H o p t o n - o n - s e aexploring tHe past

By The Hopton Village History group

Front Cover Images : Reproduced by kind permission of Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich Branch :- Drawings Illustrative of the Historical Account of Lowestoft in the County of Suffolk and adjoining Parishes in the Hundred of Mutford and Lothingland collected by Isaac Gillingwater 1807 Ref : 193/2/1 Hopton Illustrations

Norfolk Record Office PC 26/1 - Hopton Parish Council 1813 - Corton, Hopton and Gorleston inclo-sure award with map of Hopton 1813

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Published by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust, 2016Copyright Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust

The Hopton Ruined Church Project was funded by:

tHe Hopton ruined cHurcH project

This book celebrates the Hopton Ruined Church Project, a repair, training and community engagement initiative undertaken by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust. The aim is to preserve and protect this valuable heritage asset and engage a wider community in research, recording and training. St. Margaret’s Ruined Church, Coast Road, Hopton-on-Sea is the oldest surviving building in Hopton but over many years of neglect it has been increasingly hanging in the balance of being lost forever. With the help of funding and the tireless work of so many people over several years the future of this very special place has been secured for the community, visitors and generations to come.

Darren Barker Project Organiser, Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust

While there has been every endeavour made to trace any copyright that exists on the material in the book, there is sometimes occasions where the owner of the copyright is unknown. If there is any breach in copyright found in this book, please accept full apologies and the publisher will be happy to include a full acknowledgement in any future edition.

All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to fund any future maintenance of Hopton Ruined Church by the Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust.

www.greatyarmouthpreservationtrust.org

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witH tHanks toHopton Village History group Volunteers:

Abi Knight, Alison Mills, Andrew Stebbings, Brenda Waters, Brian Howard, Chris Garratt, David Pratt, Emma Purnell, Gerard Knight, Ivan Bunn,

Jenny Gort, Malcolm Clark, Pauline Burch, Rita Platt, Sandra and Shannon Knight.

Help and contributions have also been made by:Dean and his staff at The White Hart Pub, Hopton Village Hall,

Julie McNair, Michael Pearce, Reverend Roger Key, Stephen Ames, Roger Aldous, Pam Angel, Ken Hicks, Accord Energy Solutions, Bubbles Amusements - Wray Austin, Colin Davies, The Turnstone Pub, PCA Central, Staff and pupils at the Hopton Church

of England Primary School, the Staff at Lowesfoft - Suffolk Records Office, Kate Argyle- English Heritage, Bridget Heriz-Smith, Adrian Barnes,

Ingrid Fairman, the Sunrise Dowsers of Hopton and numerous people who have donated their time and money into getting the project the funding it has needed.

The Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust worked in partnerships with Hopton Parish Council, Great Yarmouth College, Suffolk and Norfolk Archives,

Norfolk Can Inspire, Norvic Archaeology and Medieval Masonry Ltd.

project delivery: Darren Barker (Project Organiser GYPT);

Rachel Harrison (Hopton Ruined Church Project Coordinator 2014/15); Franziska Callaghan ( Hopton Ruined Church Project Manager 2014);

John Briggs, Steven Briggs, Terry Moore, Ian Hardy and Frederique Van Till (Conservation Specialists/trainers); Stuart Armitage (Structural Engineer);

David Aldridge (Conservation Architect) Tim Outlaw (Ecologist);Ivan Bunn, Rita Platt (Historians);

Emma Purnell (Volunteer Support Assistant) Desi Kusheilieva (Intern-Architect)

project Volunteers: Abi Knight, Addy Norris, Alison Mills, Andrew Stebbings, Ben Akerman,

Cathy Mijatovic, Charlie Humphreys, Colin Fordham, Curtis Rumsby, Danielle Lefeurne, Darien Hutchenson, Dave Harwood, Deane Vincent, Dee Bracewell,

Eiko Vahter, Emilie Vince, Emma Purnell, Emma Talbot, Fraser Hannard, Frederique Van Till, Gerard Knight, Graham Mills, Grazvyolas Simanaitis,

Heinrich Laan, Isabel Caldwell, Jean Canham, Jeannette Pickering, Jonathan Swift, Joshua Sewell, Jordan Chettleburgh, Kersti Kivilo, Lance Wallace, Laura Murkin,

Lauren Lonergan, Lauren Rogers, Leslie Francis, Loretta Tubby, Leslie Head, Lucas Patz, Martin Clarke, Michael Pinner, Mikey Winner, Paul Laxton, Paula Beales,

Pauline Burch, Penny Boyton, Phichit Crosbie, Philip Grimshaw, Randel Saveli, Richard Moore, Robert Cousin, Russell Ward, Samantha Woodrow, Sandra Woolsey, Sandra Knight, Sarah Heales, Seth Gilder, Shaun Kerr, Shannon Knight, Siret Kriisa, Skydi Thompson, Stephen Dye, Toby Matthews, Tyler Bleach, Valentina Marchetto,

Wiewen Zhu, William Wallace.

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In 2014 the Hopton Ruined Church Project was launched after many years of fundraising, bid writing and campaigning to preserve the oldest surviving landmark of Hopton and to enable the area to be safely opened up and returned to community use.

The project was led by the Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust who had sucessfully secured the major funding to get the necessary work done through a project designed to offer many opportunities through community engagement, training and volunteering. This included an archaeological dig, conservation training, a village history project, traditional building skills taster sessions and opening up the ruins as part of the Heritage Open Days.

As part of the Village History Project a Village History Book was also to be published, with volunteers and historians being involved in the research journey.

This book is the culmination of work by volunteers who came togeth-er as part of the Village History Project who shared a common inter-est in discovering the history of Hopton-on-Sea. During 2015 the Village History Group which formed, took part in group meetings, field study activities, tours and archive visits as well as devoting their time to doing private research and investigations which they present-ed in a variety of ways to be included in a history book. As we discov-ered there is a lot more history to Hopton which is hidden behind the modern developed village we see to day. Although we have not been able to cover all apsects of what we was able to research in a booklet of this size we hope that the articles included in this book will therefore reignite interest, inspire, enlighten or jolt a few memories to those who read it.

Join us on the rediscovery of the past of Hopton-on-Sea, we hope you enjoy the journey.............

Background image : NRO PC 26/1 - Hopton Parish Council 1813 - Corton, Hopton and Gorleston inclosure award with map of Hopton 1813

prehistoric Hopton - a Brief glimpseby Ivan A. W. Bunn

It is difficult to imagine what Hopton and its environs looked like in pre-historic times! There is some evidence, albeit scant, of human occupation in this vicinity during the Mesolithic Period [10,000 -4,000 BC] in the form of scattered worked flints and flakes. At this early period the sea level would have been much lower than it is today, perhaps by 5 metres. It is impossible to know how much further east the land stretched back then, but it was possibly as far as Scroby Sands and even beyond. Consequently the wet land we see today would have been much drier back then. It would have been heavily wooded with pine and birch but as time passed these would be joined by elm, oak, lime and hazel.

By the start of the Neolithic period [circa 4,000 BC] sea levels would have risen by approximately 4 metres and the area to the north of Gorleston and the Waveney Valley to the west would have become great tidal mud-flats as would those to the south of Lowestoft. By this date the “island” which today we know as Lothingland would have been formed. An “arm” of these mudflats would have stretched eastwards from present day St. Olaves right through to Hopton, laying down the silts that from medie-val times and later would be excavated as peat by the people of Hopton. Archaeological finds from this period include flint tools in the form of hand axes, scrapers, arrowheads, knives and borers have been found in the vicinity, mostly in the lower-lying areas.

During the Neolithic period woodland was cleared and farming was slowly introduced There is evidence of a large pre-historic field system of uncertain date covering an area from Links Road in the north and stretching south on the gentle sloping land towards the present day bun-galows and houses on Noel Close and Rogers Close. This field system, with the present day A12 and Lowestoft Road as its western boundary, was approximately a quarter of a mile wide. Possibly associated with this are the remains of undated prehistoric tracks running almost due south from Gorleston (Woodfarm Way is thought by some to mark the contin-uation of this track to the north-west). The track(s) bisect what today is 6

the large traffic roundabout at the junction of Links Road and Lowestoft road and continued south as far as Valley Farm. Further to the south another section of ancient track heads south-west from the bottom cor-ner of this field system towards Hopton Holiday Village. A Neolithic and early Bronze Age flint-working site was discovered in 1953 towards the extreme south of the Holiday Village.

The field system mentioned above appears to be overlaid by a later Iron Age or early Roman field system with evidence of a settlement towards the north-west close to Toll House Farm.Another undated prehistoric track has been discovered crossing the mod-ern Hopton/Bradwell parish boundary running in a south east direction from Cherry Lane for approximately one mile terminating to the west of the junction of Hall Road with Sidegate Road.

