A BYGONE RIVERSIDE WALK FROM THE PIER TO THE OLD FERRY

  CLICK HERE TO GO STRAIGHT TO THE STORY OF THE "SHORT BLUE" TRAWLING FLEET 

Left is Gorleston old wooden pier built in 17th century with its famous cosies where many either relaxed, fished or courted.  Unfortunately the ravages of wind and tide made it necessary to be replaced by the current concrete pier early in the 1960's. Centre is the Anchor & Hope, a fishermen's pub which was often the first place rescued seamen were taken when landed.   At the end of the 19th century when Gorleston was becoming a popular seaside resort it was pulled down and replaced by the Pier Hotel much more fitted to the new clientele.   Right is Brush Quay at the river bend, so called because much brushwood was used in the construction.   Originally the River Yare ran below the cliffs to somewhere near  Corton where it flowed into the sea.   The river was diverted causing the bend and it is still possible to see a slight rise near the Pavilion where it was blocked.   Right foreground is the slipway where boatmen left their craft and dominating the scene is the lighthouse with the church tower in the background.

Left is a print from the 1820's with a view from the top of the cliffs by the Cliff Hotel, showing how little if any of the riverside was made up.  The immediate riverside was mainly marsh.   The houses to the left are on Cliff Hill the only part of this area of Gorleston with houses.   The other side of the bend can be seen the old fort while further to the left is Nelson's Monument and still further is the Naval Hospital.     Right is the Fishermen's Refuge which was temporary accommodation for shipwrecked mariners complete with beachmen and others to provide human interest.

Left is the bend with beachmen's boats in foreground.   The first boat in the river is a steam screw tug, behind is a steam drifter then a paddle tug with just the masts of fishing smacks showing  in the background.   Two generations of tugs and two of drifters.    Centre are the Riverside Gardens, neatly trimmed as our forefathers knew how!   Centre background is the new William the Fourth which was rebuilt to front onto Riverside Road.    In  the bottom of the picture is a steam roller a better way of repairing our roads?   Right is the William the Fourth in its original position about a hundred yards back from where it is now.   The scene is a flood in the late nineteenth century.

Click here to go to the RNLI lifeboat web site which covers this section of the route.

 Left is the Volunteer Lifeboat shed once used to house the Elizabeth Simpson, probably the best remembered of the Ranger Companies lifeboats.   It should be listed and given a new life as a memorial to the brave lifeboatmen who died in saving others.   Now sorely in need of some TLC the photo was taken before the docks were filled in to make the revetment.   On the right hand side of the photo you can just see Williment's net loft, the last ships chandler left in the port.  The centre photo shows the river end of the dolphins which were jetties allowing boats to tie up.   In the background is the old oil fired power station also a rig supply boat coming down river.   On the right are the docks with a dolphin in the background.   When they were kept in repair they were a good haven for small boats.   On the other side of the river is the herring reduction plant for rendering down surplus herring during the autumn fishing season.

Left.   Looking towards Baker Street from the end dock with the Waterside Tavern to the left.   Note the little mooring jetties.   Centre is the Waterside Tavern with mine hosts the Hewsons at the turn of the century.  The pub was bombed during the war and never reopened again.   Right is taken from the east side of the river looking towards the entrance to the dock.   Four herring smacks, two of which are "scotch" and a steam drifter   Background right is the church and left Dabenham Terrace. 

Left is the entrance to the dock that used to be in the area where Halls now stands.   Centre is the slipway used by Flemming Hewett's smacks, later boarded over for safety and now disappeared with the building of the west quay river wall.   Flam as he was known was the younger brother of Samuel Hewett of the "Short Blue" fleet of sailing trawlers  Right is the quayside by the floating bridge across the dock entrance.

Left is the Hewitt "Short Blue" trawling fleets ice house.   Centre is a neglected piece of riverside ignored by both the Port Authority and the council which could be brought back to life with no great amount of expenditure.   With the Outer Harbour now a possibility and the much lessened use of the port by rig supply vessels it could once more become an area for small boats.   Right is a Gorleston gem, a part of the port that saw much activity in the 19th century when Gorleston was home to the Short Blue trawling fleet which  at that time was the largest in the world.   It is overlooked by the ice house, the Towers, home of the fleets manager, the Rising Sun, an early public house astride of the parish boundary, part of this quay is an old boat building area know as Darby's Hard,  a terrace of unique houses known as Britannia Terrace, an old smoke house for curing fish,  Koolunga once known as Hill House and owned by the Garnham family to whom the small park also belonged and was given to the town by a later owner Mrs. Williamson.   This area is to Gorleston what the historic South Quay is to Great Yarmouth but with more character and a sense of tranquillity  - It badly needs a careful renovation and protection.

