A wealth of history
Imagine, I’m sitting at my desk when I get an email that says “Hey, Holly. Do you want to go to the beach and go on lots of historical adventures for a month?” Okay, so that wasn’t word for word but that’s how I read it, so I absolutely snapped up the opportunity and three short weeks later was on my way to Great Yarmouth to nerd out and see the sun and sea (it was actually sunny a lot but very, very cold)!
We often forget just how much history is packed into Great Yarmouth – from the herring trade dating back to the Saxon era to today’s beachside entertainment, there is so much to learn. Our official goal for the month was to involve local residents in as many cultural activities as possible and to learn as much history from Great Yarmouth’s people. Let me showcase just some of the things we got up to in Great Yarmouth.
Lydia Eva
Our first trip was to the Lydia Eva – a historic steam drifter built in 1930. Originally built in King’s Lynn but definitely a part of Great Yarmouth’s history as she spent most of her early years working as one of many boats that made up the fleet supporting the bustling herring industry. She is now one of the last surviving steam powered drifters.
When World War II hit, she was commissioned by the military and renamed Watchmoor. Her duties changed to laying buoys for bombing ranges, moorings and lifting crashed aircraft. Having survived her time with the military, she was not used or maintained properly for some time.
In 1971, The Maritime Trust bought her and restored her to her former gl ory. She’s now a floating museum on the history of the fishing industry, a sprinkle of wartime history, trading routes and steam engines history too. The wonderful team there provide guided tours and are run mainly on the strength of their knowledgeable volunteers!
Anna Sewell’s House
Next up, a guided tour of this ancient and rather lovely house next to The Minster! You may have heard of Anna Sewell – the famous author of Black Beauty. This house was where she was born! She wrote Black Beauty in her house in Old Catton, or rather her mother penned it whilst she dictated it. She was very ill at the time and she died five years after she finished writing it – it was only five months before her death that the book was published.
The book itself was aimed at adults to highlight the mistreatment of animals but today it has become a much loved children’s book. (I don’t know how because I cried my eyes out reading it as an adult!)
This and much more knowledge was shared with us in our own private tour of this beautiful house!
The Tolhouse
At this point, I was soaking up all the knowledge I could and talking to all of the wonderful people who attended the events – I wanted to know what people loved about this town and what they wanted more of… of course there’s a love for the macabre so we were all very excited for The Tolhouse Tour.
Guided through the history of the building, the dungeons, pirates, witches and more by our own private guide, Bex, we could not have been happier with the fantastic stories she regaled us with. We were led down into the dungeons where she told us the darkest and creepiest stories from Great Yarmouth’s past – the adults were more distressed than the children who thought it was “so cool”. (I agree.)
1500 years of Great Yarmouth history – the walking tour
I was up next, one of the two tours I was running during the month. A crowd gathered to hear me talk and I was aware how many people in the crowd were passionate about their town’s history – the pressure was on!
We started talking about something dark (obviously), bodysnatching. How many thousands of pounds bodysnatching would get you in today’s money had some of us considering a different career path, then it was on to The Minster, Anna Sewell’s House, the Fishermen’s Alms House, the market, the rows, old pubs and merchants’ houses, the Tolhouse, Time and Tide and the city walls. For everything I could tell the crowd they had even more to tell me back and when they left they said “you know what you’re talking about” and when you talk for a living, that’s all the praise you need! First tour: success!
Seafront Tour
My favourite tour. I wrote this and delivered it in the same month – possibly a personal best for me. I loved every moment of it, researching, writing and delivering. And there were even some things that my guests didn’t know – gold star to me!
We met at the Venetian Waterways, a truly gorgeous place to start a tour, especially with the sun beaming down on us to soften that salty wind. My delight continued evermore when four dogs joined us for the tour! We had five main stops but covered much more; Venetian Waterways, Britannia Pier, Winter Gardens, Wellington Pier and the Pleasure Beach. We spoke about everything the town had seen from hundreds of shows and famous people (I knew about 5% of the names, my excuse is I’m a spring chicken) who played at the piers to the donkey or goat rides you could get on the seafront. Yes, little tiny carts for toddlers pulled by goats. I’d try to bring it back but it would not pass my manager’s health and safety checks! Did you know that there was an Imperial Bazaar in the Winter Gardens in 1908? It’s famed for its Austrian style beer garden but I love the lesser-known facts and enjoyed sharing them with the tour guests!
And just like that, my month of being a history nerd on tour was over. I learned so much from all the wonderful guests and I hope to be back soon!