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AN EVER CHANGING GORLESTON MISCELLANY
please click here to contribute anything you want to do with gorleston
A PHOTO - A FACTUAL SHORTIE - AN EXPERIENCE - A MEMORY - IN FACT ANYTHING
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THE
WRECK OF THE MAGGIE WILLIAMS - 1902
To escape the storm Captain Tyrell sailed straight towards the harbour mouth under full sail but his three masted schooner schooner failed to answer to the helm, missed the entrance and sailed into the ham amidst huge waves, battering into the pier and eventually sinking by the breakwater. The crew were rescued by coastguards from the breakwater but the captain at first refused to come off until persuaded by a coastguard. The ship was owned by his family and uninsured as was the cargo.
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THE FLEET AT ANCHOR IN THE ROADS The fleet would periodically anchor in the Roads when there would be a civic reception at the Town Hall. There could be a review as would appears here with the white vessel being the Royal Yacht.
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EXTRACTS FROM "crisps CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF YARMOUTH" PERTAINING TO GORLESTON
1810: 2nd November: The beach from Yarmouth to Wells covered with wrecks and dead bodies after a heavy gale. Another gale on the 10th and many vessels and lives lost.
1811: Census population of Gorleston and Southtown 1714.
1812: 26th October: Tremendous gale and eight vessels driven ashore in the vicinity.
1813: 18th February: "Gorleston Steeple" (about 100 feet high) which stood near the haven’s mouth as an emmemorial sea-mark, was blown down in a gale. (Old church in Priory Street)
1818: 4th March: Several ships driven ashore in a heavy gale from the south-east.
1819: Velocipedes or pedestrian hobby-horses used this year. A person could walk from eight to ten miles per hour on them.
1820: 1st March: A number of vessels stranded along the beach. A high flood and tremendous storm, the like not known since January 1st 1779. There was another great gale on 4th November.
1821: 28th February: An unusual supply of herrings caught off Yarmouth; and sold in the town twelve for one penny (less than half a new penny).
1821: 4th November: Tremendous gale - a great number of vessels foundered in the Roadstead and also many came ashore. It was just such another gale as recoded November, 1789
1821: December 23rd: A fine new East Indiaman, the "Indian" totally wrecked of the coast. The crew of 20 were saved and a small part of the stores. The value of the ship and cargo estimated at £10,000.
1821: 25th December: Season unusually mild; the thermometer stood at 50 F. and so continued throughout the following winter months. Many remarkable specimens of early vegetation; and swallows seen flying about . Since the 1st September there has been but eighteen days without rain.
1821: Census population of Gorleston and Southtown 1928.
1827: Vaughan and Murphey, two noted resurrectionists, stole several bodies from St. Nicholas churchyard and caused great excitement in the town.
1831: Census population of Gorleston and Southtown 2119.
1832: By the Municipal Reform Act the rest of Gorleston Parish (includes Southtown) added to Yarmouth Borough.
1835: 7th April: The "Baltic", "Venus" and "Wellington" left the harbour with 200 emigrants for Canada.
TO BE CONTINUED
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Left is the wall
painting discovered after many years in the bar of the Belle Vue on Quay
Road.
Right is the Belle Vue early in the 20th century |
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THIS IS A CHAPTER FROM MY LIFE STORY - A LUCKY LIFE
In 1953 I began two years National Service and volunteered, like many others, to do an extra year for £1 more per week, or an extra 66%! Of this time I spent two and half years in the Middle East, coming back to a Gorleston that had changed hardly at all. Nobody could imagine what the changes would be over the next fifty years so this is a nostalgic look at the start of the new millennium. Some will say for the good, some for the worse and many remain indifferent. I believe we are all better off in many ways but have lost a great deal more than is realised and not just bricks and mortar.
GORLESTON AS I LEFT IT
Gorleston in the fifties was a popular
holiday resort. We still had the holiday camp on Bridge Road and many boarding
houses, hotels large and small, and very many private houses that took in
holiday makers. Many of the boarding houses and private houses had sheds in the
garden where the family slept in the summer so that all rooms could be let.
Some of the private houses offered bed and breakfast, while others did
apartments, which meant the visitors provided their own food and breakfast and
evening meals were cooked for them. Sunnyside, on Upper Cliff Road which is a
double bay fronted house was a boarding house that often took in more people
than they could house, so the overflow slept in nearby cottages, but had their
meals at Sunnyside in shifts. Breakfast time, the second shift, would be sitting
on the garden wall reading their papers and patiently waiting to be fed.