There is much evidence of Bronze Age [2,500BC – 750BC] activity in the Hopton area indicating a substantial, scattered settlement which extended across the whole of the modern parish and beyond. This takes the form of many ring ditches, some of which might indicate the exist-ence of round houses. There is also evidence of a barrow cemetery that stretched from the present day junction of Noel Close with the old Lowest-oft Road in a westerly direction on the gently sloping ground towards the junction of Hall Road and Dorking Road. This appears to have been an important site and possibly the focus of the settlement. It is described in the Norfolk Historic Environment Record database 1 as:. . . one extremely large round barrow, plus sixteen smaller barrows, all ar-ranged in an elongated group. This large barrow appears to have been the focus for the site and may be Neolithic in date. .. Another barrow group is lo-cated to the south and two groups are separated by the narrow and shallow end of the Fritton Valley, which forks in two directions at Hopton House. Two additional ring ditches are located within the vicinity of the barrow

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1 http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF49461-Crop-marks-of-a-Bronze-Age-round-barrow-cemetery&Index=2&RecordCount=1&Session-ID=14fb6d93-dfc3-4a49-947c-fe03a7c0a72f

cemetery, although these have been interpreted as Iron Age to Roman date round house . . . It is possible that some of the other ring ditches recorded as part of the cemetery are also the remains of round houses, as there are several phases of field system and enclosures covering this area. The main focus of the barrow cemetery is an extremely large ring ditch, 82m in diameter. . . The ditch is 1-2.5m wide and is bisected by the Lowestoft Road. Traces of an inner ring ditch are also visible within the southwestern arc of the ring, 3-4m in from the outer ring. A small section of ditch 4m to the south of the main ring also appears to follow the curve of the ditch, al-though this is too fragmentary too suggest that an outer concentric ring also existed. An inner ring ditch, 30m in diameter, is visible within the centre of the larger ring. This surrounds the parching and soilmarks of a former mound up to 26m across. .. The large diameter of this ring ditch around the barrow is quite unusual and it must be assumed that this round barrow was of particular significance and importance. The large size of this barrow and surrounding ring ditch could indicate that it is Neolithic in date. The fact that it appears to act as a focus for the smaller barrows to the west would also suggest that it the earliest element of the cemetery.There are also crop marks of scattered ring ditches on the higher ground to the west of Sidegate Road and south of Hobland Road. Other ring ditches having been recorded on the gently sloping ground to the north of Jay Lane and Longfullans Lane. Many of these sites are not dateable but indicate that from early times this whole area, probably the whole of Lothingland was well-settled.

NOTE: The map opposite gives a somewhat stylised picture of prehistoric Hopton based on details taken from the excellent “Norfolk Heritage Explorer” website at www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/advanced-search. Readers seeking more detailed in-formation are recommended to search this site.ivan a w Bunn

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Anglo Saxon England, under Edward the Confessor, had became a peaceful place, Edward was more concerned with religious matters and building churches than running the country. That was left to Harold Godwinson, he was the son the powerful Earl Godwin. As the First Minister (Prime Minister) it was Harold’s task to keep the country safe and indeed he was very successful. Harold held the Earldom from the Thames to the Wash, and across to Cambridge. He was the Earl of East Anglia.

“Hopton”, was referred to as a “ small enclosed valley in the midst of fens”, a shallow depression created by a pre-glacial outflow. By 1066, Hopton had three established manors held under Wulfsi, who held it under Gyrth Godwinson, Harold’s brother, Gyrth was the Earl of Lothingland.

The first Manor was held by ‘ Thorgar’, who had 80 acres of arable land, 1 freeman, 1 bordar, 1 team (8 oxen) for ploughing, 10 pig woodland, 1.5 acres of meadow ( to produce hay), 1 cob, 5 cattle (for breeding and meat), 8 pigs, 60 sheep, 3 beehives – annual rental value 5s.

The second Manor was held by ‘ Siric’, who had 60 acres of arable land,1freeman, 1bordar, 1 slave, 1 plough, 10 pig woodland, 1.5 acres of meadow, 1 cob, 4 oxen (castrated male cattle, for ploughing back-up), 8 pigs, 69 sheep. - annual rental value 5s.

A third holding of 80 acres, held by both Thorgar and Siric , had 2 ploughs, 2 acres meadow, and worked by 8 freemen, annual rental value 10s. If you add the eight freemen to their superiors (Thorgar and Siric), plus the two bordars and one slave, you have 13 males. If you apply an accepted multiplier of 4.5 you have a notional population of 63 people in Hopton in 1066. All freemen were liable for military service in return for holding land.

Hopton and newton 1066 to 1275 and the demise of newtonby Malcolm Clark

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‘Newton’, was named by the fact that it was a new settlement compared with Corton, Hopton or Gorleston. Held under EarI Gyrth Godwinson by a freeman, ‘Aylmer’, who had 30 acres of arable land and half a plough team (4 oxen),

In January 1066 ‘Edward the Confessor’ died and on the day he was buried, the Witan (council), elected Harold, King. He was not next in line for the throne but was made King by the other Earls because he was a strong ruler and a skilled general. Across the channel ‘William Duke of Normandy’ was furious. He claimed that he had been promised that he would be the next King of England and secured Papal support to raise an army to invade England and take the throne. In October 1066 the ‘Battle of Hastings’ was a turning point in English history, Harold was killed on the battle field and the Normans won the day. Earl Gyrth Godwinson was also killed at the battle alongside his brother Harold. William, was crowned King on Christmas day 1066, and from then on all lands became ‘Owned by the King’. In 1086, William I set in place a survey across the whole of England to find out who lived in the land and what they owned, the outcome was called the ‘Doomsday Book’.

In 1086, in Hopton, there were two smallholders with one slave and eight freemen, there was one Lords plough team and a three men plough team. In Newton there was one household ( very small), 1 freeman and ½ plough team. William I died in 1087, and in the early reign of William II, it is thought that Thorgar and Sirics Manors came together as one unit and passed into the control of the Bishops of Norwich, who were also the Priors of ‘Most Holy Trinity’ Benedictine convent and Cathedral Church. The church had become the landlords of the Manor of Hopton. This arrangement of Ecclesiastical overlords lasted down through the centuries, but land was eventually sold off into private hands. The 80 acre holding, with eight freemen, is not mentioned at this stage, but it was not part of the transfer to the Bishops of Norwich. The Bishops encouraged the building of churches but would not pay for them, that was down to money having been raised locally by subscription.

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The Island of Lothingland – A Doomsday and Hundred Roll Handbook. By David Butcher. Diagram above by Ivan A. W Bunn.

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communities about the time of ‘doomsday’ (1086).

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In 1274 Edward I set in place a survey to find who held what, and who was entitled to it. The outcome became known as the ‘Hundred Rolls’. It was an administrative arrangement where the land was divided into one hundred settlements. Hopton and Newton were in the ‘Lothingland Half Hundred’. The other fifty settlements were named Mutford, therefore making it the ‘Mutford and Lothingland Hundred’.In 1275, in Hopton, Alan de Wymindhal, Richard, son of the parson and wife and others held parcels of land under the Bishops of Norwich. A six part fees, thought to be the 80 acres holding, was now held by (1) Geoffrey Malfey, Prior of Norwich and others, (2) Robert son of John and others, (3) Thomas Shire, Prior of Norwich, (4) John the Frenchman and others, (5)Ralph and John Bruman, (6) Gerald Gundwine and others. It can be seen since William II gave the Bishops of Norwich land in Hopton, they have since increased their holding by two parts of a six part fees, making it clear that the church was now the Lords of the Manor in Hopton.Unlike Hopton, Newton, alongside Corton, had remained with the King as their overlord. In Newton, in 1275 , a two part fees was held by Roger Garneys, Ralph of Smallmoor, Henry Costin and three named others. Another two part fees was held by John Bacon, Ralph Aslac, Geoffrey Lock, Thomas Benne and others. The church, however, had John son of Symon, Prior of Norwich, and others, holding land for the Bishops, as part of a two part fees, together with William of Newton. The Manor, that was held by Aylmer in 1066, was now held by John and Adam of Newton, they had a 106 acres under the plough. The amount of land accredited to a holding, is land under cultivation. This sometimes increased or decreased during different periods.

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The demise of newton.

In the 10th century Yarmouth was on an island, but the northern entrance of the river Yare to the sea started to silt up and by 1346 had formed dry land. That caused the river Bure to change its course. It also caused the land, on which Yarmouth became built, to extend south by causing a sand spit to form. This sand spit, eventually, extended as far as Gunton. The river Yare also changed its course, it now flowed past Gorleston, past Newton and Corton and reached the sea at Gunton. This entrance, however, also started to silt up.

In 1347, Yarmouth had a fleet of 80 ships of 100 tons, 53 ships of 60 tons, 60 barks of about 40 to 60 tons and 250 fishing boats,so entrance to the sea was essential for Yarmouth’s survival. By 1347 a cut through the sand spit had been made at Corton but this had started to silt up by 1375. In the meantime in Newton, Maud de Glanville had held the manor, she was the wife of Roger de Tuddenham and the manor was held in that family until about 1360. It then passed to John de Harling through his marriage to Margery de Tuddenham. Through his descendant Ann de Harling, the Manor was inherited, in about 1502 by her aunt Margaret who was married, incidentally, to another Tuddenham, Sir Robert .A second cut or gap had been made through the sand spit at Yarmouth but this too had started to silt up by 1393. King Henry IV donated £1000 for the cutting of another gap at Newton, and starting in 1408 he released £100 a year until its completion. This cutting became known as the ‘Newton Gap’ and the lane that connected Newton and Hopton was called Newton Gap Road (Beach Road).

Seven gaps were cut in total, the seventh gap is the mouth of the river today, and has remained so since 1567. It is recorded, in the 14th and 15th century, that when the river Yare entered at Newton, the lords of the manor, namely Sir John de Harling, claimed tollage for herring landed there, before the herring travelled onto Hopton.

