THE ROWS OF GREAT YARMOUTH
To understand the complexity of the Rows it's a good idea to see a map of them first.....I found an excellent one drawn in 1797HERE
A map of 1899 produced by the Charles Goad company for fire insurance purposes and was kindly contributed by John Reid. you will findHERE which is linked to the "Old Norfolk"site
The following description is taken from a very old topography book
" Description of the County of Norfolk in the early 1800's:The walls were built about 1340 , and the inhabitants became so populous as to attack the neighbouring inhabitants of Leostoffe(Lowestoft) and the Cinqe Ports, by sea; but the population was greatly decreased, and the warlike spirit of the people damped, by a dreadful pestilential disorder, which swept away seven thousand inhabitants of this town. After this great calamity the inhabitants applied themselves to the improvement of the herring fishery,for which Yarmouth has ever been celebrated.
The town of Yarmouth, which makes a fine appearance from the sea, is more compact, neat, and well built, than any town in England, the streets being straight and parallel to each other; and there is a view from all the streets from the quay to the sea, the town standing in a peninsula. It extends more than a mile in length, and half a mile in breadth, and contains four principal streets, in a direction from North to South,and 156 narrow lanes intersecting them; it contains 3,081 houses, and 14,845 inhabitants."
Charles Dickens(1812-1870) said of them: "A Row is a long,narrow lane or alley quite straight,or as nearly as maybe,with houses on each side, both of which you can sometimes touch at once with the finger tips of each hand, by stretching out your arms to their full extent.
Now and then the houses overhang, and even join above your head, converting the row so far into a sort of tunnel or tubular passage. Many picturesque old bits of domestic architecture is to be found among the rows. In some rows there is little more than a blank wall for the double boundary. In others the houses retreat into tiny square courts where washing and clear starching was done."
Yarmouth was unique in that the passages to the houses behind the frontages which normally petered out into a garden, quite simply ran to join another passage made for the same purpose.This was the only way it could be done with such a limited space between the river and the sea.Yarmouth had three main streets, and from all of them the narrow passages led off to provide access to the dwellings of the poorer people. There were more houses than usual since there were so many people in such a small area.The passages in Yarmouth were longer than normalthey became joined up and formed through passages which became known as Rows. Most of the rows were paved with pebbles from the beach which made them extremely difficult to walk on. A few were paved with flagstones, carts were not allowed to enter these and they were preferred by pedestrians.
It was not until 1804 that the Rows were given numbers. Up until then they were known by the more colourful people who lived in them,traders,public houses etc. The highest Row number was 145
ROW is supposed to be derived from RHODIO, to walk.or from the Saxon ROWA(a rank);or, which is more likely in the sense in which it was used in Yarmouth, from the French RUE, a street or a lane.
To get people and provisions around the Rows a special troll cart was used; 12 feet long, with 2 wheels revolving on a box axle placed under the sledge, the extreme width of the vehicle being about 3 feet 6 inches. They had a very short, low back axle and the wheels ran under the body of the carriage. When they were not in use they could be tipped up on end and then used up very little space.These carts were modelled almost after the chariots of the Roman Invaders. If two carts met, one of the two had to back off!
There were a great many of these carts carrying goods to and from the shipping, and around the town. The brewers had a longer version and those for carrying people were much lighter than the work cart. In the 18th Century those used for pleasure were given the name of "Yarmouth Coaches", they were painted either red, blue or green and drawn by one horse.
It is said that the Yarmouth cart for the carriage of goods was first used in the reign of Henry Vll, and was christened the "Harry-Carry".
As you can imagine there was a problem in such a small space with people who had doors opening in the dark onto the Row,people were injured and there were many accidents, so in 1618 the authorities decided that the doors would all opened inwards, if this was not done then the constables were ordered to nail them up and charge the offender 5 shillings.There is one house in one of the Rows today which still has the wooden guards on either side of the door in order to safeguard the occupants from being run over by a horse upon stepping outside his door(only for historical purposes today!)
The removal of waste was a question of every man for himself!The open gutters were really running sewers. The East winds and rain helped to keep the streets a little cleaner, the Rows were all running from East to West and on a good blustery day with strong winds and rain the place must have smelled a lot fresher!!
These open gutters must have helped the spread of disease in the Rows;in 1348 the Black Death reduced the poplulation of 10,000 by 7052 deaths. It took two centuries to replenish. In 1579 the plague again but this time only 1704 died.
Watchmen would "cry the wind" for sleepless merchants or anxious skippers worrying about their ships - "East is the wind, and past 2 o'clock and a cloudy morning." I suppose they were the equivalent of early weathermen?
In Napoleonic times the Press Gangs would be out on the lookout for likely "volunteers"for the navy. Once the word had gone round "The press gang's out!" then all the men would stay in after dark. Many a young wife would worry until she saw her husband was safe and sound at home.
1884 - Official measurement of 81 of the Rows was 8,372 yards or rather more than 4 3/4 miles The entire length of the Rows exceeded 7 miles. Within the 81 Rows the number of dwelling houses were found to be 1811. The longest Row was Row 1.
During WW2 the Rows took a terrible bombing and many were completely destroyed, others have been pulled down to make way for new developments.Only in recent years have people such as "English Heritage" and at long last, those running the town of Great Yarmouth, decided that they are worth preserving. Better late than never!
The enthusiast can wander the streets of Great Yarmouth and the signs are all there still.Each Row is numbered
and with a bit of imagination you can feel how it must have been
to live in these tiny places.
One of my very favourite places to eat in Yarmouth is in Poppy Row,a delightful little restaurant called Lazarella's..you can feel how it must have been like many years previously, everything was so very small, with a tiny courtyard big enough for one table. Of course now it is scrupulously clean, and sitting quaffing a nice carafe of red wine and eating one of Toni's specials is very different from the way it would have been 100 years or more ago!
December 4th, 2003
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