Left is The Towers built by Harvey Harvey-George manager of Hewett's trawling fleet when the garden of Surbiton Lodge  his previous home was taken to continue Trafalgar Road East to the High Street.   Centre are steps leading from the High Street to provide easy access to the Riverside which were no doubt used daily by the Hewett workers.   Right is the Rising Sun once a public house now a pine shop.   The building stands astride of the parish boundary and in times when the ceremony of beating the bounds was performed it was usual to go in the back and leave by the front door.

Left a crowded ferry boat coming across to Gorleston.   Centre.  Standing just above the ferry jetty Ye Lode Ferry Boat inn.   Right.   The now deserted landing stage with a changed view on the Great Yarmouth side.

NOW SOME OF OUR FISHING HERITAGE

Left.  A steady stream of steam drifters, some bringing home their catch and others making for the fishing grounds.   Centre.  Early steam drifters with "woodbine" funnels moored at the bottom of Baker Street.   They now had radio and steam capstans to make net hauling a little less arduous.   Right.  Sailing trawlers of earlier days when Gorleston was home to Hewett's "Short Blue" fleet, so called because of their house flag.   The four smacks in front are being towed out by a paddle tug while the other appears to be making its own way.   Sometimes they would be rowed out if there was no breeze.    Hewett's fleet employed the "fleeting" method which meant being at sea  for about eight weeks as part of a fleet commanded by an "Admiral" who decided where and when to fish.   Fast carrier vessels would bring fresh provisions and collect the catch rowed across to them from the fishing smacks, often in hazardous conditions and sometimes with loss of life.   The trawling industry lasted  in our port from around mid 19th century to just into the 20th century when the steam trawler and better transport prevailed.

Left the men who went to sea to bring home the catch.   Centre "silver darlings".   Right the fisher girls who gutted and packed the herring mainly for export to Russia and Germany.   Others involved would be the drifter owners, fish salesmen, merchants, coopers (barrel makers), ship builders, makers of  rope, nets, sails, sea boots and oilskins, baskets, tools and kitchen utensils, suppliers of salt for preserving the herring, provisions, bread and meat, coal, charts, compass testers,  engineers, fish curers, etc. etc.  All of which went to bring prosperity to the port until the herring became scarce and like the trawling which was replaced by tourism the fishing was replaced by oil and gas exploration.   Where to next in this ever changing town we live in?

Left is Paul Williment, boat owner, net maker, ships chandler and one time coxswain of the RNLI lifeboat.   Williments is the last chandlers left in the town and is now run by Paul's sons.   Centre are nets drying after being tanned.   This particular net ground was on the west side of Bells Road at the north end where Croydon Terrace now is.   Right is the South Dowsing lightship one of a fleet that marked the hazards around our coast making life for our mariners a little more safe.

                          GORLESTON IN ITS FISHING HEYDAY

        SCRYMGOEUR HEWETT                                                                SHORT BLUE THE HIGH STREET

In 1795a young Scrymeoug Hewett left his native Fifeshire to look after some property in Dagenham for an aunt, where he met, courted and married Sarah Whennel the daughter of a Barking fishing boat owner which was to be his introduction to fishing, eventually to take over his father-in-law's two boats that could be said was the small beginning of the "Short Blue" fleet, so named because of its house flag identifying all the fleet's fishing boats.

Scrymeoug wasn't a land based owner but went to sea and gained experience the hard way.   Nor was he a man to miss an opportunity when during the Napoleonic war he had a vessel built carrying guns and sailed as a privateer with the Navy.   After the war his son Samuel joined him and later took over the running of the fleet in 1815, setting himself the task of exploring the North sea fishing grounds.   

Samuel had used some "well ships",  so named because the centre of the vessel was formed into a large tank with holes bored in it to allow the sea to flow through and therefore keep the catch alive, the fish were originally caught by hand line with baited hooks until 1870 when the change was made to long lines.  The fish could be stored in the estuary in boxes with holes if the market price was low but because of the pollution beyond Gravesend the catch had to be loaded on to other boats to complete the journey to Billingsgate market.  There were drawbacks to this type of boat although they were still in use until the 1880's because they provided the market with small quantities of high quality fish which commanded the best prices.

To be able to send his trawling smacks further afield to the new fishing grounds he had found on his voyages, they carried ice to keep the fish fresh longer..   At first it was bought from Norway at high cost but he soon realised there was a large potential supply around Barking.   If the marshes were flooded in the winter he could pay farmers to deliver their "crop"  to large ice houses with 26 inch thick walls for use during the summer.   This revolutionised the fishing industry allowing Hewitt's to prosper and expand.

