Great Yarmouth (/ˈjɑːrməθ/YAR-məth), often calledYarmouth, is aseaside town which gives its name to the widerBorough of Great Yarmouth inNorfolk, England; it straddles theRiver Yare and is located 20 miles (32 km) east ofNorwich.[3] Its fishing industry, mainly forherring, shrank after the mid-20th century and has all but ended.[4]North Sea oil from the 1960s supplied an oil rig industry that services offshore natural gas rigs; more recently, offshore wind power and other renewable energy industries have ensued.
Yarmouth has been a resort since 1760 and a gateway from theNorfolk Broads to theNorth Sea. Holidaymaking rose when a railway opened in 1844, bringing easier, cheaper access and some new settlements.Wellington Pier opened in 1854, and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th century, Yarmouth boomed as a resort, with apromenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops, theatres, thePleasure Beach, theSea Life Centre, theHippodrome Circus, theTime and Tide Museum and a Victorian seasideWinter Garden in cast iron and glass.
Great Yarmouth is located on a 3.1-mile (5.0 km)spit of land between theNorth Sea andRiver Yare.[5] It features historic rows of houses in narrow streets and a main tourist sector on the seafront. It is linked toGorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to theA47 andA149 byBreydon Bridge. The urban area covers 8.3 sq mi (21 km2) and according to theOffice for National Statistics (ONS) in 2002 had a population of 47,288. It is the main town in theBorough of Great Yarmouth.[6]
The ONS identifies a Great Yarmouth urban area as having a population of 68,317, which includes the sub-areas ofCaister-on-Sea (population 8,756) and Great Yarmouth (population 58,032). The wider Great Yarmouth borough had a population of around 92,500, which increased to 97,277 at the2011 United Kingdom census.[7] Ethnically, Great Yarmouth was 92.8 per centWhite British, with the next biggest ethnic demographic beingOther White at 3.5 per cent – Eastern Europeans in the main.[8]
Great Yarmouth (Gernemwa, Yernemuth) lies near the site of theRoman fort camp ofGariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare. Its situation having attracted fishermen from theCinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70burgesses before theNorman Conquest.Henry I placed it under the rule of areeve.
In 1101, theChurch of St Nicholas was founded byHerbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, and consecrated in 1119. This was to be the first of several priories founded in what was a wealthy trading centre of considerable importance. In 1208,King John granted acharter to Great Yarmouth. The charter gave his burgesses of Yarmouth general liberties according to the customs ofOxford, agild merchant and weekly hustings, amplified by several later charters asserting the rights of the borough against Little Yarmouth and Gorleston. The town is bound to send to the sheriffs of Norwich every year "one hundred herrings, baked in twenty-four pasties", which the sheriffs are to deliver to the lord of the manor of East Carlton, who is then to convey them to the King.[9]
A hospital was founded in Great Yarmouth during the reign ofEdward I by Thomas Fastolfe, father ofThomas Fastolf,Bishop of St David's. In 1551, a grammar school was founded, and the great hall of the old hospital was appropriated for its use. The school was closed from 1757 to 1860 but re-established by charity trustees and settled in new buildings in 1872.
In 1552,Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction, later confirmed and extended byJames I.Elizabeth I came to Great Yarmouth in July 1578.[10] In 1668 a charter fromCharles II extended the borough boundaries to also include Little Yarmouth (also known as Southtown), which lay on the opposite bank of the Yare in the parish of Gorleston inSuffolk.[11] In 1703 a new charter fromQueen Anne replaced the twobailiffs by a mayor. In 1673, during theThird Anglo-Dutch War, theZealand Expedition was assembled in the town. In 1702, theFishermen's Hospital was founded.[12] In the early 18th century, Yarmouth, as a thriving herring port, was vividly and admiringly described several times inDaniel Defoe's travel journals, in part as follows:[13]
Yarmouth is an ancient town, much older than Norwich; and at present, tho' not standing on so much ground, yet better built; much more compleat; for number of inhabitants, not much inferior; and for wealth, trade, and advantage of its situation, infinitely superior to Norwich.