The Seven Havens from Henry Manships ‘Great Yarmouth’ by AW Ecclestone JP

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From the Tuddenhams, Newton passed by inheritance to Sir Edward Bedingfield, and again from him to his son-in-law, Sir Edward Jermingham of Somerleyton Hall, who died in 1515. The Lordship was purchased, together with that of Corton, from the Jerminghams by John Wentworth who died in 1618, both were inherited from his son, Sir John Wentworth, by Thomas Garneys in 1652. The next Lord, in 1672, was Sir Thomas Allin of Somerleyton and then the manor subsequently passed to the Anguish family (1696), Osborne (1843), Peto (1844), Reeve (1885).

No record of ‘St Mary’s church at Newton, seems to exist, however what is strange is that a will made on the 6th April 1526 by Alexander Smythe of Newton states, “To be buried in the churchyard of ‘Our Lady’ in Newton. Again, his son, Nicholas Smythe of Corton, requests the same, for his death, in 1557. So in the late sixteenth century there seems to be no indication of Newton’s fate.

The demise of Newton would have been by steady coastal erosion, once the sand spit had gone and the sea had full access to the coast. Newton had been referred to as ‘Newton Cross’, this may have been a reference to a cross that stood on the green, at Newton, attributed to John a’ Lane, it was a large cross set in a stone base. A reference in ‘Whites Directory’, states that the stone slipped into the sea about 1854 and all vestige of the green had disappeared by 1873, no mention of the cross. Until recently a small triangular section of Newton remained in front of the Royal Air Force radar station on the cliff.

Acknowledgements;This article would not have been written but for the contributions of David Butcher and his book, ‘The Island of Lothingland- A Domesday and Hundred Roll Handbook. Michael Soanes and his ‘Corton History Bulletins’. Chris Brooks, who corrects my mistakes, and help from Ivan Bunn – Suffolk Record Office.

1579 Map from the collection of Tom Martin. (Courtesy of the Suffolk Record Office)

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a Brief History of the ruins by Brian Howard

A ritual or sacred site has been here for Millennia. The old oak stump that was at the east end of the site, which had a 9 foot girth, could have been the original Druidic ritual site, as it would have been in an oak tree grove. There is an ancient Labyrinth just outside the church at the east end.

The church was built in several stages. The original being the south nave, and the north nave added some 100 years later. Later additions being the tower and the north porch.

The church was built as it is now around 1057 – 1200 in the reign of William II, King Rufus, William the conquerors second son. He wasn’t a very well liked King and mysteriously died in a hunting accident.

Reproduced by kind permission of Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich Branch :- Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Suffolk by Isaac Johnson, p97, Hopton Church, Blackbourne Hundred.

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It is possible that there was a Saxon Church at the site of the ruins but this would have been made of wood. It is mentioned in the small Doomsday Book, (there were two books written) in 1087, that there was only five manors or farms in the area. So this was a huge church for the amount of people that would have worshipped here.It had two thatched roofs and everything inside was mostly made from timber. The walls were covered with paintings and murals, all burnt away in the fire. As there were only small windows the inside would have been very dark.In Medieval times churches were used as schools, meeting places and markets, so had no pews and clay floors. In some churches the vicar had lodgings in the Tower. With the later advent of Catholicism, the sermons started to increase from a quick thanksgiving for crops etc, to one or two hours of preaching so pews were installed in the naves to make life more comfortable during these sermons.After a morning service in January 1865, with a gale blowing outside, it is believed that a old pot belly stove that had not been put out ignited the fire that soon engulfed the whole church.As the interior fittings were mainly timber and with two thatched roofs, the whole place went up like a furnace. This destroyed ancient murals painted on the walls and many church records which were kept there. The remains of which can be seen at Norwich Archive Centre. Villagers did try to save the organ, but failed to get it through the porch door resulting in all that remained of it was a lump of lead!.... Little did they know that the pipes could have be removed!

The large sand / pink coloured stones located around the doorways and windows (quoins), come from Caen in France the same which was used in Lincoln and Norwich Cathedral. It has turned pink due to the heat of the fire that destroyed the church.

The old St. Margarets Church can also boast the longest serving Sextant in the country, John Hodges, who is buried at the ruins his gravestone is at the east end of the south wall. His relatives visited a couple of years ago. The churchyard was used well into the 18th century and

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a temporary mortuary was kept in the south western corner near the tower, with access via South entrance. The graves and headstones were levelled in the 1960s when the church yard was deconsecrated, most were then lost or buried.

Michael & Mary at the ruins.

The ruins hold a very special secret within the walls and beyond.The church is positioned on the crossing point of two powerful earth energy lines that wind their way down the country to Lands End in Cornwall. This is an ancient pilgrim route, that follows the Beltane or Mayday Sunrise angle of 65 Degs. There have been many visitors who come especially to experience the calm and tranquil setting of the church, which is a truly sacred place. Many international pilgrims have visited St. Margarets Ruined Church over the past few years and dona-tions from far and wide have helped contribute toward the restoration work funding. The Michae and Mary lines are dowseable and have been traced along their entire length.

image: http://www.jiroolcott.com/images/St_Michael_St_Mary_Alignment_Map_Big.jpgFor further information visit http://oldstmargarets.com/

discoveries of the ruins pastby Rachel Harrison

During the routine conservation works on the tower in 2015, Stone-mason John Briggs discovered two stone heads or “Grotesques” em-bedded in the fabric of the tower walls. One appears to be more humanistic in appearance while the other is more animalistic. It is thought these heads date from the 12th Century. They could have been resused from either this church or a nearby building after be-coming out of archictectural favour. Other finds have included some tile fragments showing an embossed shell design and some that had been decorated in a dark green and yellow glaze. Fragments of glass littered the external walls, showing visible signs of fire and smoke damage. There is still evidence of lead and glass work still remain-ing in some of the tracery if you look for it with a blue coloured fragment found still to exist in the north east gable tracery. Unfor-tunately much has to be left to the imagination as to what once the interior would have looked like, but it is made much easier to have these remaining clues to give us an idea.

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The sayers tomb

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According to the book “The History and Antiquities of the Hun-dreds of Blything and Part of Lothingland in the County of Suffolk” by the Reverend Alfred Suckling, Vicar of of Barsham, published in 1847, there were a number of memorials to the Sayers family in Old St Margaret’s, before it was burnt down in 1865. A large badly dam-aged memorial stone slab are now the last visual remains of these and also a stone which marks the area of the vault, which was partly excavated in an archaeological dig which took place as part of the conservation project in August 2014. This had last been explored in October 1981, when a group from the YMCA led by the Reverend Chapman unearthed the brick steps and vault found to contain seven coffins stacked neatly one upon the other. At the time only two of the inscriptions were able to be identified, that of, :- Maria Sayers - died 5th July 1868, aged 77 years and Chas Edward Sayers who died April 13th 1831 aged 2yrs 5mths. The tithe map and register of 1844 shows Christopher Sayers (husband of Maria) as being the owner but not occupier of a house, gardens and lands, now known as Hopton House. The burial registers show that he died in 1857 at the age of 61 years. One of his relations John Sayers died 13th October 1822 aged 40, when his ship the Revenue “Ranger” Cutter perished on Happisburgh Sands during a sudden storm. He was Commander of the vessel from which 29 perished and 7 were saved.

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grave Mysteries - piecing together the past.....Once standing side by side in the churchyard of the ruins the few surviving monuments are indeed only a fraction in number to what must have once filled these gardens. As part of our Village History Group activities, we con-ducted a grave survey in the old ruins, recording standing and broken graves scattered around the site. From this survey some volunteers went further into researching the people that they had been originally erected in memory of. These are just a few of them......

The people of Hoptons pastBased on the surveys and research by:-Andrew Stebbings, Pauline Burch, Brenda Waters, Ivan Bunn, Rita Platt, Sandra, Abi, Gerard and Shannon Knight.

williaM BallstHe BeloVed HusBand

oF angelina Ballsand son oF williaM and saraH Balls

wHo died jan 2nd 1899aged 40 Years

William Balls was a rural postman who died while carrying out his postal duties on Monday 2nd January 1899. His death and subsequent inquest was reported in the local press at the time.He was a Hopton man and his father lived at the White House Farm (found on the other side of the A12). At the time of his death he lived at Gorleston with his wife and family.18 months before his death he contracted flu which developed into pneumonia, leaving him with a slowly developing cavity in his left lung. The Saturday before his death he had visited his doctor with a bad cough and pains in his left side. The doctor advised him rest or he would undoubtedly die; which Balls supposedly replied “What am I to do? I must do my duty” adding that his work had been so heavy over the Christmas period that he had been unable to rest.

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His round was about 16 miles. He started his daily round at 6am and worked until 9.30am and then began again at 4.20pm finishing at 6.30pm carrying mail of a maximum weight of 35lbs. At 10.00 on the morning of his death, a complaint was received from Hopton that the mail had not been delivered so a search was arranged. Mean-while at 10.30 Robert Hales, a local farm worker discovered William Balls collapsed in a field he was ploughing. The field he was found coincidently belonged to William Ball’s father and was 10 minutes walk from White House Farm. Willam Balls left behind a pregnant wife and a family, and was buried in the churchyard of the old ruined church of St. Margarets. There is some belief that he is the ghost of the A12 sometimes referred to as “the old man of Hopton” with sev-eral similar sitings by various witnesses.

References to The Old Man of Hopton by Ivan Bunn, The Lantern magazine Winter 1981 edition.