THE MOVE TO GORLESTON

                Entrance to Hewett's Dock                               Dock Tavern was adjacent to dock                  Smack in Hewett's Dock

Samuel had earlier landed fish on Yarmouth beach to go by road to Billingsgate in carriages pulled by either two or four horses which were changed at staging posts about every ten miles and later when the railway came to Yarmouth in the 1847 used trains.   The first Hewett icehouse at Gorleston was built in 1846 with the ice harvested from the Broads and brought down the river by wherry.

Hewitt's had adopted the "fleeting system" around 1843/44 which had been the next important development to follow the use of ice.   The smacks had been returning each with their individual catch to Billingsgate market which meant much wasted time in travelling whereas by fishing as a fleet and using fast sailing cutters to carry the fish to Billingsgate,  returning to the fleet with ice and more fish boxes and sometimes provisions the smacks remained at sea for six to eight weeks and fished for the whole of that period, only returning to base for about a week to  get a refit and give the crew a few days at home..   This wasn't a popular move for the men who could make five trips a year with a relatively short time ashore.

Samuel could see the advantages of basing his smacks at Yarmouth for refits where they were closer to the new rich fishing grounds off Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, that port  being the most suitable on the east coast.   Hewitt's bought an area of riverside of about a quarter of a mile in length at Gorleston between the area of Darby's Hard and Baker Street where they built a new quay a with a dock and blocks of buildings employing a large number men as engineers, blacksmiths, block and mast makers, net makers, sailmakers, boat builders and twine spinners.   An icehouse still stands on the quay at the bottom of Ice House Hill as the only reminder of this area of great industry when Gorleston was home to the worlds largest trawling fleet.

The Tower the Home of  Harvey-George.               Harvey Harvey- George .                          Window in  The Tower

The move of the "Short Blue" fleet to its new base at Gorleston began in the around 1860  and was largely organised by Samuel's son  Robert who became managing director when Hewetts became a limited company in 1864.   Originally he lived in Gorleston High Street in a large house known as the Woodlands which stood where the precinct is now, but moved back to Barking about 1870 when the company was restructured and all the smacks sold with just the carriers retained.   The fleet was reorganised in 1879 and his brother-in-law Harvey Harvey-George moved to Gorleston to take over the day to day management of the fleet, living first at Surbiton Lodge which used to be on the south corner or Trafalgar Road East and High Street, prior to demolition the home and surgery of Dr. Deane.   Later when most of the garden was taken up for the continuation of Trafalgar Road East he built the Towers to the east of the High Street in what was part of his garden.   It was know as "Cod End Castle" by locals because the foundations were the large stones trawled up and brought back to port so as not to be a future hindrance.   The reason could have equally been because it was the 'cod end' of the trawl that provided the money!

At one time their  own fleet consisted of over  200 smacks with many more fleeting with them from the smaller fleets and owners with a single smack, all under the command of an "Admiral", an experienced skipper who made the decisions of where to fish, when to lower the trawl and when to stop fishing.   These owners paid Hewitt's a service charge and carriage.   Not all smacks were at sea at the same time as when individual smacks had done their allotted time at sea they would leave the fleet to return to port.    At the same time other smacks would be rejoining the fleet

Hewett's buildings - worker's houses      The cottage hospital & fisherman's Institute both supported by Harvey-George           

The smacks were provisioned for their time at sea by the owners.   The men were paid a weekly wage with a share of the profit earned on the trip.   It was a tough and dangerous life with six to eight crew on a 75 foot smack, living, sleeping and eating in a cramped semi dark cabin with no provision for cleanliness, eating their food squatting on the floor enduring the smell of sweat, fish, smoke, poor feted air and eternal dampness.   During storms they would be confined to the cabin or risk getting washed overboard.   On deck if a large wave was spotted they would rush down the steps into the cabin often followed by a surge of sea water.  The men worked and slept in their clothes, returning home looking as you would expect in those circumstances.     It is little surprise that at times  when they was little or no wind and the smacks weren't able to fish many of them were lured on to "Copers", Dutch or Belgian ships that hung around the fleet to sell cheap duty free tobacco and bad spirit, which often led to the men getting hopelessly drunk and sometimes even exchanging their smacks equipment for drink.

The Copers were a major problem to owners effecting the efficiency of the fleet.    Harvey Harvey-George knew something had to be done to curb their activities and the answer came in the form of a young social worker  1881 called Ebenezer Mather who visited the Short Blue  fleet on the Dogger Bank and was appalled at what he saw of the deplorable degrading conditions the men had to endure in how they lived and worked.   conditions where accidents were frequent but without medical aid.   They were exploited by the Copers and were a liability when drunk not only to their  sober crew mates but also the fleet and the owners. 