It is plac'd on a peninsula between the River Yare and the sea; the two last lying parallel to one another, and the town in the middle: The river lies on the west-side of the town, and being grown very large and deep, by a conflux of all the rivers on this side the county, forms the haven; and the town facing to the west also, and open to the river, makes the finest key in England, if not in Europe, not inferior even to that ofMarseille itself.
The ships ride here so close, and as it were, keeping up one another, with their head-fasts on shore, that for half a mile [800 m] together, they go cross the stream with their bolsprits over the land, their bowes, or heads, touching the very wharf; so that one may walk from ship to ship as on a floating bridge, all along by the shore-side: The key reaching from the drawbridge almost to the south-gate, is so spacious and wide, that in some places 'tis near one hundred yards from the houses to the wharf. In this pleasant and agreeable range of houses are some very magnificent buildings, and among the rest, the custom-house and town-hall, and some merchants' houses, which look like little palaces, rather than the dwelling-houses of private men.
The greatest defect of this beautiful town, seems to be, that tho' it is very rich and encreasing in wealth and trade, and consequently in people, there is not room to enlarge the town by building; which would be certainly done much more than it is, but that the river on the land-side prescribes them, except at the north end without the gate....
The formerRoyal Naval Hospital, now converted into flatsGoing to Sea, Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, 1883, by Oswald W. Brierly
From 1808 to 1814, the Admiralty in London could communicate with its ships in Yarmouth by ashutter telegraph chain. Ships were routinely anchored offshore during theNapoleonic Wars and the town served as a supply base for theRoyal Navy. Part of anOrdnance Yard survives from this period on Southtown Road, probably designed byJames Wyatt: a pair of roadside lodges (which originally housed senior officers) frame the entrance to the site, which contains a sizeable armoury of 1806, a small barracks block and other ancillary buildings. Originally the depot extended down to a wharf on the River Yare and was flanked by a pair of storehouses, but these and other buildings were destroyed inThe Blitz.[16] A grander survival is the formerRoyal Naval Hospital designed byWilliam Pilkington, begun in 1806 and opened in 1811. Consisting of four colonnaded blocks around a courtyard, it served as a navalpsychiatric hospital, then as a barracks.[17] The barrack-master was CaptainGeorge Manby, during his time in post he invented theManby mortar. The premises were transferred to theNHS in 1958. After its closure in 1993, the buildings were turned into private residences.[18]
The town was the site of a bridge disaster and drowning tragedy on 2 May 1845, when theYarmouth suspension bridge, crowded with children, collapsed under the weight, killing 79. They had gathered to watch a clown in a barrel being pulled by geese down the river. As he passed under the bridge, the weight shifted, causing the chains on the south side to snap, tipping over the bridge deck.[19]
Great Yarmouth had an electric tramway system from 1902 to 1933. From the 1880s until the First World War, the town was a regular destination for Bass Excursions, when fifteen trains would take 8,000–9,000 employees of Bass'sBurton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.
The town suffered from bombing raids by the GermanLuftwaffe duringWorld War II, as the last significant place Germans could drop bombs before returning home, but much is left of the old town, including the original 2,000-metre (1.2 mi) protective medieval wall, of which two-thirds has survived, and eleven of the eighteen towers remain. On the South Quay is a 17th-century Merchant's House, as well asTudor,Georgian andVictorian buildings. Behind South Quay is a maze of alleys and lanes known as"The Rows". Originally, there were 145. Despite war damage, several have remained.
The town was badly affected by theNorth Sea flood of 1953. More recent flooding has also been a problem, with four floods in 2006, the worst being in September. Torrential rain caused drains to block and anAnglian Water pumping station to break down, which causedflash flooding in which 90 properties were flooded up to 5 ft (1.5 m).[21]
On 1 April 1974, thecivil parish of Great Yarmouth was abolished.[22]
The southern section of the 2 mi (3.2 km)A47 Great Yarmouth Western Bypass opened in May 1985, with the northern section opened in March 1986. The bypass was re-numbered as part of theA12, until it returned to being part of the A47 in February 2017.
In February 2023, there was an explosion onRiver Yare when disposal ofunexploded ordnance from World War II resulted in accidental detonation.[23]
Panorama of Hall Quay seen from Southtown, showing the Town Hall and Star Hotel. Historic South Quay continues to the right of the image.