William Balls was born in 1858 in Chediston, his parents were William and Sarah Ann Balls.1861- Turnpike Road, Hopton. 5 Children William, Henry, Charles, Harriett and Elizabeth.1871 – Cottage in Hopton. 2 children William and sister Elizabeth1881 – William Balls junior in Blyford, Farm Servant indoors to Elijah and Mary Ann Phillips1881 – father living at Whitehouse, Chapel Road, Hopton with wife and Fanny H rice.1866 – Daughter Harriet Died1891 – William Balls junior now a Rural Postman, Frances Harriett rice is boarder/ servant1892 - William and Angelina (Wright) are married1899 – William Balls junior died1901 – William Balls senior at 161 Beccles Road, Gorleston, retired Farmer now living with Frances H Balls1908 – William senior died aged 84angelina Balls (nee wright) born in 1865. Parents were Benjamin R Wright and Elizabeth L Wright. 1871 living South Denes Great Yarmouth1911 - Angelina living at 44 Lower Cliff Road, Gorleston with children William (17), Ethel (16), Benjamin (14) and Arthur (12) occupation Charwoman. She died in 1946 aged 80.

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grave detecting...A badly broken stone on the north side of the ruins with “Son” and “1818” the only information remaining would seem hard to trace. Yet as there was only two people recorded in the burials register in 1818; Andrew was able to detect it was either:- robert tubby (husband of Mary)

15/02/1818. or the more logical link, william denton born 1789 buried 06/12/1818 (aged 29), his parents were John and Elizabeth Denton.

For the full grave survey see Hopton-on-Sea Parish Council Website.

charles wright was born in Lound and was buried 25/02/1859 aged 27. Charles father, John Wright was born 1793 in Hopton and his mother Elizabeth (Goodram) born 1797. They were married in Burgh St. Peter on 28/10/1817. John Wright died in 1880.

Looking through the census gives us an insight to the families life:-

1841 – they lived in Hopton. John is an agricultural laborour with children Ann (11), Charles (9), Celsa (7).1851 – they lived on Chapel Road, Hopton, John a Farmer/ Gardener, wife Elizabeth and son Charles (19) who is a agricultural laborour.1861 – they still lived on Chapel Road, Hopton with wife Elizabeth and John Share (5)1871 – lived in Hopton with wife Elizabeth and Grandson John Share

sacred to tHe MeMorY oF

cHarlestHe BeloVed son oF

joHn and eliZaBetH wrigHtwHo died

1st FeBruarY 1859

My Family Mysteryby Brenda Waters

My ancestors lived in Hopton and Lound they were the DENTONS and WRIGHTS. Mary Ann Denton who was my great great grandmother was born in Hop-ton, her parents were Charles, who was a butcher in Hopton,

and her mother was also called Mary Ann. In the 1861 census Mary Ann Denton was married to Henry Wright and lived in Chapel Road, Hopton. Henry was an Agricultural labourer and they had 2 children. In the 1871 census they lived at Bunker Hill in Lound with 6 children plus two lodgers, Ellen Manning and son Henry Man-ning. In the 1881 census Mary Ann lived in Browston Road, Lound and stated as being “unmarried“ using her maiden name of Denton, along with 2 children also using the name Denton. At this time Hen-ry Wright was shown to be in Lowestoft Hospital. In 1891 Mary Ann still lived in Browston Road under the name of Denton, while Henry Wright now lived with his new wife Ellen Manning and 4 children at Bunker Hill, Lound. In the 1881 census Ellen Manning lived at Bunker Hill, Lound with 5 children [Henry Wrights] while 2 of his children was still with Mary Ann . This family history research has led now ask why had Mary Ann re-verted back to her maiden name of Denton to be classed as unmar-ried? Also when and why had Henry Wright married Ellen Manning, (10 years his younger) who had previously lived with them and why they had cared for some of Mary’s children? These are questions i am still trying to find the answers to!

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notable Families of Hoptonby Pauline Burch

Besides the Sayers family in Hopton there were also some other notable families living in Hopton in the 1800s some of who were buried at the ruins. sir edmund Henry knowles lacon In the 1851 Census Edmund Lacon lived with his family and servants in Hopton House.He was a member of the Lacon Brewing and Banking family in Great Yarmouth and the family seat was at Ormesby House in Ormesby St. Michael. His father was one of the founders of the bank Lacon Youll and Co which eventually becames Lloyds Bank.He was a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Norfolk and in 1852 became a Conservative MP for Great Yarmouth.

adMiraljaMes HanwaY

pluMridge kcBNOVEMBER 25th 1863

Aged 75

“ALL THAT THEY ALSO WHOM GIVEN ME BE WITH ME”

ALSOgeorgina ladY pluMridge

HIS WIFEDAUGHTER OF

COLONEL SKINNERAPRIL 14th 1897

His grave is on the north side of St. Margarets Ruined Church, Hopton.

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admiral sir james Hanway plumridge kcB MpBorn in London in 1787. After joining the Royal Navy in 1805 he took part in the battle of Trafalgar under Captain Hope. He later mar-ried the daughter of Rear Admiral George Hart who fought under Nelson. He was also involved in several battles at sea. One time whilst in the navy in 1849, he served as acting C in C pro tem until the arrival in 1850 of Rear Admiral Charles Austen who was the brother of Jane Austen. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in 1855 and was made Admiral in 1863. In the 1861 Census he lived with his family and servants in Hopton Hall. He died in 1863 and was later commemorated in a beautiful stained glass window on the west side of the new St Margarets Church, which sadly is no longer there. (ref p812 1869 Kellys Directory) It is stated that his maternal niece Catherine German is the grt grt grt grandmother of David Cameron.

Mr james Henry orde In the 1871 Census he lived with his family and servants in Hopton House. He is noted as Justice of the Peace for Suffolk. The Orde family had the new St Margarets Church built in the garden of their property of Hopton House in 1866 after the old St Margarets was destroyed by fire in 1865, and thereafter played an important part of the village. James Orde married Margaret Barclay Gurney in 1856 when he was a Banker and in the 1861 Census they lived with her father and fam-ily in North Runcton Hall, Norfolk. Her father was Daniel Gurney a Banker who belonged to the Gurney Banking family of Earlham Hall Norwich. Daniels father was John Gurney who was the brother of Elizabeth Fry the prison reformer. James Orde originally came from Jersey (Channel Isles) and his moth-er was the daughter of the 6th Duke of Beaufort.

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The Banhams – 31 railway cottages, station road, Hopton-on-sea

Robert William Banham and his wife Emily (nee Botwright), lived at 31 Railway Cottages (Station Road), since they were first built for the rail-way workers on the building of the railways. Robert was a platelayer for the Great Eastern Railways and laid much of the track for the operation of trains from Great Yarmouth through Gorleston, Hopton and Corton to Lowestoft. He also became foreman platelayer for the L.N.E.R and was a servant for the railway company for 35 years upon his death. He was also standard bearer for the Hopton and Corton branch of the British Legion and was vice chairman of the Hopton Hart Slate Club. On his death in 1934, he left a widow, one son and five daughters at the age of 56.

Robert was formerly in the Army and served throughout the Boer War with the 2nd Norfolk Regiment. He rejoined on the outbreak of War and served with the Norfolks in France where he was transferred to the Royal Engineers. He remained with the Engineers mining company on the Western Front until demobilised.

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sorrow and joy for the Banhams:Sadly on the 8th February 1930 the Banhams eldest son Henry Em-manuel died aged 21 years after sometime spent at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.The marriage of their second eldest daughter Evelyn Maud Banham to Mr. Quantril Herbert Stebbings of Oulton Broad ended in her untimely death at the birth of a daughter on 3rd December 1932. She was aged 22 years. On a happier occasion a double wedding took place for their daugh-ters Beatrice and Roberta on 26th December 1933. Beatrice Emily Banham married Stanley George Sharman and Roberta Mary Ban-ham to George Lewis Collins. Their wedding photographs were taken the following year during a warmer time of year!

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Images and information kindly donated by Pam Angel

a Brief History of Hopton school written by C.E. Sherwood, Headteacher, dated October 1985.

The first school at Hopton was a little black shed situated in Station Road near the site of the present village hall. The few children who attended paid fees – at one time 2½d a week. Attendance was irregular for many of the children went to work in the fields three days a week.Irregular attendance at the school was indeed prevalent, right up to the 1930’s. Children were kept away for a variety of reasons including cow-keeping, crow-scaring, haymaking, blackberrying, acorn-gather-ing and weeding turnips. Whenever the weather was bad the attend-ance also went down with a bump as many children had to travel quite a distance from Gorleston, Blundeston and Bradwell. Illness too took its toll of pupils, and often the school was closed and cleaned thoroughly when a particular epidemic was spreading. Ringworm, diptheria, nits, whooping cough, scabies, influenza, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken-pox and even smallpox were the major ailments.The building on the old Lowestoft Road bears the date 1861, but no re-cords of the school exist prior to 1864 when it was called The National School of Hopton. Run by a Mistress, with two older girls serving as monitresses, it must have been a delightful and commodious school for the size of the village in those days. It catered for approximately fifty children ranging in age from three to fourteen.All over the country the Church of England had pioneered in starting schools about this time, and out of those beginnings has grown the state system of Education as we know it. The Vicar and Church-wardens appoint-ed and paid staff. Cler-gy frequently visited the school. Annual examinations and inspections of work in Scripture and the Cate-chism were carried out.