People who hadn't booked and came in the peak weeks, on chance, were faced by
"no vacancy" signs in almost every window and were very lucky if they found a
bed.
The great majority of visitors arrived by
train at Gorleston-on-sea railway station from the Midlands. The factories
having closed down for the holiday, or wakes weeks as they were known. This
provided good pickings for boys to take them and their luggage to their
accommodation when almost anything on wheels that could carry the cases was in
attendance, ready to greet the incoming throng with "Carry your cases mister"?
There were few taxis then, and most people either caught a bus or walked and
most not knowing where to go needed a guide.
Now there is no Gorleston-on-sea railway
station, very few boarding houses, no private houses with "vacancy" cards in the
window. No Gorleston Super Holiday camp. No swimming pool, just some grass and a
few flowers. The Floral Hall is now The Ocean Rooms. No huts or tents on the
beach, just a dozen sorry huts on the prom. Where once stood the Coliseum cinema
are now shops. The Palace cinema is
a bingo hall. The gardeners who looked after the once cosseted turf on the
bowling green are now turning in their graves. The toilets at the ravine
designed to match the Roman Shelters, boarded up and made redundant by "super
loo's". The old wooden "Dutch" pier with its "cosies" and planked decking
replaced by a modern counterpart of concrete and steel. Fishermen and boatmen
swearing it was the new
pier that caused beach erosion. The docks and dolphins where we sometimes
played and went home covered in mud gone. The magnificent uniqueness of
shipwrecked sailors home pulled down. The greatest loss was the much loved
swimming pool, where many of us youngsters spent our summer holidays. Just
think what a social loss this was when destroyed by a council who couldn't see
beyond their noses. It certainly kept us off the streets for many days.
Where once Yarmouth and Scots drifters lay
and discharged their catches, gas rig service boats now moor. The gutting sheds
where the Scottish fisher girls gutted herring almost faster than the eye could
see, are long gone and replaced by oil depots, small factories and houses. The
magnificent trees that lined Lowestoft Road from the "Green Ace" (once a garage)
roundabout to the old Borough boundary, mostly felled because in this day of
fast cars and speed they were a "safety hazard", "Corner shops", sometimes two
to a road, gone and replaced by a supermarket and a few convenience stores.
Gone too are the hoards of holiday makers who thronged our seafront and shopped in Bells Road. The present day visitors are generally short breaks or day trippers. Bells Road, once known as "fleece street", thronged with visitors and residents had including other shops on Springfield Road, Upper Cliff Road, Nile Road, Lower Cliff Road, Englands Lane, Cliff Hill and Beach Road. Four grocery shops, Co-op, David Greig, Busseys and Collets, five greengrocers, Savory, Chapmans, Mitchels, Lines and Rowlands. Three bread shops, Matthes, Westbrooke and Whittington. Three banks. Barclays, National Provincial and Lloyds. Three hardware shops, Corals, The Select and Ben Tilsley. Two tobacconist/confectioners, Mrs Robinson and Bullards. Two butchers, Wells and Bellamy. Two means hairdressers, Bullard and Young's. Two drapers, MissLeggett and Eagle and Green. Two china shops, Mrs. O'Brien and Miss Key. Two chemists, Hill and Hannant Two post offices, Salmon and Hannant. Two newsagents, Spain and The Kiosk. Two dairy's, Lodge (Creston) and Blyth. Two fish shops, Artis and Balls. Three chip shops, Bretts, George, another on Lower Cliff Road. Stationers, Drapers, Pork shop, Haberdashers, Retail beer, Wine and spirits, Pet shop, Sports shop, Two wool shops, Ladies hairdresser, Dry cleaner, Library. Ladies fashion, Electrician, Coal office.
This was the picture of our South Gorleston community in the late forties and early fifties and even into the sixties. Although the names changed, the businesses remained much the same, but the seventies saw the start of change and decline in Bells Road, until today it is a sad shadow of it's former glory. No Grocery shops, no post office, no banks, no butchers, no drapers, no chemist, no stationers, no haberdasher, no dairy, no library, no electrical shop, no men's hairdresser. Today bread is no longer delivered, and although the milkman continues, it is debatable for how much longer. All the one man mobile business's have also disappeared.
Some new enterprises have moved into the area that would be a complete surprise to the shopper of the 1940's. An artists gallery, music shop, aquarium shop, Chinese takeaway, pizza takeaway, solicitors and accountants offices, financial advisor, pine shop, alternative medicine consultants, drum shop. Time can't stand still. Gorleston now has a busy High Street with a variety of shops and far less empty shops than most towns. A supermarket with large free car park for the use of all shoppers, edge of town super stores and a sprinkling of convenience stores around the town providing a variety of services.