The Tollhouse withdungeons, dating from the late 13th century, is one of Britain's oldest formergaols and oldest civic buildings.[24][25][26] It backs onto the central library. Major sections of the medieval town walls survive around the parish cemetery and in parts of the old town.
Great Yarmouth Minster (the Minster Church of St Nicholas, founded in the 12th century as an act of penance) stands in Church Plain, just off the market place. It is the third largest parish church in England, afterBeverley Minster in theEast Riding of Yorkshire andChristchurch Priory in Dorset. Neighbouring Church Plain has the 17th-century timber-framed house whereAnna Sewell (1820–1878), author ofBlack Beauty, was born.
Themarket place, one of England's largest, has functioned since the 13th century. It is also home to the town's shopping sector and the famous Yarmouth chip stalls. The smaller area south of the market is used as a performance area for community events and for access to the town's shopping centre,Market Gates.
Great Yarmouth railway station is the terminus of theWherry Lines from Norwich. Before theBeeching Axe, the town had several stations and a direct link to London down the east coast. The only remaining signs of these are a coach park, where Beach Station once was, and theA12 relief road, which follows the route of the railway down into the embankment from Breydon Bridge.
Yarmouth has twopiers:Britannia Pier (Grade II listed)[27]) andWellington Pier. The theatre building on the latter was demolished in 2005 and reopened in 2008 as a family entertainment centre, including a ten-pin bowling alley overlooking the beach. Britannia Pier holds the Britannia Theatre, which during the summer has featured acts such asJim Davidson,Jethro,Basil Brush,Cannon and Ball,Chubby Brown, theChuckle Brothers, andThe Searchers. It is one of the few end-of-the-pier theatres surviving in England.
TheScroby Sands Wind Farm of thirty generators is within sight of the seafront, with its giant wind generators. Also visible aregrey seals during their breeding season. The country's only full-time circus,Hippodrome Circus, is just off the seafront.
Great Yarmouth's seafront, known as "The Golden Mile", attracts millions of visitors each year to its sandy beaches, indoor and outdoor attractions and amusement arcades. Great Yarmouth's Marine Parade has twelve Amusement Arcades within 2 square miles (5.2 km2), including: Atlantis, The Flamingo, Circus Circus, The Golden Nugget, The Mint, Leisureland, The Majestic, The Silver Slipper, The Showboat, Magic City, Quicksilver and The Gold Rush, opened in 2007. In addition to the two piers, tourist attractions on Marine Parade include Joyland, Pirates Cove Adventure Golf, Castaway Island Adventure Golf, the Marina Centre, the Sea Life Centre, Merrivale Model Village and thePleasure Beach and Gardens.
InAugust2019, the Venetian Waterways and gardens in Great Yarmouth were reopened following a major restoration project[29] delivered bycontractorBlakedown Landscapes.[30] Originally constructed between1926 and1928 as a work-creation scheme, the site featurescanals andformal gardens that had fallen into disrepair, with waterways silted up and infrastructure neglected. Supported by a £1.7 million grant from theHeritage Lottery Fund and assistance from volunteers, the restoration involved replanting the flowerbeds with 20,000 plants and refurbishing the original 1920s café. The café and boat hire facilities are now operated by a social enterprise.[31][32]
The South Denes area is home to the Grade I listed Norfolk Naval Pillar, known locally as theBritannia Monument or Nelson's Monument. This tribute toNelson was completed in 1819, 24 years before the completion ofNelson's Column in London. The monument, designed byWilliam Wilkins, showsBritannia standing atop aglobe holding anolive branch in her right hand and atrident in her left. There is a popular assumption in the town that the statue of Britannia was supposed to face out to sea but now faces inland due to a mistake during construction, although it is thought she is meant to face Nelson's birthplace atBurnham Thorpe. The monument was originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at theBattle of the Nile, but fundraising was not completed until after his death, and it was instead dedicated to England's greatest naval hero. It is currently surrounded by an industrial estate, but there are plans to improve the area. The Norfolk Nelson Museum on South Quay housed the Ben Burgess collection of Nelson memorabilia and was the only dedicated Nelson museum in England. It's several galleries that look at Nelson's life and personality, and at what life was like for men who sailed under him. It closed in 2019.
