were natives; Baron Alderson and Dr. Whewell were frequent residents; and William Whiston, Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, John Tanner, the editor of his brother's "Notitia Monastica, ' Robert Potter, the translator of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, T. Scrope, who became bishop of Dromore, and Hudson, who is epitaphed as "your painful minister, ''were incumbents.

The town, till about 1830, continued to be a mere fishing village; but it acquired great impetus, first from the formation of an inner harbour, next from the opening of the railway; and it now is a head-port, a favourite watering-place, and a seat of thriving general trade. Its site is a gently curved promontory, at the S extremity of a range of cliffs extending along the E side of Lothingland; and contests with Easton-Ness the claim of having been the Roman Extension Promontorinm. The brow of the ridge is covered with houses, and commands an extensive view of the ocean; the seaward slope is disposed in hanging gardens or terraces, diversified with trees; a low tract, with a maximum width of 660 yards, and designated the Denes, intervenes between the slope and the sea, and is partly occupied by an extensive line of buildings for the curing of fish; and another line of cliffs rises on the S side of the inner harbour, within Kirkley parish, stretches away to the S, and is subtended seaward by a shoal about a ¼ of a mile broad, called the Pakefield flats, and believed to be the vestige of a submerged tract of land. The High-street is about a mile long, extends from N to S, and is lined with brick houses and well-paved. Smaller streets open into it on the W side; and several winding roads and fligbts of steps lead down from it on the E. South Lowestoft, situated partly in Kirkley parish, is a new town and the fashionable quarter. The Marine-terrace, with a row of handsome semidetached houses, the Marine-parade, with neat villas, the Wellington Terrace, Denmark-road, and London-road are the favourite residences. An esplanade 800 yards long, and the South pier which joins the esplanade, form a promenade of great beauty. The Royal hotel, an establishment of first-class character, is in South Lowestoft. The Marine-terrace adjoins the Battery-green and the Bath-house; and neat villas front the South battery. That battery is now a coast-guard station; and the Lower battery and the North battery, once having respectively 6 and 4 guns, are now dismounted. Remains of a Norman crypt are under a brewery in High-street; and a fragment of a Tudor building, of the time of Henry VII., is near Swan-lane. A house on the E side of Highstreet, now a printing-office, but formerly an inn, was the head-quarters of Cromwell in 1643. A new addition to the town was undertaken in the latter part of 1865; to be constructed on a tract of about 9 acres on the North Common; to comprise first-class mansions and Villas along an esplanade 57 feet wide, on the summit of the cliff; to include a Gothic clock-tower, with reading and lounging rooms; and to avoid all interference with the bold and picturesque nature of the slopes, but to provide upon them suitable walks and seats.