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The Vicar took a weekly as-sembly and an R. E. lesson with the older children. A practice that still occurs to this day. Scripture played a very important part in the school curriculum. So did needle-work and gardening. Read-ing, English and Topicwork

received lesser attention. Arithmetic was not dealt with sufficiently and poor standards were criticised annually by the Inspectorate.As the years ticked by the School began to receive State Aid and be-came Hopton Voluntary Aided School. This meant the East Suffolk County Council paid most of the expenses of running the school and assumed a large measure of control. Greater state control saw improvements in standards and a wider curriculum.From the early 1900’s onwards the log books record numerous visits from inspectors, advisers, education officers, managers, the attend-ance officer, the school doctor, nurse, dentist and optician. Phys-ical activities were introduced in force and included football, net-ball, swimming, cricket, athletics, country dancing, touch-rugby and Danish rounders. More and more emphasis was placed on the 3 R’s.During the Second World War the school’s facilities were stretched to breaking point by the arrival of a dozen evacuees and their teacher from Dagenham. With the recall of their teacher the children were later send to Lound. During the last year of the war another score of evacuees was absorbed. During hostilities windows were shuttered, air-raid practice evacuations took place, “alerts” were frequent, gun-fire caused complications with the stove, damage was caused to the rood and ceilings, and lessons were often disturbed by the roar of aeroplanes. Throughout all this the school carried on as normal. Half-days were given for blackberrying, the piano tuned, tulips were planted, Scholarship examinations were sat, the nurse visited, Empire Day was celebrated with Maypole dancing and nature walks were taken!

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On the 1st April, 1974, boundary changes brought the school under the County of Norfolk Education Committee. Eight years later the school was re-organised to cater for children aged four to eight and re-named Hopton-on-Sea Voluntary Controlled First School.

In 1983 the number of pupils on roll went down to 21 and fears of closure were high in the minds of villagers. However, since that time almost 300 residences have been built and more are planned. Hopton’s growth has already been reflected in our numbers, which now stand at 54. The school’s future is assured!

above: an extract from a unpublished works “A History of Hopton School 1861 -1985” by C.E. Sherwood, Headteacher, dated October 1985.

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2016.....The Hopton Church of England Primary School as it is now called at its present location on Coast Road, now accommodates 193 children aged from 4 to 11 years. A chair from the old school designed to keep pupils sitting up straight during lessons, now resides in the entrance as a reminder of the past.

Left : the Hopton School christmas tree entry into the St. Nicholas Minster Christmas Tree and Crib Exhibition in December 2015 with the theme of the Hopton Ruined Church Project and the gargoyle head discoveries.

Images kindly donated by Pam Angel and Roger Aldous

East Anglia has historically been a collection of small villages within open fields. A decade and a half into the 21st century some might say it still is!

Nevertheless in the late 19th century there was a nationwide growth in seaside holidays with many new developments at coastal towns and railway companies busied themselves linking towns via villages in order to make their fortune. Very often there were hugely optimistic estimates of the amount of traffic that would be generated which in a majority of cases never materialised but such triviality did not quash the Victorian entrepreneur.

In the 1890’s, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft were extant seaside re-sorts of almost one hundred years standing and Gorleston already had a tramway and ferry to provide reasonable access and was seeing rapid growth. To the contemporary mind it would make sense that if trans-port links could be improved to the intermediate villages of Hopton and Corton, which were at the time only accessible by horse and cart, these would develop and provide wealth. Both Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft also had busy fishing fleets and there was potential for fish traffic on-wards to London and the Midlands. Hence the concept of a coastal line between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft was conceived via Gorleston, Hopton and Corton.

In November 1896 the Midland and Great Northern Railway (M&GN) proposed a plan for a coastal railway from a new junction at Caister Road, roughly where New Town, Great Yarmouth is situate today, and Yarmouth Beach station to a terminus at Lowestoft close to the Her-ring Basin, Battery Green Road, the justification being development of holiday traffic and fish traffic from Lowestoft. If this proposal had gone

Hopton-on-sea railway lineby Chris Garratt

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Ticket supplied by Ken Hicks

ahead the alignment of the railway line would have been quite differ-ent to the one actually built as in the village of Hopton trains would have passed just behind the White Hart public house but also cross-ing Newton Gap Road (now known as Beach Road). However, on 18th March 1897 the Great Eastern Railway (GER) reached an agree-ment with the M&GN whereby they would not oppose the plan for a coastal route from Great Yarmouth to Lowestoft and later that year an Act of Parliament was granted to enable construction of the line. The M&GN ran the line from Yarmouth Beach to Gorleston North and the GER ran the remainder of the line to Coke Oven Junction

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Left: A 1912 Railway Clearing House map showing the coastal section of the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway (in dotted line) and connecting lines

just outside Lowestoft Central station with M&GN being allowed to operate their trains on this section also.

Oddly, in 1898 Drake and Gorham Electric Traction Company pro-posed a tramway (under the Light Railways Act 1896) to extend the Great Yarmouth to Gorleston tramway through Hopton, Corton and Lowestoft to Kessingland and it would have been known as the East Anglian Light Railway. On 12th May 1899 a Public Enquiry was held at Lowestoft and due to strong opposition the Light Railway Commis-sioners rejected the application but if it had ever got past the planning stage it was intended to pass through Hopton village in the centre of the main road of the time, now the old Lowestoft Road. Interestingly when viewing the plans it is noted that land to the East of Warren Road was classified as being in the Parish of Corton but land to the West was Parish of Hopton. Presumably this was a remnant of the time when Hopton was not coastal at all and the village of Newton extended from Corton to Gorleston land-locking Hopton.

On 2nd November 1898 the M&GN and GER formed the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway Committee (N&SJRC) to manage the new line and tenders were requested for construction. J Stratton of Car-diff were the least expensive at £155,000-0s-0d and Mark & Newell of Bootle the most expensive at £215,872-10s-3d. Baldry & Yerburgh of London had their tender accepted at a cost of £168,733-14s-4d but by the time the N&SJRC acceptance had been forwarded the contractor was busy with another project and could not undertake the work. The job finally went to Oliver & Sons of Rugby for £178,140-8s-1d. This would equate to approximately £174 million today which appears in-credibly economical for the work involved but then labour was cheap at the beginning of the 20th Century and in perspective a Station Mas-ter would earn around £80 per annum. The new railway had there-fore cost almost £10,000 more than it should have done before con-struction even started although modern Accountants may question

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how such a civil engineering project taking several years to build could be estimated to the nearest penny! John Wilson of the GER was ap-pointed as Chief Engineer in 1901 and construction com-menced.

Just a year later 75% of required earthworks and 12 of the 22 re-quired bridges were completed and most of the stations buildings were in situ. Track laying began in May 1902 with signalling of the plain final GER upper quadrant type and goods sheds were installed during the summer and autumn. An electric telegraph was installed in early 1903 and the overall cost of the 9 miles 11 chains double track line including land purchase (£290 per acre at Hopton) was £24,232 per mile.Without fanfare or excessive publicity, a GER train left Lowestoft Cen-tral station at 07:40 on Monday 13th July 1903 bound for Yarmouth South Town. The line was open for business although for some un-known reason the N&SJRC felt it undesirable to have an opening cere-mony. Railway notices were issued by N&SJRC but station signage was either M&GN or GER almost as if the N&SJRC did not wish to admit ownership of the railway. In fact they never even owned or operated any trains services being provided by M&GN and GER until 1923 when these companies were absorbed into “The Big Four” and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) ran services until the nationalisa-tion of 1948 and British Railways. The N&SJRC ceased to exist in 1936.

The first 3 months of operation were very successful returning an oper-ating profit of £805 but the following 9 months from September 1903 to June 1904 gave a loss of £1654 which is indicative of the future for the railway where the winter months receipts were less than a third of the summer 3 months. In fact Hopton and Corton stations turned out to be unmitigated disasters commercially since 8 M&GN and 4 GER trains

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Image kindly supplied by Pam Angel

Hopton Railway Workers

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had to be run even if there was no one to use them. In 1911 less than 1000 passengers used Corton Station i.e. under ½ passenger per train that stopped there so in the winter of 1912 the timetable was reduced to 5 M&GN and 4 GER trains per day. Direct express trains from Lon-don and the Midlands to Great Yarmouth used the line never stopped at these intermediate stations and the expected holiday resort devel-opments never took place.

Staff accommodation was almost impossible in 1907 at Hopton and Corton so a station house and two railwayman’s cottages were built at each site at a cost of £796. The Hopton buildings can still be seen front-ing onto Station Road which is one of the few reminders in the actual village as to the route. A water supply was also run from Lowestoft to supply the station and associated buildings.

To try and gain agricultural traffic a sugar beat shute was install in the Hopton goods yard in 1913 but World War 1 was to intervene and ser-vices were suspended in January 1917 until July 1919 due to wartime economies. The following summer saw the first holiday camp appear in the village which has been the economy backbone of Hopton ever since but whilst these were being built 5,000 tonnes of fish and the migrant Scottish women that processed the catch were transported each herring season.

On 18th July 1932 Hopton Station was renamed Hopton-on-Sea Sta-tion to avoid confusion with that of the similarly named village near Diss and by 1936 only one fish train passed through the station each day leaving Lowestoft Central at 15:15.