Charles Dickens used Yarmouth as a key location in his novelDavid Copperfield, and described the town as "the finest place in the universe".[33] Dickens stayed at the Royal Hotel on the Marine Parade while writing the novel.
TheTime and Tide Museum in Blackfriars Road, managed by Norfolk Museums Service, was nominated in the UK Museums Awards in 2005. It was built as part of a regeneration of the south of the town in 2003. Its location in an oldherringsmokery harks back to the town's status as a major fishing port. Sections of the historictown wall stand opposite the museum, next to the Great Yarmouth Potteries, part of which is housed in another former smokehouse. The town wall is among the most complete medieval town walls in the country, with 11 of the 18 original turrets still standing. Other museums in the town include the National Trust's Elizabethan House, the Great Yarmouth Row Houses, managed byEnglish Heritage, and the privately ownedBlitz and Pieces, based on theHome Front duringWorld War II.
The Maritime Heritage East partnership, based at the award-winning Time and Tide Museum, aims to raise the profile of maritime heritage and museum collections.
Great Yarmouth was anancient borough. The original borough was entirely on the north side of the Yare, which formed the historic boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk. After the borough was enlarged to include Southtown in 1668, the borough straddled the two counties.[11] The borough was reformed to become amunicipal borough in 1836 under theMunicipal Corporations Act 1835, at which point the boundaries were enlarged to include all of the parish of Gorleston.[35][36] When elected county councils were created in 1889, Great Yarmouth was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it became acounty borough, independent from Norfolk County Council.[37] For ceremonial and judicial purposes, the borough continued to straddle Norfolk and Suffolk until 1 April 1891, when the county boundary was adjusted to place the whole borough in Norfolk.[38]
The County Borough of Great Yarmouth was abolished in 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972. The area became part of the largerBorough of Great Yarmouth, a lower-tiernon-metropolitan district, with Norfolk County Council providing county-level services to the town for the first time. Nosuccessor parish was created for the area of the former county borough, which therefore became anunparished area, directly administered by Great Yarmouth Borough Council.[39]
The Yarmouth area provides habitats for some rare and unusual species. The area between the piers is home to one of the largest roosts ofMediterranean gulls in the UK.Breydon Water, just behind the town, is a major wader and waterfowl site, with winter roosts of over 100,000 birds.Grey seal andcommon seal are frequently seen offshore, as are seabirds such asgannet,little auk,common scoter,razorbill,Gull andguillemot.
This and the surroundingHalvergate Marshes are environmentally protected. Most of the area is now managed by conservation organisations, principally theRSPB. The North Denes area of the beach is anSSSI due to its dune plants, and supports manyskylarks andmeadow pipits, along with one of the largestlittle tern colonies in the UK each summer, and a small colony ofgrayling butterflies. Other butterflies found includesmall copper andcommon blue.
The nearby cemetery is a renowned temporary roost for spring and autumn migrants.Common redstart andpied flycatcher are often seen during their migration[citation needed]. It has also recorded the first sightings of some rare insects blown in from the continent.
The main Marina leisure centre, built in 1981, has a large swimming pool andconference facilities; it holds live entertainment, such as summerpantomime variety shows produced by local entertainers Hanton & Dean. The centre is run by the Great Yarmouth Sport and Leisure Trust. The Trust was set up in April 2006 to run the building as a charitable non-profit-making organisation.
At the beginning of the 2008 summer season, the world's firstSegway Grand Prix was opened at thePleasure Beach gardens.
The English Pool Association (EPA),[40] the governing body for 8-Ball Pool in England, holds its National Finals Competitions (including Inter-County and Inter-League, singles and team competitions, and England trials) over several weekends through the year at the Vauxhall Holiday Park[41] on the outskirts of Great Yarmouth.
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC East andITV Anglia. Television signals is received from theTacolneston transmitter or from one of the two local relay transmitters (Great Yarmouth and Gorleston on Sea).[42][43][44]
The remaining Vauxhall station was renamed Great Yarmouth in 1989. It is the sole surviving station from a former total of seventeen within theborough limits.