Yarmouth and Lowestoft are just a short drive away. Iceland (frozen food and groceries) and the supermarket, Somerfield, have recently started a delivery service, which will be a boon to those people who find it difficult to get out, such as the old and infirm and others who cannot carry the a heavy load of groceries. Some prefer to shop in person and use taxis. For those with a computer and on the internet, some supermarkets have "virtual stores" where you take "a walk through" look at the price and select your goods for home delivery. Banks branches are being closed as they are trying to encourage more and more people to use internet banking. Debit cards can be used over the phone to pay for goods to be delivered. Many different types of shops have web sites with pictures and descriptions of their wares for internet buying. We still have lots of innovations to appear as phones are connected directly to the net so the service will become more widely used.
In Bells Road some shops are inevitably being returned to dwelling places. Unfortunately not in sympathy with the character of the road. Planning permission needs closer scrutiny. Sixteen empty premises at the moment (2001). Potential for further conversions?
Yes it's a rapidly changing world, everyone is affected and it is difficult for the older element of the community, although I know many who are grasping these innovations and taking advantage of them. We cannot live in the past, although it is good to recall and take an interest in how our forbears lived. We must retain some of our heritage without getting hide bound. Change can occur sympathetically, but we must be vigilant and not let change happen for the sake of change. I repeat some of the change in Bells Road fall into this category unfortunately.
The downside of this new retailing is that local shops were a meeting place. Community feeling has diminished, as a result of this, and other changes to our way of life. We are all getting much more insular. Cars, as much as they are a necessity to most, mean we do not walk as much, and don't meet people as we used to. The bus stop was another meeting point, now much less frequented.
Gorleston had it's characters. The best
known and loved was Willy Arnold, or "Silly Willy" as he was fondly known. My
step sister, Nellie was in the same class at Stradbroke School, where she says
he was a real "harem scarum" then, running around causing chaos. He was always
about the town, part of the Gorleston scene, and accepted by most as a friendly
face.. I don't think he had a bad bone in his body.
He was in his element when Gorleston football team played at home. An avid
supporter, chasing up and down the sideline. But Willy really came into his own
for the carnival. He was in the midst of it entertaining the crowd with his
antics. The more we enjoyed it the more Willy performed. We boys were always
ready to give him a cigarette and have a joke with him. He told me once he had a
brother too bad to come out, and kept under the table. I don't know anything
about this, it may have been one of Willy's fantasies. I saw him for the last
time when we returned to Gorleston, after having spent some years away. He was
in a home then, but obviously still toured his usual haunts. He didn't know who
I was, but we had a little chat. He was still Willy, if quieter. I believe
when he passed away the church was packed with many of his old friends. I'm
sorry I missed it.
Another character was "Hoppy". He was crippled and hopped about looking for cigarette ends in the street, or trying to cadge cigarettes. Sometimes we felt sorry for him and gave him one, but he certainly wasn't regarded in the same light as Willy Arnold. There was also a "bag lady". She walked the roads with all her possessions carried in bags. Where she came from or what her history was I have no idea. I don't think she was permanently about the town, and I don't think anyone knew, where she came from, or why.
Little La was a very small man, not a dwarf, just very small who rode a small cycle that even still needed wooden blocks on the pedals for him to be able to ride it. He wore a suit and a large flat cap and on Saturday nights would be busy selling the "War Cry".
Of course Doddy and Dolly Hadden, were other local characters. Doddy was a rag and bone man, the Gorleston Steptoe. "Any old lumber ladee" was his cry as he toured the town with his horse and cart. I understand he toured the villages selling herring during the season. Dolly was just a mademoiselle about town with her sparse attire and rouged lips but completely harmless.
This has been a brief look at the old Gorleston I left to do my National Service in 1953, before many of the major changes that have taken place in my lifetime and compare it with the new millennium.
IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.
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A BICYCLE MADE FOR FOUR DUNCAN'S WELL SPACE VENTURE?
In Memory of My Two Grandfathers
Charley Harris: Ex Nile Rd. Gorleston
Jimmy Wicks: Ex Trafalgar Rd West Gorleston
submitted by Brian Harris
I was told of swirling storms that claimed Yarmouth for the sea,
Of winds that smashed ships to splintery bits
And scared the pips off me.
But I always weathered in the lee,
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee.
