Fascinating maritime heritage in Greater Yarmouth

Silver Darlings

The town of Great Yarmouth began as a herring fishing settlement in the 10th century. The herring fishing industry developed rapidly after the Norman Conquest in 1066 and soon became the mainstay of industry in Great Yarmouth while the fish became a favourite food for both rich and poor people and earned the name, 'silver darling'. A free Herring Fair was held every year, attracting merchants from all parts of Europe.

Special boats called Drifters were used to catch the herring which swim and feed close to the surface so, to catch them, nets were hung vertically in the water, like a string of huge tennis nets. At night time, the fish would blunder into the nets and be caught by their gills.

The size of the fishing fleets grew over the centuries and so did the catches. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, fish girls from around the country, but in particular from Scotland, would descend upon the town from October onwards to gut and process the catch which had to be done immediately once the boat had landed. The average catch in the early years of the 20th century was about 530 million fish! It is said that at times there were so many fishing boats in the harbour, it was possible to cross from one side of the river to the other by walking from deck to deck.

Great Yarmouth's last Steam Drifter, the Lydia Eva, was built in King's Lynn boat yard and had all mod-cons: electric light and wireless. However, the herring industry declined rapidly in the 1930s and the Lydia Eva landed her last catch in 1938. Now fully refurbished, the boat can be visited on South Quay between April and October.

Naval Glory

Given it's geographical location, the East Anglia coast has always been vulnerable to attack in times of conflict and Great Yarmouth has played an important role in defending this part of the country since medieval times.

In the 14th century, the town supplied ships to fight the Battle of Sluys, the first great English triumph at sea, and provided a large number of both ships and seamen for the Battle of Calais. Great Yarmouth was rewarded for this support by having it's coat of arms halved with the Royal coat of arms. The town was an important naval base throughout the Napoleonic Wars, and Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson who was born at Burnham Thorpe in north-west Norfolk in 1758, landed at Great Yarmouth on three occasions prior to his death in 1805.

When he landed at Great Yarmouth after the Battle of the Nile in 1798, he was given a hero's welcome and carried to the Wrestler's Inn on Church Plain. There he was presented with the Freedom of the Borough, and legend has it that when the town clerk was administering the oath he noticed that Nelson's left hand was placed on the Bible and exclaimed, "Your right hand, my Lord!", "That," replied Nelson curtly, "is at Tenerife". Another story goes that the landlady of the Wrestler's Inn asked Nelson if she could rename the pub, 'The Nelson Arms' in his honour. Nelson replied, "That would be ridiculous, seeing as I have but one".

Following Nelson's death at Trafalgar in 1805, an appeal was launched to raise funds for a worthy monument. In 1819, a column was erected in the South Denes area of the town in memory of this great admiral - 30 years before the column in Trafalgar Square. At 144 feet, Nelson's Monument, or the Norfolk Naval Pillar as it is also referred to is only slightly shorter than its counterpart in London.

Many military buildings have been built in Great Yarmouth over the years. One of the most striking is the Royal Naval Hospital, which was originally built for sailors wounded in the Napoleonic Wars. It then became a barracks, but was converted back to a hospital forty years later and was used to accommodate sailors who were mentally ill, hence the navy slang to describe those sailors who are showing signs of mental wear and tear as, "going to Yarmouth". Now a private residence, parts of the Royal Naval Hospital are usually open during Heritage Open days in September for people wishing to visit.

Visit the Nelson Museum to learn about the life and times of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. The museum, which is housed in a 17th century building on South Quay, on a quayside which still looks remarkably like the one that Nelson would have known, commemorates his illustrious career and Norfolk connections.

Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival

The town's rich maritime heritage is celebrated every year with the Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival, a spectacular weekend featuring tall ships and other visiting vessels, live shanty music, lifeboat demonstrations and other maritime related activities.