A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
Pottery sherds found just above the burned layer
at the west end of St.Peter’s Road in the sewer
trench in February 1994, have been dated as
15th/16th. century, showing the made ground here
at least to be relatively recently deposited. Not
only was soil and sand likely to have been used
to help prevent flooding, but it was imported in
huge quantities to reinforce the inside of the town
wall in Elizabethan times as an improvement to
the defence against the Spanish Armada.
Rumbelow’s photo of the Mark’s and Spencer excavation.
Rumbelow recorded a fire as a result of enemy
action on February 1st 1942, at the former
Jarrold’s store in King Street. Some stone arches
and vaulting were uncovered below that building
when demolished, that appeared contemporary
with the tolhouse, ie. perhaps 13th century,
but no proper examination was made and only
Rumbelow’s notes record the event. A sketch plan
of his shows the wall as dividing numbers 183
and 184 King Street. These appear to me to be the
very same buildings recorded by Dawson Turner
on drawings he made that are now preserved in
the British Library.
Augustus Wilson’s photo of the Bovis crew that worked
on the M&S site, taken 5.7.51 (A.W. is 5th rt 2nd row
from front)
In June 1951, Philip Rumbelow, the local plumber,
historian and disciple of Arthur Patterson,
the famous naturalist, writer and Broadsman,
observed and photographed the excavation for
the new foundations of the Marks and Spencer
store, which had been destroyed in an air raid.
The excavation appears to have been to a depth
of 15 feet, and to have exposed the glacial sand surface
below the made ground and wind blown sand layers.
Rumbelow has recorded this in his diary. The fill
above the base was full of animal bones, a feature that
was found also in the market place adjacent, in 1993.
Robert Postle, an observer of these events in 1951,
who I recorded in a taped interview in 1993, said that
Charles Green had examined this excavation. Green
himself appears to have (as usual) made no written
record. audio
Medieval vaulted undercrofts were also discovered near
South Quay in Row 138 after bombing. This was also
observed by Robert Postle, audio and photographed
by Philip Rumbelow. They were filled in and still
exist below ground. The existence of this undercroft
below the current surface of South Quay confirms
that the sea level when they were built and used was
much lower.
In 1956 Charles Green conducted an archaeological dig,
over a mere two days, inside and outside of the town
wall at Alexandra Road [xxii] . There was a detailed
report in “Norfolk Archaeology.” Inside of the town
wall, 11 feet below ground, he found Roman tiles,
both tegulae and imbrices, and a single sherd of fourth
century grey ware. Outside the wall he found a dark
layer of soil, and the wall was seen to have been built
upon a flagstone base. He did not report on the nature
Audio interview with Robert Postle, 1993, who saw
both the M&S site and the undercroft.
33
A Medieval Undercroft was exposed by clearance in
1948, after the bombing in 1940, 30 paces up Row 138
from South Quay, on the south side. It still remains
there, filled in and covered over.
Pictures in Dawson Turner’s collections
The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chap-
ter One
Geology
and Ar-
chaeol-
of the outside of the wall below ground. This would
have been most interesting, since above ground the
wall here is cut-flint faced rather than rough, and a
clear indication of the original ground level at the time
of building the wall could likely have been gained,
but this opportunity was lost.
Geology
and
Archaeology
In 1956 George Rye reported on a dig under the
base of the “mid-sands cross” [xxiii]. This is situated
in the northern-most part of the modern town, at a
street called “Caystreward” (TG525100). The flint
and stone mound is preserved to this day. In ancient
times it appears to have been on the Yarmouth bank
of the river estuary, once called “Grubb’s Haven”.
Under the base of the cross was found a first century
“terra nigra” Roman potsherd, but there were also
13th century sherds in the clay.
The Mid-sands Cross
References
Chapter Two
[i] Ref. The Lost Rivers of London, Nicholas Barton .
p.49.
[ii] Described by Walter Rye in Yarmouth
Archaeology bulletins, no.2 and no.3, 1968.
[iii] The aerial photographs are to be found in the
archive of the Archaeological Unit at Gressenhall
beside Dereham. They were taken during the very
dry summer in 1976, mainly by Derek Edwards of
that unit.
[xiii] Derek Edwards, the aerial archaeological expert at
Gressenhall
[xiv] In “1000 yrs. of village history”, by Rev.
Dr.Edward C.Brooks.
[xv] “Current Archaeology”1993
[xvi] (see “Prehistoric Settlements” by Robert Bewley,
1994, p.110.)
[iv] Newton Cross was a well-enough recorded
village except that its position has never been mapped
as far as is known before it fell into the sea.
[xvii] “Current Archaeology” no.133., dated March
1993.
[v] Stated to me by Heather Wallace, archaeologist,
Norwich, 17/8/94
[xviii] Rumbelow’s Diary, 1936, p.141.
[vi] The Lost Rivers of London , Nicholas
Barton.(p.50)
[xix] By myself, reported in issue 2, vol. 1, The New
Perlustration of Great Yarmouth , 1994; and by Heather
Wallace, archaeologist of the Norfolk Unit, report
unpublished.
[vii] The Lost Rivers of London , Nicholas Barton,
p.49.
[viii] The pipe trench at Nottingham way has revealed
fish bones but virtually no animal bones, whereas
the material excavated at the west end of St.Peter’s
Road was full of animal bones and teeth.
[ix] The “Conquest of Gaul” by Julius Caesar is the
earliest written account of Great Britain. (Penguin
books)
[xx] Written up at the time by Percy Trett, in his
extensive notebooks.
[xxii] ”Excavations on the town wall, Great Yarmouth,
Norfolk, 1955”, by Charles Green, Norfolk
Archaeology, p. 109.
[x] Swein, son of King Harold of Demark, invaded
East Anglia A.D.1010. - Oxford Illustrated History of
Britain.
[xxiii] “Midsands Cross, Great Yarmouth”, by C.G.Rye,
Norfolk Archaeology, vol.xxxiv, 1969. p.240.
[xi] “Excavations on the town wall, Great Yarmouth,
Norfolk, 1955”, by Charles Green, Norfolk
Archaeology, p. 109.
[xii] “Great Yarmouth - Blackfriars Church”, by
C.G.Rye. Norfolk Archaeology, vol.xxxv, p.498., also
p. 208, December 1977.
34
Chapter
One