Again war intervened and the line was singled from June 1942 to March 1948 with the other main line effectively becoming a siding to store surplus wagons. The line was bombed during World War ll and Hopton-on-Sea Station escaped damage but Gorleston North Station was damaged beyond repair and never re-opened. The service re-in-

stated following the war was for 6 trains per day 2 M&GN running to Yarmouth Beach and 4 GER to Yarmouth South Town but on 21st September 1953 the Yarmouth Beach branch and station closed and all M&GN services to Hopton-on-Sea were withdrawn.

At this time two Pullman carriages, CC168 Palmyra and CC169 Grosvenor, were permanently parked at Hopton-on-Sea as camping coaches and despite it being obvious that the station was not commer-cially viable the replacement of steam trains by diesel multiple units resulted in an increased service in the winter of 1957 of 15 hourly trains per day from 07:29 to 21:29, the most intensive service that the station ever saw and for a village whose resident population numbered only a few hundred. Buoyed by this renewed optimism, discussions in 1960 took place regarding using Yarmouth South Town station as the North-ern terminus for direct London to Great Yarmouth trains. This would have brought much needed custom for the railway and by this time flourishing holiday trade. Unfortunately the decision was taken in 1962 to improve Yarmouth Vauxhall instead which made the London to Great Yarmouth route via Ipswich and Norwich effectively sealing the fate of the coastal line. This was not lost on Dr. Beeching and the infamous report of 1963 recom-

Above: Hopton-on-Sea Railway Station circa late 1950’s to early 1960’s.

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mended closure of Yarmouth South Town to Lowestoft North in its entirety.

13th July 1964 saw the cessation of freight services at the goods yard and in February 1965 the local press reported that one side of the station buildings at Hopton-on-Sea were to be demolished together with disconnection of signals presumably in preparation for the sub-sequent line singling. The final freight train ran through the station on 4th November 1967 and it was now to be worked as an unstaffed halt on a single line with all trains having a conductor on board. All signal boxes on the line were closed.

In 1966 the fare from Lowestoft Central to Hopton-on-Sea was 1s-3d (6.25p) one way. A pint of beer at the White Hart or Turnstone would have been about 1s-10d (9.17p).

The 2nd May 1970 saw the line closed completely surviving the Beeching Report recommendation by over 7 years mainly because it was never intended to be reliant on freight, despite there being small goods yards at each of the three intermediate villages, but Hopton did develop a thriving holiday camp trade. The summer months spent supporting the holiday camps subsidised the losses made out of sea-son but the rise of package holidays and personal transportation in the late 1960’s and 1970’s reduced the traffic even during summer time and closure was inevitable.

From October 1971 the railway land from Gorleston to Lowestoft was advertised for sale but it was not until 1981 when Hopton began its development. The embankment soil from under the station was excavated to reveal a 6 metre high arched viaduct structure. With a strange sense of irony this soil was purchase privately and was sold to the contractor responsible for the construction of the new road crossing at Breydon bridge which was built on the site of the M&GN railway crossing; the Yarmouth Beach branch.

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The station site has now been completely obliterated by the housing of Potters Drive, Hopton Gardens and Groomes Close but the Station House and workers cottages serve as a reminder of the location. There are many photographs of trains crossing the over bridge across

Station Road and this was sited where numbers 27a, 27b and 27c now stand. Heading out of the vil-lage the former route is more obvi-ous although Northwards not much remains of the line until beyond Cliff Park school where it is possi-ble to walk the route as a footpath under Bridge Road to the site of Gorleston-on-Sea Station now a roundabout. From there the cur-rent A12 Gorleston bypass follows the track bed over Breydon Water towards the junction for Yarmouth Beach Station. Yarmouth South

Town Station has completely disap-peared under modern development

at Pasteur Way. Heading South from Hopton the course of the line can be picked out by trees and hedges as it crosses Longfullans Lane and then on to a development of bungalows at Corton where the track alignment disappears. However Corton Station building still stands as a private dwelling and is the only remaining station build-ing of the line although the Station houses at Hopton-on-Sea, Corton and Lowestoft North remain. The track alignment can briefly be seen once again as it passes under a road bridge at Corton Long Lane but then Pleasurewood Hills amusement park and the large housing de-velopment through Gunton to Lowestoft North obscure the view. It is possible to pick up the line once again at Lowestoft Road adjacent to the OAT College where it heads out towards the former Coke Oven junction and Lowestoft Central as the Great Eastern Linear Park but here the line disappears for good at the Peto Way retail park.

Above: Pictures kindly supplied by Pam Angel, showing the dismantling of Hopton Railway.

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In the aftermath of the worst train disaster this country has ever expe-rienced, British Rail had to rethink its duty towards passenger safety by bringing into focus the vulnerability of older passenger carrying rolling stock. The disaster happened at 08.17hrs on the 8th August 1952 at Harrow and Wealdstone station when a train from Perth to London Euston ploughed into a stationary commuter train at about 50 to 60 miles per hour. Another train from London Euston to Liv-erpool then ploughed into the wreckage of the first two trains, there were about 1,000 passengers on the three trains The subsequent enquiry put the cause of the disaster down to ‘ Driver Error’, but the high casualty toll, 112 dead and 340 injured, was put down to ‘Lack of Strength’ of passenger rolling stock. The death toll would have been much higher if it had not been for passing USAAF personnel who gave their immediate assistance and saved many lives. The lack of strength of the older carriages was highlighted when three of the carriages, in the collision, were concertinaed into the length of one carriage.

The pullman camping coaches by Malcolm Clark

Above : Hopton Station 4th February 1967. Branch Lines Around Lowestoft – Middleton

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Pullman carriages were owned by the Pullman Car Company, a private company who hired their carriages to British Rail. Both Pull-man and British Rail had gone over to building steel chassis and weld-ed or riveted steel sided carriages. The Pullman Car Company had been in existence since the latter end of the nineteenth century and had amassed a stock of older carriages. The most vulnerable of these where the 12 wheeled type B, H and S models and their weakness was down to the fact that they were built completely of wood, including the bogies, only the wheels, axles and springs where made of metal. The Harrow and Wealdstone disaster was the catalyst for passenger safety thinking and by 1955 the Pullman Board was voicing its con-cern that continued use of older rolling stock was courting a potential disaster. Pullman negotiated with British Rail and a deal was struck that Pull-man would withdraw from service it’s 12 wheel carriages and con-vert them into Camping Coaches at their Preston Park works near Brighton, they would then sell them to British Rail. The conversion meant that they would remove all the luxurious furniture and fittings, and paint over the veneered and parquetry wall panels. This was then replaced with white painted walls, bunk beds, gas lighting and a gas oven. The conversions took place between 1960 and 1962 and during that time eleven of the converted carriages came to East Anglia. Three went to Felixstowe Town station, two went to Heacham, two to Corton, two to Hopton, one to Oulton Broad South and the last one to Lowest-oft North. The two at Hopton were first class and therefore named, Grosvenor (left in the Photo) and Palmyra (right in the photo). Both, at that time, were first class kitchen cars and both had a prestigious past, this fact and their positioning, may have reflected the impor-tance of Hopton as a popular East Coast holiday destination with its five holiday camps and one large caravan park (Speedwell).

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grosvenor. It was built in 1908 by (Metropolitan Amal-gamated, Lancaster) as a 25 seat first class buf-fet car. Its interior was in the style of “Adams” with Spanish mahog-any inlaid with satin-wood, green leather covered seating and a light green axminster

carpet with a “Fluer de Lys” pattern in self colours. The purpose of ‘Grosvenor’ , as it was with all first class Pullman passenger carriages, was to supply luxury surroundings and comfort to the aristocratic and wealthy passengers who used them. They could openly display their wealth and upper class life-style on their journey to the fashionable south coast watering places. These resorts were specially favoured by royal patronage, particularly Brighton and Eastbourne. Travelling there from their London mews or city mansions they would go to the south coast for the August and September summer season. The service be-came the prestigious ‘Southern Belle’ route operated by LBSCR (Lon-don Brighton and South Coast Railway). Grosvenor was built the same year that the ‘Southern Belle’ was inaugurated and the service ran from the new station of London Victoria. It was one of a new generation of Pullman cars to be built entirely in the United Kingdom. Previously cars were manufactured in America and sent over as a flat pack to be assembled here. It was the first Pullman car on the LBSCR to be fitted with a comprehensive kitchen complete with a Fletcher Russell cooking range giving it the description of “Kitchen Car’’. Several alterations were made over the intervening years. In 1931 its seating was reduced to 20. In 1936 it was rebuilt at Preston Park, Brighton. The roof was lowered by one foot; louvre and sash windows

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were replaced and a new set of table lamps, armchairs and tables in-troduced. The seating was reduced to only 8 passengers to make way for a new long bar with eleven stools and it then became a substitute for the ‘Trianon Bar’(car No 5), on the ‘Golden Arrow’. Latterly it was used on the Newhaven boat trains a step down from its glory days on the ‘Southern Belle’ and ‘Golden Arrow’. In 1960 it was withdrawn from service, converted into Camping Coach No169 and sold to Brit-ish Rail (Eastern) for £878. It was then parked at Hopton-on-Sea rail-way station.

palmyra. It was built in 1921 by the Birmingham Rail-way Carriage & Wagon Company Limited, as a 16 seat first class kitch-en car. Its interior was Mahogany panelling in Robert Adams style, blue Morocco leather covered armchairs and blue Wilton carpets.