Of Whopping great skate and congers that could bite lumps off your thumb
Of sailors steering with the moon
After pilfering the rum.
But I was provisioned in the lee
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee.
Then there was the Kraken with rubbery arms
(Tentacles I think they be) - they could drag
A sailor from his bunk to a sleep beneath the sea.
But I always sheltered in the lee,
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee.
I loved to be at Jutland, peering though the sights
With all our guns trained on the German Fleet
As we sweated there that night.
But I always hove-to in the lee
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee.
Look out! There’s German airmen flying overhead
Shooting guns and dropping bombs
Trying to make us dead.
But we made smoke and turned for tea
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee.
“Lifeboat men, Lifeboat men, they sail many an angry yard
They would sooner die themselves
Than to let their mates down hard.”
It all made such sense to me
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee
Do you sail the skies now Grandad, across the starlit sea?
I have my own “young varmints” now
A-listening to me.
I will pilot them to the lee
Safe in the harbour, on Grandfather’s knee.
© Brian Harris.
FOR BILL
Submitted by Brian Harris
I hope that many Gorleston people would remember kindly a man who is often in my thoughts, Mr. Bill Smith, formerly of Pier Plain Gorleston. Bill was a shining example to me and to all who had the pleasure to meet him. He was a rare example of how to give of yourself without expecting any reward in return. He was, in fact, a truly Christian man.
It all began in the summer of 1958 or 9. I was a mere lad of fourteen or so. Elvis was King! There were many boys and girls of the same age because we were the “baby boomer” generation. We progressed from congregating at the “swings” at the Shrublands, to walking in large groups of friends towards the Floral Hall and Harbour Dining Room areas. My nickname was ‘Satch” and my friends were variously called “Smudger” Smith, “Bertie” Willmot, “Toots” Barnard , “Wogsie” Burbidge and “Woody” Wooden. I can see all the lads together in my mind’s eye as I write these lines.
.One summer’s evening, as a group of about 20 of us boys and girls walked down Pier Plain - a man came out of the little Hardware Shop and introduced himself as Bill Smith. He wanted to know where we were going every night after we walked passed his shop. Such was his kindly demeanour that it seemed natural to answer him politely in return. We said we were off to the café at the Harbour Dining rooms to talk, drink Coke, and listen to the latest records on the jukebox. Bill asked, if he could supply such things, would we like to meet instead in his living room at the back of the shop? I don’t know if the times were more innocent then, but anyway, Mrs. Smith came out and invited us as well, so we could see it would be “OK”.
And so began our long and rewarding association with Bill. Bill was one of life’s gentlemen. A man who worried about kids walking the street at night and who had that other vital ingredient, the true grit to do something about it. Hand on heart - how many of us now would confront a group of 20 youngsters and invite them into the house? Bill was a lay-preacher at the Gorleston Baptist Church on Lowestoft Road, and eventually it came about that from those beginnings in Bill’s house, he prevailed upon the reluctant elders of the church to hold the Baptist Youth Club on church premises.
Obviously Bill was a religious man; but not once did he ever try to push his beliefs on any of us. All he asked was that for one minute during the Thursday night Youth Club, he be allowed to get up on the stage and say a prayer for us. Well, that was a small thing to concede to, after all, the hall was filled with activities for us and there was always a rock-n-roll band provided. Mrs. Smith, and garage proprietor John Blyth, always ably assisted Bill.
Many a tale I could relate of Bill’s kindness and patient mentoring. If we vexed him in our youthful self-seeking he never showed any sign of frustration. I never saw him angry or knew him to say a cross word. After many wonderful years of the club passed by I met my wife Sandra and we began our courting. I fell away from going to the club. One day I was absolutely stunned to learn that Bill had been killed. True to form Bill had been helping others by giving two young people a lift in his old car when an out-of-control vehicle smashed into them. The lads were unhurt. Bill took the brunt of the damage. After Bill’s death, the elders of the church got their way, and the youth club that had meant so much to so many youngsters was disbanded.
Bill, if I could speak to you now, I would have to be honest and tell you that I never did get religion, but I suppose that at the core of religious life there is a special someone who provides such an example to other beings - that a spark of love is ignited inside them. This spark lives on in their hearts and becomes a guiding light to show them the way as an unmistakable guide or mark to aim for.
Bill, in my life I haven’t come up to your knees, however, I know I am a better person for meeting you now so long ago. On behalf of all the youngsters you helped and all the ex-members of the Baptist Youth Club, I say the words I said on your behalf many times before, “Club. Three Cheers for Bill,” and salute your memory.