The old town hall, in High-street, was a very unsightly building. The new town hall was erected in 1860; is in the Italian style, of very pleasing appearance; is surmounted, in the centre of an attic, by a carved stone panel of the town arms; and has, at the SE corner, a campanile, with illuminated clock. A public hall, with accommodation for about 1,750 persons, was projected in 1869. The assembly-rooms, in Crown-street, are handsome; and there are a theatre, a public library, and a mechanics' institute. St. Margaret's church stands about ½ a mile W of the town; is later English, built by the prior of St. Bartholomew, in London; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower and spire 120 feet high; stands over a crypt; was about to be restored in 1869; and contains a figured stone font, three brasses, and monuments of distinguished natives and incumbentsSt. Peter's church, a chapel of ease, stands near the old market; and was built, in 1823, at a cost of £3,400. St. John's church stands in South Lowestoft, opposite the Royal hotel; was built in 1854, at a cost of £5,600; is a cruciform structure, in the decorated English style; and has a tower and spire 140 feet high. Christ church is on the Beach; was erected in 1869; and is in the early English style. An Independent chapel is in London-road; two Baptist chapels are in London-road and Tonning-street; a Wesleyan chapel is in High-street; a Primitive Methodist chapel is on the North-beach; a United Free Methodist chapel is in High-street; and a Sailors' place of worship is in Commercial-road. The Wesleyan chapel was built in 1863, at a cost of £2,500; is in the Italian style, of white brick with Caen stone dressings; and contains 1,250 sittings. Annott's and Wilde's schools have endowments of respectively £34 and £72 a year; and the former dates from 1571. National schools are in Mariner's-score; a British school is in London-road; two infant schools are in High-street; and a mixed school and an infant school are in a part called the Brickfields. The Mutford and Lothingland infirmary is in Lowestoft; and, at the census of 1861, had 12 inmates. Six alms houses were recently erected for six of the poorest master fishermen. The endowed charities amount to £463 a year. The town has high attractions and fine capabilities as a bathing-place. The beach consists of hard firm sand, slightly intermixed with shingle; and there are bathing machines and baths. The death. rate is only 17 per 1,00 0, or 8 less than the average death-rate of London. The local walks, in spite of the presence of a fishery trade and commerce, are very fine. "From Marine-terrace, passing the railway station and the Battery-green, with its reading-room, and in view of the low lighthouse and Stanford floating-beacon, and proceeding by the shore to the part beyond the high lighthouse, the visitor will observe the harbour and piers, the fish-houses, denes, and the picturesque quarter of the fishermen and pilots, and will reach the Ravine, a chasm in the cliffs which admits a fine view of the sea, with the ships in the offing, at this point ordinarily standing in close to the land to avoid the shoals and sands that beset this coast.,, A pretty water-tower in the Italian style is observable in the walk. The cliffs and the beach further from the town offer excellent scope for the rambles of invalids, combine the attractions of good close views and extensive sea-prospects, and form an interesting study to geologists. The effects of slow sea erosion may be largely observed; and fossils of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, stags, molluscs, saurian, and other animals, have been found. The very views from the town's own terraces and streets, perched as it is on and around the most easterly promontory of England, are not a little inspiriting.

"Enthroned upon an ancient hill it rests:

Calmly it lifts its time-worn head, and first

Of all old England's busy towns uplifts

Its orisons and greets the rising Morn...

The ancient harbour was at the outlet of Lake Lothing, was never of much value, and eventually became ob structed. A mound of sand gradually formed between the lake and the sea, and occasioned deep floodings of the low lands by spring tides. The lake extends fully 2 miles westward, with narrow width, to within a mile of the river Waveney; and covers about 161 acres. A work was undertaken in 1827 to form the lake into an inner harbour, and to cut a ship canal thence to the Waveney and toward Norwich; and was completed in 1831, at a cost of £87,000. The inner harbour is 2 miles long, has 3,000 feet of wharfage, and can accommodate vessels of 400 tons at any time of the tide. An outer harbour, or harbour of refuge, was authorized, together with the railway, in 1845; is divided from the inner harbour by a ship-lock 50 feet wide; faces the SE; is formed of two piers of timber and stone-work, rising 14 feet above high-water mark; encloses 21 acres, with a depth of 20 feet, and a width of 800 feet; and has an entrance 160 feet wide, between circular pier-heads, each surmounted by a lighthouse showing a red light. The S pier is 1,300 feet long, and 28 feet wide: and is defended by a parapet, and used as a promenade. The N pier first runs eastward to a length of 700 feet, then goes south-eastward to a length of 300 feet, then goes southward to another length of 300 feet; has a width of 30 feet; and is furnished with cattle-sheds and a double tramway. The dry dock was formed at a cost of £10,000; measures 260 feet in length, 70 feet in width, and 17 feet in depth; and is furnished with a steam factory. The high lighthouse stands on a point a little N of the town; is a circular brick structure, 40 feet high and 20 feet in diameter; and was built in 1676, partly rebuilt in 1778, and improved in 1825 and 1840. The low lighthouse stands on the beach of the Denes; is built of timber; and can be removed from spot to spot, to suit changes which are continually taking place in the fairway by shifting of the sands. Vessels entering the fairway bring the lights into line. A new lighthouse was erected in 1866, on the Ness point, at a cost of more than £7,000; consists almost wholly of boiler-iron work, resting on hidden tubes deeply embedded in the sand, and defended by a granite pitching; and has a bell which is sounded every minute in foggy weather. A floating light is on the Stanford sand, outward from the harbour; and a gong is sounded during foggy weather. Roadsteads, called the N and the S roads, are sheltered by sandbanks, called the Corton and the Newcome sands; and they sometimes, in stormy weather, have at anchor so many as 700 vessels. The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of 1864, were 162 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 3,784 tons; 45 large sailing-vessels, of aggregately 4,379 tons; 4 small steam-vessels, of aggregately 70 tons; and 2 large steam-vessels, of jointly 569 tons. The vessels which entered in 1863, were 67 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 7,228 tons, from foreign countries; 92 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 14,808 tons, from foreign countries; 7 British steamvessels, of aggregately 3,117 tons, from foreign countries; 706 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 62,714 tons, coastwise; and 52 steam-vessels, of aggregately 13,296 tons, coastwise. The vessels which cleared in 1863, were 24 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 1,577 tons, to foreign countries; 37 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 8,165 tons, to foreign countries; 1 British steam-vessel, of 147 tons, to foreign countries; 146 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 8,426 tons, coastwise; and 8 steam-vessels, of aggregately 1,720 tons, coastwise. The amount of customs in 1862 was £3,605; in 1867, £3,080