As with Grosvenor, Palmyra’s task was to supply exclusive and sump-tuous comfort to its wealthy clientele. Unlike Grosvenor it was op-erated by the SECR (South Eastern & Chatham Railway). The SECR livery was Crimson Lake with Gold lining with the standard Pullman lettering and ornamentation. It was used on the ‘Continental Express’ boat train services to Dover and Folkestone for their onward journey to Europe. The SECR also owned the cross channel ferry ‘TS Biarritz’ and in May 1923 Palmyra, as part of the Royal Train, that conveyed King George V and Queen Mary from Victoria to Dover so they could board the ‘TS Biarrtz’ for Boulogne, at the start of a short state visit to Italy. In the intervening years the amalgamation of smaller railway companies into the big four found the LBSCR and SECR formed into the ‘Southern’ Railway. The ‘Southern’ carried on carrying passengers,

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by Pullman, to the channel ports, but the second world war curtailed Pullman operations and many were parked up for the duration.

In 1945 Palmyra was seconded to NAAFI and as No 9 on the NAAFI fleet was used as a mobile catering facility. In 1948 the railway system was nationalised and British Railways carried on using Pullman cars. In the late forties Palmyra was found as part of the ‘Bournemouth Belle’ and then, until September 1959, it was on the Folkstone Pull-man. In 1960 it was taken out of service and converted to Camping Coach No168 and sold to British Rail(Eastern) for £878. It was then parked at Hopton-on-Sea Railway Station.

Left: Not all camping coach conversions were the same, but these examples give a general idea of how they looked.

‘Pullman Profile No 1, The 12-Wheel Cars’ by Anthony M Ford – Noodle Books.

The first class Pullman passengers of the first half of the twentieth cen-tury could have never imagined that one day the exclusive splendour and comfort of their favourite mode of transport would be vandalised, and turned into a utilitarian concept of holiday accommodation. Ordi-nary working people would be eating and sleeping within its walls and their children would be running, playing and spilling drinks on the very expensive Axminster and Wilton carpets that they so admired.

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Left: Hopton Station late February 1967. Tony and Nicky Hard-en – Reading.

In the centre background of the above photograph the skeletal re-mains of Palmyra can be seen. Both Pullman cars were dismantled on site as it was not worth the dismantlers time and money in carting them away, because they were mostly made of wood. This line was opened on the 13th July 1903 and in 3yrs and 3months from the above photograph being taken the last train left Yarmouth Southtown at 21.10hrs on the 2nd May 1970, it stopped at Hopton maybe 10 minutes later at 21.20hrs, but by then there was no vestige left of the camping coaches once parked at the station. Hopton sta-tion disappeared and the soil it was built on, was carted away for the building of the access roads to the, then new, Breydon bridge.

References;• ‘PullmanProfileNo1The12–WheelCars’byAnthonyMFord. Noodle Books.• BranchLinesAroundLowestoft–MiddletonPress.• Tony&NickyHarden.

NB; The above article is subject to copyright, the author has obtained permission to use the photographs and text from the original owners, so permission must be obtained to reproduce any part. Malcolm clark.

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Hi-de-Hi!

Billy Butlin is the name synonymous with UK holiday camps but as can be seen below he was beaten to the entrepreneurial idea by many years even in small Norfolk villages such as Hopton.

On the Isle of Man in 1894 the Cunningham Young Men’s Camp opened and this was the first site recognisable as a ‘holiday camp’ in the modern sense of the term in the UK. The first holiday camp opened in England was at Caister, just on the far side of Great Yar-mouth from Hopton, in 1906 and this has remained open ever since now being run by Haven.

Hopton-on-Sea prior to the 20th century would have appeared as a very different village to that seen today. The parish contained a few manor houses, several farm houses, and a scattering of worker’s cot-tages amongst the farm land. The resident population of the village numbered less than 300 souls and the main employment was agricul-tural.

1903 saw the opening of a coastal railway line between the neighbour-ing towns of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft with a station provided at

Hopton-on-sea Holiday campsby Chris Garratt

Postcards kindly sup-plied by Rita Flatt and Steven Ames

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Hopton (it was not known as Hopton-on-Sea until 1932). The rail-way facilitated travel to and from these towns which until this time had been by horse and cart or pedestrian, but more importantly to the remainder of the country.

Hopton Holiday Camp (aka Groomes paying homage to the propri-etor’s name) opened in the village in 1920 roughly where the streets of Hopton Gardens and Groomes Close now stand. In the same year a young Herbert Potter invested his prize won in a pre-World War I newspaper competition by building a similar holiday camp in Hems-by just to the North of Caister. In fact this camp still exists and is the one currently run by Richardsons having passed through several hands, including Pontins, during the intervening years.

The reasons for relocation and the actual site have yet to be estab-lished but Herbert Potter decided to move to Hopton in 1924 and set up a camp of brick built chalets each with running water and elec-tric lighting. This was obviously setting a precedent for Potters being associated with the ‘higher end’ of holiday camps and it is acknowl-edged here that the late Brian Potter, Herbert’s grandson, detested the term “holiday camp” preferring “leisure resort” for his 5 star es-tablishment that has occupied the Southern extremity of the village since 1930.

These early venues must have proven successful since 1928 saw the opening of Moody’s ( behind the White Hart) and the Constitutional (on the cliff top now part of the Haven Holiday Village) followed by Golden Sands (now Sea View Rise) in 1932. The latter more than doubled in size before World War II and from Easter to August 1939 entertained 5381 guests. It should be remembered that the resident population of the village at this time was around 400. Rogerson Hall Holiday Camp (now Broadland Sands) opened in 1938 between Hopton and Corton.

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The advent of war in September 1939 however saw a halt in the de-velopment of the leisure industry with the holiday camps being req-uisitioned for the war effort. The Constitutional became a billet for the Royal Navy with the 419 Battery Royal Artillery and 4th Battal-ion Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Regiment moved in to Potters. Golden Sands was used initially to house children evacuated from London and then from October 1940 the military took over. It reopened for hol-idaymakers in 1947 with new chalets replacing the pre-war huts and the new capacity of 460 was maintained until it was sold in 1987 for housing development. The military connection remained within the village for many years post-war since throughout the 1950’s Moody’s holiday camp was the residence of the RAF personnel who were based at the village radar station.

Several other holiday camps materialised with Mariner’s Park be-tween Moody’s and Groomes, the Co-Operative Society built Seaf-ields on the opposite side of the railway line from Groomes adjacent to Farm Fare, White Clover and the most imaginatively named Pon-derosa Dude Ranch. Across Warren Road The Speedwell and Man-or House Caravan Parks were established but these were little more than fields for touring caravans as opposed to holiday camps per se. A further camp remote from the others was set up along Links Road on the border with Gorleston and this was known as Sunningdale. It is an interesting observation that Moody’s actually had the concise title of Moody’s Beach Approach Holiday Camp and Residential Club when it was the camp situated furthest from the beach! This no doubt inspired contemporary advertising by Potters to state that they were “The camp on the beach”.

In all there have been thirteen holiday camps in Hopton-on-Sea and there were plans for another touring park between old Lowestoft Road

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Above: Map of Holiday Camps by kind permission of Michael Soanes

and the then to be built A12 village bypass roughly where the garden centre once stood (now Ritson Lodge and the petrol station). No evi-dence has been found that this ever came to fruition.

It can be confusing to follow the history of some holiday camps as they can change their name several times dependant upon ownership. The Constitutional site for example was known as Majorca in the mid-1960’s and Holimarine from 1973 but now forms the hub of the Bourne Leisure (Haven) run Hopton Holiday Village. Successive owners of this site have expanded by purchasing the surrounding holiday camps and assimilating them into the major camp that exists today. In fact, with the exception of Potters and Farm Fare the fate of those not in-corporated into the Holiday Village was to become housing estates and this is summarised in the table on page 52, with information obtained through local research sources.

It is interesting to note that in 1955 the village was expressing concern over coastal erosion which led to the installation of wooden groynes and later revetments. This is by no means a modern phenomenon! However, times were changing and the advent of more affordable over-seas travel guaranteeing sunshine to go with your sandy beach initiated the decline of the UK coastal holidays. With so much guest accom-modation available in the village, but insufficient holidaymakers to fill them, together for the rising demand in housing, the smaller holiday camps struggled to make ends meet and in 1971 a housing develop-ment was proposed for the sites of Moody’s (5 acres), Mariner’s Park (12 acres) and Groomes (5½ acres). This is now the residential area within Anglian Way and Hopton Gardens bounds. The Moody’s dining hall did survive for many more years as the Village Hall until this was replaced in 2010 with the current structure.

One by one the other camps were absorbed into the Holiday Village or built upon and Hopton-on-Sea has evolved into the thriving resi-dential, retirement and leisure centre that it is today whilst retaining

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that village feel and sense of community that evades many other areas as they grow. Of course, every January Hopton is placed firmly on the map as the home of the World Indoor Bowls Championship since the opening of the internationally acclaimed bowls arena at Potters.