© Brian Harris: Brisbane, Australia.
SUNSET DECEMBER 2006
A Few Gorleston Incidents from Aussie Arthur
When I was a small boy, I like most children, would take their first swimming strokes with the Dog Paddle, not a satisfactory means of propelling oneself that I would recommend today. During the hot summer Of 1937, I was using this method and was swept behind the Gorleston Breakwater on an outgoing tide. Fortunately for me a man borrowed a walking stick and climbing quickly over the rocks, hooked me out. Another little lad aged nine years was also very lucky many years earlier.
On the 7th August 1894 he fell from the stone breakwater into the sea. My Grandfather Edward Bensley was in his skiff at the time and rescued him. He quickly rowed to the beach, as the lad was unconscious. With the aid of a Mr. George Alwyne Smith, he was resuscitated and then carried to the Anchor & Hope Inn, where as they quaintly put it, stimulants were administered, he was then taken to Mr. Smiths residence and when fully recovered sent home.
It must have been the summer of 1947. My cousin John Strowger, who was serving in the army and on leave, had been for a swim with me in the Gorleston pool. It was a regular occurrence when after a swim, for us to climb onto the roof of the Floral Hall, which was covered in lead sheeting And therefore, it retained the heat from the sun. From this elevated position, We could watch the crowds on the beach, and whilst doing this, we spotted two small boys being swept behind the breakwater. We quickly dropped down from the roof and shouted as loud as we could, but to no avail. So we raced out of the pool to the beach, in time to see one of the lads being carried to the shore. Nobody else had seen the other boy; eventually they realized it was so. There was a long swell running and it was twenty minutes before he was pulled out from behind the breakwater, I remember Sharky Rose and Sid Weavers trying to resuscitate him, but sadly it was too late. It was his twin brother who was saved. I didn’t swim again that summer.
That same year a pal of mine borrowed a skiff and three of us rowed up river from the slip opposite the Bellevue tavern, to Breydon water. On the return leg down river, we were pelted with iron bolts from young crew members of a Russian timber ship moored on the Yarmouth side of the river. I remember they had loudspeakers on the masts playing Russian patriotic music all day. How we hated them at the time.
During the afternoon of Saturday 31st January 1894, two other lads, not unlike ourselves got into a spot of bother. William Wright aged 17 of 123 Middlegate St. and William Easter aged 15 of No.19 Row 137 climbed into a rowing boat which they cast adrift with the intention of crossing the river using a solitary oar for sculling. Having entered the strong midstream current, they were swiftly carried down river to the Harbour mouth and out to the open sea! Immediately five Gorleston boatmen manned a yawl and set off in pursuit, but to no avail. Eventually one of the Gorleston Lifeboats had to be launched, and both yawl and rowing boat were picked up near the St.Nicholas Lightship! On stepping ashore the lads were handed over to the police, but were not detained.
Oranges Galore. During and indeed for many years after the cessation of conflict between the allied and axis powers, the rationing of food, clothing and luxury goods, was something which was an excepted fact by the people of Great Britain. Nevertheless the government would, on occasion allocate certain goods which they considered necessary to the health and moral of the population. Towards the end of 1948 an announcement on the radio and also in the national newspapers, stated that an allocation of oranges would be arriving in Newcastle, to be distributed to the people of the industrial north, in time for Christmas. As this was one of the first shipments of this to us, exotic fruit since before the war, we on the east coast had resigned ourselves to the fact that we had missed out on this luxury item. There are certain things which governments have no control over. As in this case when in December of 1948, the fact that the motor-ship Bosphorus would run aground on the Happisburgh Sands and would have to jettison her cargo of oranges worth several thousand pounds! Cases and cases of this bounty from the sea, plus thousands of loose oranges as well, were washed up along the Norfolk coastline! Again the old adage (Something for nothing!) had us Pier headers, and indeed hundreds of other members of the population of Gorleston and Great Yarmouth heading to the beach at all hours to reap this bounty from the sea! Loose oranges were changing hands for a small monetary sum over the fence as it were, whilst most local greengrocers had a case or two out the back! Shades of Compton McKenzie’s Whisky Galore! The fact is we had oranges for Christmas, whilst the industrial north missed out
© Arthur E Bensley
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Christmas card sent to Stradbrokian soldiers in WW1 World War II flying bomb (doodle bug) Eden Camp Museum
THE GORLESTON JEW KILLERS
A TALE OF GREED, MURDER AND ROBBERY AND IT IS SAID TO HAVE
HAPPENED JUST OFF OUR COAST AROUND TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
BUT IS IT FACT OR FABLE
Many know the old saying "Gorleston Jew killers" but how many know the story behind it? The following is based on an excerpt in "Palmers Perlustrations of Great Yarmouth."