The herring and mackerel fisheries are a chief source of the commerce. The herring fishery begins about a fortnight before Michaelmas, and continues till Martinmas; and the mackerel fishery is carried on from May till the middle of July. The catch of mackerel, in 1802, was only 30,000; but, in 1853, was 30,750,000, valued at £10,000. The vessels employed in the fisheries are about 25 luggers, each of from 40 to 50 tons, and about 50 boats, each of from 20 to 25 tons; and the nets, together with those of Yarmouth, are computed to have an aggregate length of about 200 miles. The fish-market adjoins the harbour. is an extensive range of buildings; and serves for receiving the fish at landing, for the sale of them by auction, and for the despatch of them to neighbouring curing-houses, and to London and other places by railway. The corn-market is held at the assembly rooms. Ship-building, boat-building, sail-making, rope-making, oilcake-making, and the working of oil and flour mills are carried on. The town has a head post office‡ in High-street, a receiving post office‡ in South Lowestoft, a telegraph station at the harbour, a police station in London-road, a custom-house near the harbour, four banking offices, and six hotels or chief inns; enjoys exemption from jury-service, in consequence of being part of an ancient royal demesne; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and publishes two weekly newspapers. Its limits, as defined by a local improvement act of 1854, comprise the parishes of Lowestoft and Kirkley. Pop. in 1851,6,580; in 1861,10,663. Houses, 2,290.

The parish of Lowestoft comprises 1,485 acres of land, and 200 of water. Real property, £33,258; of which £300 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851,6,781; in 1861. 9,534. Houses, 2,051. The chapelry or ecclesiastical parish of St. John was formed out of a section of the parish in 1854, and had a pop. of 2,829 in 1861; and another chapelry, called Christchurch, was constituted in 1860. The head living is a rectory, that of St. J. is a vicarage, and that ofis a p. curacy, in the diocese of Norwich. Value of the rectory, £350;* of each of the p. curacies, £300.* Patron of the rectory, the Bishop of Norwich; of the two chapelries, Trustees.-The subdistrict excludes Kirkley parish, but includes nine other parishes. Acres, 13,927. Pop., 12,952. Houses, 2,778.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Lowestoft AP/CP       Lowestoft SubD       Mutford and Lothingland RegD/PLU       Suffolk AncC
Place names: LOTHU WISTOFT     |     LOWESTOFT
Place: Lowestoft

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