Holiday camp (aka throughout history)

dates s i z e acres

currently (2015)

Costitutional (Majorca, Holi-marine)

1928 -present

26 Hopton Holiday Vil-lage

Farm Fare Holiday Camp Bubbles / Stardust Amusments

Golden Sands Holiday Camp 1932 - 1987 Sea View Rise Hous-ing

Hopton Holiday Camp (Groomes)

1920 - 1971 5.5 Hopton Gardens / Groomes Close Hous-ing

Manor House Caravan Park Watsons Close Hous-ing

Mariner’s Park Holiday Centre -1971 12 St Margaret’s Way / Hopton Gardens Housing

Moody’s Holiday Camp (Beach Approach)

1928 - 1971 5 Anglian Way / The Laurels Housing

Ponderosa Dude Ranch - present 48 Hopton Holiday Vil-lage

Potters 1930 - present

65 Potters Leisure Resort

Seafields Holiday Camp 14 Julian Way HousingSpeedwell Caravan Park - present 17 Hopton Holiday Vil-

lageSunningdale Holiday Camp

Meadow Court Hous-ing

White Clover Caravan Park - present Hopton Holiday Vil-lage

Size, dates and current use of the Hopton-on-Sea holiday camps.

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raF Hoptonby David PrattThere is and never was an airfield at Hopton-On-Sea, yet RAF Hopton played a vital part in the Air Defence Of Great Britain (ADGB) in 1940-45. The development and application of Radar - then RDF (Range and Direction Finding) – into an integrated and efficient system to defend against massed aerial bombing attacks was vital to Great Britain when a German invasion was planned and could have taken place.

RAF Hopton was a Chain Home Low (CHL) station using Type 13 Mk2, Type 25 and Type 54 radar installations and began operating on 11th July 1940 as one of 18 around the country The site utilised a 200 foot mast, close to the edge of the 30 foot sandstone cliff and about a mile to the Northwest a duplicate CHL radar installation on a low gantry was sited within the domestic and administrative camp in the village, although no-one now remembers this.

The original site of the radar masts and control centre is still present and can be seen immediately south of Potters Holiday Camp, but is now privately owned. The east or seaward side is in immediate danger of falling into the sea as the post war sea defences have been neglected and the sea does what it has done for millennia. When further erosion takes place the massive underground complex of the Cold war period will be exposed and may one day become a small island.

Left: Potters Holiday Camp, but is now privately owned. The east or seaward side is in immediate danger of falling.

© IWM (CH 15183) The Chain Home Low radar installation at Hopton-on-Sea, 1945.

The original administration office building, once Moody’s Holiday Camp, still exists and hopefully will not be threatened by the sea for many years to come!

Information from the early war years is difficult to come by, due prob-ably to the highly secretive nature of the technology at the time. An architect’s plan of the inland administration and accommodation site dated in 1943 is titled NFS (perhaps Norfolk Fire Service) Training Site, despite Hopton then being in Suffolk! (ref: to Norfolk Records Office : Records of H.C. Boardman, Architects 1943. Plans of Hopton, N.F.S. Hospital NRO, BR 35/2/71/4)

The technology was developed rapidly and frequent improvements and up-grades show this.By 1944, the equipment comprised an AMES Type 2 Chain Home Low Ra-dar on a 185 foot tower and a CHEL (Chain Home Extra Low) Radar on a 25 foot tower, but at the end of the war the equipment had become obsolescent.

Then the Cold War, which saw a dramatic and hasty reaction to the threat of nuclear armed USSR attack, though the principle of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) hoped to avoid this. So far, so good.

Left: Moodys Holiday Camp advertisement p28 of the Holiday Camps Directory and Magazine, 1961

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Above : Detail of Site late 1940’shttp://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/h/hopton/

Above: What was once the Radar Station personnel camp administration office building then part of Moodys’ Holiday Village still survives although now used as a private residence.

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For further information these are a few interesting websites for reference:- www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/h/hopton/www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1477337 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205196698

The site on the coast was developed to the latest standard with a Type 54 CHEL Mk2 radar and a massive underground R2 bunker, which still exists but in a disused and vulnerable state.

Further developments and requirements saw the need for a permanent site re-moved, but having sold the site, within a few months the RAF/MOD bought it back again and converted it to a mobile site, shown perhaps in this photograph from the 1980’s.

A few years later and finally the site was sold yet again into private ownership where it remains until now.

Local folklaw hints at “paranormal” events associated with the area, not least of which involve the St Michael and St Mary Ley lines and unexplained terresterial and atmospheric events.

More information is sought from anyone who remembers or who served at RAF Hopton, particularly during the early war years.

Above: The Site in 2012 showing the hard standing for a mobile radar set.

Above: Thought to be Hopton Mobile Radar 1980’s : ref http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/h/hopton/Type 93 Radar Head: Photo by Ray Watson

Right: “Valentines” postcard produced for the Golden Sands Holiday Camp showing radar masts in the distance

The War Memorial stands in the churchyard of St. Margaret’s, Hop-ton-on-Sea close to the church door. There is also a Commonwealth Grave headstone for a soldier from World War 2.

In 1914 the population of Hopton on Sea was approximately 304. The most recent census having been in 1911. From that small population 13 men, who were either born or lived in Hopton, gave their lives. The impact on such a small village must have been enormous. Everyone in the village would have known those who died in the service of their country . Four of the men who died were killed at sea and have no known rest-ing place. The others who died are buried in graveyards throughout Northern France and Belgium. They range in age at the time of their deaths from 19 – 35 years .

The Hopton-on-sea war Memorial by Alison Mills

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There are some familiar local names, Watson and Orde among them, repre-sented but all died in a great war that was supposed to end all wars .

In 1939 the population of Hopton was approximately 391. The most recent census having been carried out in 1931. There was no further census until 1951 – no census was undertaken in 1941. The country had other things on its mind at that time.Eight men are commemorated as having died in service in World War 2 who had a connection with Hopton on Sea.They served in the Air Transport Aux-iliary, on minesweepers, in the Army and one man on HM Trawler Wallasea. They ranged in age from 20 -36. They are buried in Germany, France, Hopton and Penzance.

Whilst fewer in number than those who died in World War 1, the impact of their deaths would have had a similarly devastating effect on their loved ones .

Details of where and when these brave men died can be found on the Commonwealth Graves Commission website ( cwgc.org ) or on www.rollofhonour.com/Norfolk/HoptononSea

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Based on surveys and research by:- Pauline Burch, Brenda Waters, Chris Garratt, Alison Mills, Ivan Bunn, Rita Platt, Rachel Harrison, Abi, Gerard and Shannon Knight.

Much ignored, in the background of the hustle and bustle of busy rou-tines of modern life, road signs are simply navigational marker points helping us find our destinations. But have you ever stopped and won-dered why a particular road name has been used? Around Hopton ob-vious names such as St. Margarets Way, Coast Road, and Old Church Road are self-explanatory. Yet have you wondered why? Longfullans Lane, Groomes Close, Brotherton Way etc? One of our Village History Group activities was to tour the village and record many of the road names around the main parts of Hopton from which to try and find out the reasons behind them.

seeing beyond the signs……

station road?Prior to the railway running through the village which obviously gave rise to the current name of Station Road, brought up the question to what was this road called before? Through researching census records of local residents we were able to narrow down a few choices of names while also uncovering some road names which no longer exist in the village. Some of the main village roads were simply referred to as Public Road No. 1, No. 2 etc. In 1871 Chapel Road, Seamans Road, Tollgate Road, Beach Road, Warren Road, and Hopton Street were listed while other addresses were cottages linked to the farms and manors. Road names have seemingly evolved in time reflecting on the ever changing village.

why longfullans lane?Longfullans Lane was actually called Long Furlong Lane on the 1813 Hopton inclosures award map in reference to a section of land being called Long Furlong Pightle. A pightle being a small field or enclosure. Presumably the change of spelling to Longfullan is down to the short-ened pronunciation in our local dialect!

Flowerday Close, Ormsby Close and Rogers Close are named after past Reverends of St. Margarets Church. While Randall Close is named af-ter the Shopkeeper who had the shop on the corner of Coast Road and Station Road. Kidds Close could be named after the past owners of the White Hart Public House and/ or after Mr. and Mrs. Kidd who were the Chairman/ Chairwomen of the Hopton and Corton Branch of the British Legion, (they may be the same Kidds in question). Part of the new building development called Teulon Close meanwhile is fittingly named after the architect Samuel Sanders Teulon who de-signed the new St. Margarets Church on Lowestoft Road.

While passing these Road signs it is nice to think of what their origins could be, offering an alternative way of rememberance to the grave-stones often standing or laying forgotten in churchyards.

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Potters Drive, Groomes Close, White Clover Way, Speedwell Close, Seafields Drive and Mariners Park Close all referring to the Holiday Camps from the past.....

whittley Mews?Reference to either Bob Whittley the old Postmaster at Hopton Post Office or Willam Whittley who was the Garden-er at Hopton House for 56 years during 36 of which he served the new St. Margarets Church as Verger. A Plaque is on the west end of the new St. Margarets Church to commemorate him.

A Conservation Project led by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust brought together a team of volunteers who participated in various engagement activities over two years in 2014 - 2015 to see the Ruins of the old St. Margarets Church safely return back to community use.One of the activities was for a village history project to take place from which a booklet was to be pro-duced. A dedicated group of volunteers came together to form a Hopton Village History Group, which un-dertook various research and recording activities which have been presented in this booklet. Although the Hopton-on-Sea you see today has been highly developed into a modern village it can still give clues to what has been before. As the Ruins can act as a visual marker of the vil-lage’s heritage, this booklet aims to give more of a periodic insight of a more in depth history which laid the foundations of what you see today.

Copyright of Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust 2016