In 1882 he bought a smack, Ensign, from the Hewett fleet which Harvey Harvey-George refitted at cost and then set sail from Gorleston for the fishing grounds with medical supplies, warm clothes, tobacco, bibles and religious tracts.   He wasn't just going to preach Christianity and temperance but also to win their hearts with simple luxuries to help make life a little easier.   To help he bought duty free tobacco from the continent where the Copers obtained their supplies and sold it to the fishermen at £1 per pound, a third cheaper than they did.   Slowly the Bethel ships visits to the fleets became more and more welcome and the number of mission ships grew with hospital ships added to the fleet.   The Copers were forced out and their operation made illegal by an international convention in 1886.   The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen remains active in the welfare of fishermen  today .

Originally the carrier cutters were sail driven pushed to their limits to get the catch to market with all haste to make sure they were in a prime condition.   Given a fair wind they could get from the Dogger Bank to Billingsgate in a little over a day but in calm conditions it would be a longer, so when the steam engine was developed Hewitt's took full advantage by changing to the power of steam.

      Smack.  Trawl showing at the stern.                                    The fleet taking boxes of fish to the carrier vessel

When the cutter arrived at the fleet, which was no mean feat without modern navigation aids the smacks queued in an orderly pattern, their small boats rowed by two men, piled high with fish boxes, to return to their smack with fresh empty boxes.   Making the journey across to the carrier in calm weather was routine but on a rough day it was a highly dangerous journey that could, and often did, end in tragedy with men pitched into a monstrous sea and little hope of being saved when their heavy clothing and thigh boots quickly dragged them into the depths.  

Fishing in the North sea was dangerous, with sometimes fierce gales to challenge men and boat, the risk of being run down by a large vessel was not uncommon. as were the dangers when ferrying the catch over to the carrier boat.

The following are some of the dangers of a life fishing in the North Sea taken from Edgar March's book "Sailing Trawlers", probably the definitive work for those interested in the story of the North Sea trawling industry in days gone by.

March records that between 1878 and 1913, 249 smacks  from the Port of Yarmouth were lost.   98 foundered, 86 sank following collision, 57 became stranded, and 8 were burn out.   Add to this the accidents onboard to crews and you begin to realise the risks endured by those who chose this as a way of life and the great contribution they made to the country's food supply and the diet of many.

There were many and regular and terrible disasters  in the North Sea.   Winter gales when trawling in the darkness of night,  fog and snowstorms with little or no visibility when trawling in company with perhaps 200 other smacks. Danger of collision with not only other fishing boats but also larger vessels.   Once in the water a man in heavy clothing and high leather thigh boots would stand little chance of staying afloat let alone survive long in the icy water.

March records that in 1863, 132 smacks were lost.   The great gale in December of that year accounted for 24 smacks which foundered with the loss of 144 lives,  leaving 84 widows and 102 children orphaned.   The year 1864 claimed 74 smacks and the following years, 98, 116, 188, 131, 153, 83, with 121 in 1871.   215 men and boys drowned with another 164 orphans.

Tragic as the toll of these years was it was far exceeded when the wind reached gale force 11 in October, 1880 -  at the port of Yarmouth alone losses were over 50 men and 10 smacks.   Worse still for the North Sea fishing communities was March 1883 when a further 255 men and boys were lost.   43 smacks missing with all crew, 222 men, 7 abandoned with the loss of 4 men, 38 seriously damaged and 13 drowned, while a further 51 sustained some damage and the loss of 16 men.   It is said many who survived lost their nerve and never went to sea again.

In 1882 Hewett had 82 trawling smacks of their own and possibly around another 100 fishing as part of the fleet to make use of their fast carrier cutters.  There were 570 fishermen on their payroll and another 107 shore workers comprising blacksmiths, carpenters, painters, sailmakers, block makers, riggers, engineers and shipwrights.   Towards the end of the 19th century the writing was on the wall not only for Hewetts but also for many of the smaller owners and also Gorleston and Yarmouth  as the great trawling centre it once was.

The steam trawler was outdating the sailing smack with their great range and speeds, ending the era of the fleeting system.   Ports such as Hull and Grimsby, closer to the productive fishing grounds and the huge northern market were developing rapidly and in 1901 the Short Blue fleet was laid up along Gorleston Quay and an era had come to an end.   Some boats were broken up, many sold to continental owners, while others were converted to coastal traders.   A large number of Hewett men moved to the northern ports to carry on their work in the all conquering steam trawlers.

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE ADDED SHORTLY.

IF ANYONE HAS PHOTOS TO COMPLIMENT THE TEXT I WOULD BE VERY PLEASED IF YOU WOULD SEND THEM ATTACHED TO AN EMAIL OR ANY INFORMATION YOU MAY HAVE TO ADD TO THE "SHORT BLUE STORY.

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Start date 24th June, 2005