Haven Bridge; one of the three main links to the town pictured in its upright position allowing boats to pass beneath
TheRiver Yare cuts off Great Yarmouth from other areas of the borough, such asGorleston and Southtown; as a result, the town's bridges became major transport links. Originally, Haven Bridge was the only link over the river, but in the late 1980s, Breydon Bridge was built to take the A12 overBreydon Water, replacing the old railway bridge ofBreydon Viaduct.[49] In January 2020, construction began on a third river crossing, the Herring Bridge, which opened to traffic on 1 February 2024.[50] All three are lifting bridges, which can be raised to allow river traffic to pass through; this can result in traffic tailbacks. The phrase "the bridge was up" has become synonymous in the town with being late for appointments.[citation needed]
A ferry running between the southern tip of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston provided a much shorter link between the factories on South Denes and the mostly residential areas of Gorleston. However, increased running costs and the decline of industrial activity led to its closure in the early 1990s.[51]
Since 2006, the restored pleasuresteamer theSouthern Belle has offered regular river excursions from the town's Haven Bridge. Built in 1925 for theEarl of Mount Edgcumbe, she is now owned by the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Steam Packet Company Limited.[52]
Construction work on theGreat Yarmouth Outer Harbour, a deep-water harbour on theNorth Sea, began in June 2007 and was completed by 2009. Originally, there was to be a roll-on/roll-off ferry link withIJmuiden, which failed to materialise. An initiative by Seamax Ferries to connect Great Yarmouth and Ijmuiden by ferry was due to start in 2008.[53] Nor did installation of two large cranes in 2009, since removed, save plans for a container terminal, which have also been scrapped.[54]
There has been a lifeboat at Great Yarmouth since at least 1802. Early boats were privately operated until theRNLI took over in 1857.[55] It has a lifeboat station at Riverside Road, Gorleston[a] from where theTrent-class lifeboatSamarbeta and B class (inshore) lifeboatSeahorse IV run.[56]
The anchorage off Yarmouth, known asYarmouthRoads, was seen as one of the East Coast's best in the early 1800s. Their fleets gathered and set sail during the Napoleonic wars.[57] Nowadays, the roadstead is more likely to be referred to as an anchorage.[58]
The town is served by theA47 and the terminatingA143. Until 2017, theA12 from London terminated in Yarmouth; the route from Lowestoft was renumbered as the A47 byHighways England, as part of a wider road-improvement scheme. Thereafter, the A12 has terminated in Lowestoft instead of at Vauxhall roundabout. The relief road was built along the path of the old railway to carry the A12 onwards to Lowestoft and London.Roundabouts, junctions and bridges often become gridlocked atrush hour.
Plans were advanced for a third river crossing in Great Yarmouth to link northern Gorleston with the South Denes and theOuter Harbour, avoiding the congested town centre. A public consultation took place in mid-2009 over four possible proposals, but plans were stalled by a lack of funding and closure of the container terminal.[59] In 2016, additional funding of just over £1 million was pledged[60] and a potential crossing proposal outlined for the crossing to link the A12 at Harfrey's Roundabout to South Denes.[61][62] The bridge project was approved in 2020[63] construction of thebascule bridge, to be named "Herring Bridge" began in January 2021, and was set to end in May 2023.[64][65] During construction works, an unexploded German bomb from the Second World War was discovered and exploded during defusing attempts. Opening for road traffic will take place in 2024.[66]
An East of England Ambulance Service First Responder group has been set up for the Great Yarmouth area. Made up of a group of volunteers within the community in which they live or work, they are trained to attend emergency 999 calls by the NHS Ambulance Service.[68]
^"Fisherman's Hospital".greatyarmouthculturalheritage.co.uk. Great Yarmouth Cultural Heritage. Retrieved17 February 2019.
^Daniel Defoe,A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (1724), Letter 1, Pt 3. Defoe's several descriptions may be accessed on theVision of Britain website.
Ferry, Kathryn (2009) "'The maker of modern Yarmouth': J. W. Cockrill", in: Kathryn Ferry, ed.,Powerhouses of Provincial Architecture, 1837–1914. London: Victorian Society; pp. 45–58