It all began innocently when some beachmen were called out to bring a passenger ashore from a sailing ship laying in the roads. Nothing unusual because this together with taking out supplies, salvage work for ships in distress and rescuing shipwrecked crews in their yawls long before the RNLI was formed was all part of their way of life. They had to be both tough and fearless.
When they reached the ship they found their passenger was a prosperous Jewish merchant with a large trunk for them to manhandle into the boat. As they pulled away in the semidarkness they no doubt thought about how hard life was with their meagre earnings. What a struggle it was to feed their families, yet this man, expensively dressed and so obviously living with all the best in life had it all. Slowly these thoughts festered in their heads until after a whispered conversation among themselves they decided this stranger from the foreign vessel was easy prey, he wouldn’t be missed and anyway nothing could be traced back to them.
They steered the boat around to the seaward side of Scroby sandbank, when the man at the rudder unshipped the tiller and struck the Jew a powerful blow to the head, his companions tipping the lifeless body into the water. Eagerly they forced opened the trunk and found a treasure chest of rich silks, jewels and gold sovereigns – to their eyes a great fortune.
Pulling the boat ashore on Gorleston beach in the darkness of the night they buried the trunk in the sand, but fearing it could be exposed by a scouring tide they came back before first light shared out their spoils and later sank the trunk at sea.
The men built cottages on Cliff Hill and neighbours noted their wives showing off in fine clothes but no charges of any crime were ever brought and the secret remained until one of the men who had gone to Australia made a confession on his deathbed and the saying "Gorleston Jew killers" came about.
Anyone know anybody in this photograph?
The writing on the ball reads: Gorleston United winners Div. 1, 1927
Second left back row is Edward "Ted" Harris - thanks to Mr. Nicholson
Second right back row is Alexander "Alec" Harlow - thanks to Gavin King
STRADBROKE Girls SCHOOL prefects 1930
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The first prefects at Stradbroke Girls School, 1930. Picture and text supplied by Lillian Dennis a former pupil
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When Arthur
Bensley in Australia saw the picture of the Stradbroke prefects he was
delighted to see one was a dear friend, Joan Wheeler, so he sent this
picture of Joan with two friends. Molly Bligh on the left and Arthur's
sister Eileen Bensley on the right.
Unfortunately Arthur lost touch with Joan, so if anyone knows of her perhaps they would like to contact this website and I will pass on any news to Australia. |
The Manor Hotel was a "posh" hotel once standing close to the sea at Caister which was sadly lost to the sea many years ago. Does anyone know what the occasion was when this well dressed group gathered for the photograph ?
FROM GREAT YARMOUTH MERCURY , AUGUST, 1939
Chasey Auctioneer and estate agent: Modern semi detached bungalow south Gorleston. £495. 3 Bed modern house Gorleston, bath etc. £25 deposit and 12/6 (62.5p) per week
Daily coach return to London 12/6 (62.5p) by Eastern Counties.
A.C. Claydon, Bells Road: Trousers 10/6 (52.5p) to 30/-.(£1.50) Sports coats 42/-.(£2.10)
Hayman & Son: secondhand Morris Minor, good condition, £22-10-0 (£22.50)
Cycles 65/- cash (£3.25) or 1/6 (7.5p)per week.
New Ford eight saloon £115. De lux. £125.
Yarmouth & Gorleston building Society: Mortgages per £100, 21/- (£1.10p) month over 10 years 12/10 (64p) month over 20 years
B.S.A. 250 Motor Cycle £39.15.0. (£39.75p)
Ogdens Juggler tobacco 9.5 d (4p) per ounce.
Clowes tea 6d (2.5p)to 7.5d (3p) per .25 lb.
Draught Guinness 9d (3.5p) per pint.
Cadbury Milk Tray 1/- (5p) per .5 lb(220g) carton.
Golden Shred 7.5 d (3p)per lb. (440g)
New pianos from 29 gns. (£30.45p)
Sheets 5/11 (30p)and blankets 24/11. (£1.25p)
Clowes canned fruit 6 d (2.5p) per tin.
Sounds great? But not when the working man earned about £3 per week and there were very few working mums!
A very old photograph of the harbour mouth
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1827 the 120 mile journey from London to Gorleston by stagecoach took 17 hours.
