Lowestoft

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Coordinates: 52°29′N 1°45′E / 52.48°N 1.75°E / 52.48; 1.75

Lowestoft
Lowestoft shown within Suffolk
Population	65,000 (SUFFOLK Family History Society)
OS grid reference	TM548933
District	Waveney
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LOWESTOFT
Postcode district	NR32 (north), NR33 (south)
Dialling code	01502
Police	Suffolk
Fire	Suffolk
Ambulance	East of England
European Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Waveney
List of places: UK • England • Suffolk

Lowestoft (pronounced /ˈloʊstɒft/ or /ˈloʊstəf/) is a town in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the eastern edge of The Broads National Park at Oulton Broad and the North Sea within the parliamentary constituency of Waveney. It is home to Lowestoft Ness, the most easterly point of the United Kingdom and of the British Isles.

Lowestoft is twinned with the French town of Plaisir and was twinned with Katwijk in the Netherlands until that relationship ended in the 1990s.

Geography

Lowestoft is Suffolk's second largest town^[1] and is divided in two by Lake Lothing, home of its port, itself divided into an inner- and outer-harbour by a bascule bridge carrying the A12 through the town. Both north and south sides of the town contain a variety of business and residential areas, with the main shopping centre lying just to the north and the award-winning Blue Flag beaches^[2] to the south.

The town has two piers, situated on the south beach. The southerly pier, called the Claremont Pier, originally served as a port of call for steamers travelling to and from London.^[3] The pier structure itself has been closed for many years, is now in a state of disrepair and not open to the public, though the building at the land end still hosts an arcade, bar, club and fish restaurant. Just over half a mile (1 km) to the north of that is the South Pier^[4] (so called because it is placed on the south side of the outer harbour).

Lowestoft railway station is centrally placed within the town, within walking distance of the beach, and provides services to Norwich along the Wherry Line and Ipswich on the East Suffolk Line. Many services also continue to London Liverpool Street along the main line from Ipswich. All services are operated by National Express East Anglia.

History

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The settlement's name is derived from the Viking personal name Hlothver, and toft,^[5] a Viking word for 'homestead'. The town's name has been spelled variously: Lothnwistoft, Lestoffe, Laistoe, Loystoft and Laystoft. In the Domesday Book, it was spelled Lothu Wistoft^[5] and described as a small agricultural village of 20 families, or about 100 people.

In the Middle Ages, Lowestoft developed into a fishing port^{[citation needed]}, a trade that continued to be its main identity until the 20th century.

In the 1665, the first battle of the Second Dutch War was the Battle of Lowestoft 40 miles (64 km) off the coast of the town^{[citation needed]}.

In the 19th century, the arrival of Sir Samuel Morton Peto brought about a change in Lowestoft's fortunes. Railway contractor Peto built a rail link between Lowestoft and Reedham, the line being funded and operated by the Norfolk Railway. At Reedham this line joined the Yarmouth to Norwich Railway. Other local railway links where built and initially these were operated by the Eastern Counties Railway. After obtaining funding from the Norfolk Railway, Peto helped developed the port and together they provided mooring for 1,000 small boats. From 1845, the port was leased by the Norfolk Railway on an indefinite lease, Peto only being responsible for it for a matter of weeks.

The major development of the port including the building of the docks was carried out from 1848 by the Eastern Counties Railway, and continued from 1862 by the Great Eastern Railway with Peto having no input to this work. Upon completion, the improvements gave a boost to trade with the continent. Peto helped established Lowestoft as a flourishing seaside holiday resort by expanding the south of Lowestoft. However, some of the buildings associated with him have now been demolished.

In World War I, Lowestoft was bombarded by the German Navy on 24 April 1916.

During the World War II, the town was used as a navigation point by German bombers^{[citation needed]}. As a result it was the most heavily bombed town per head of population in the UK.^{[citation needed]} Old mines and bombs are still dredged up and have been hazardous to shipping.

Lowestoft has been subject to periodic flooding; the most notable was in January 1953 when a North Sea swell driven by low pressure and a high tide swept away many of the older sea defences and deluged most of the southern town.

Until the mid-1960s, fishing was perceived as Lowestoft's main industry, although from the 1930s the percentage of those employed directly and in trades associated with fishing was actually only around 10% of the working population^{[citation needed]}. Fleets comprised drifters and trawlers, with the drifters primarily targeting herring while the trawlers caught cod, plaice, skate and haddock. By the mid 1960s, the catches were greatly diminishing, particularly the herring. Consequently the drifter fleet disappeared and many of the trawlers were adapted to work as service ships for the new North Sea oil rigs. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), a large fisheries research centre, which is a part of Defra is still located in south Lowestoft.

The Eastern Coach Works was another big employer and in the 1960s it was a regular occurrence to see a bare bus chassis being driven through the town to the coach works by a goggled driver. Installing the bus's superstructure, body work and seats was the job of Eastern Coach Works. Both double decker and single decker buses were built there and sent all over the country.

Brooke Marine and Richards shipbuilding companies, who together employed over a thousand men, went out of business in the 1960s. In order to carry on the skills and traditions of the threatened shipbuilding trade, the International Boatbuilding Training College [1] was formed in 1975 and has been largely successful at producing graduates who carry on the legacy of Lowestoft shipwrights.

From the late 1960s to the late 1990s, the oil and gas industry provided significant employment (if often seasonal and erratic) in the Lowestoft area. For many years the Shell Southern Operations base on the north shore of Lake Lothing was one of the town's largest employers. A decision to close the Shell base was finally made in 2003.^[6]

Lowestoft Porcelain

During the second half of the 18th century a factory in Crown Street produced soft-paste porcelain ware. Items still exist, and there are collections at the museum in Nicholas Everett Park, Oulton Broad, and at the Castle Museum, Norwich. The factory produced experimental wares in 1756 and first advertised their porcelain in 1760.

Lowestoft collectors divide the factory's products into three distinct periods, Early Lowestoft circa 1756 to 1761, Middle-Period circa 1761 to 1768 and Late-Period circa 1768 to the closure of the factory in 1799.

During the early period wares decorated with Chinese-inspired scenes (Chinoiserie) in underglaze blue were produced. This type of decoration continued throughout the life of the factory but scenes were gradually simplified. Overglaze colours were used from about 1765.

Much of the small factory building remains, home for many years to a manufacturers of artists' brushes.

Lowestoft Air Festival

Sunrise at Ness Point, Lowestoft

For two days each year, Lowestoft's South Beach plays host to the Seafront Air Festival. Since its first opening in 1996, the event has gained much popularity and media attention.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, a Royal Air Force Harrier plane crashed into the sea during the festival.^[7] An RAF board of inquiry later established that the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Cann, had accidentally operated the controls for throttle and nozzle direction lever at the same time, causing it to drop sharply. Cann ejected as the aircraft dropped, via the ejector seat to rise safely above the crashed plane. He then descended safely by parachute until he struck the sinking plane and fractured his ankle.^[8] People in the sea were swiftly evacuated, and the Lowestoft Lifeboat was quickly on hand to take the pilot from the sea to the harbour where he was winched to the SAR Helicopter from RAF Wattisham and flown to James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth.^[9] The recovery of the aircraft was watched by hundreds as it was winched out of the North Sea several days later.

Future performances were thought to be under threat with the cessation of the main sponsorship by the Birds Eye frozen food company, but the show is administratively underwritten by the local district council until 2010, and new main sponsors are currently being sought by the management committee. In 2006 only £62,000 was raised in donations from the estimated 420,000 spectators, but in 2007 donations of £59,000 from the reduced crowd of 270,000 (due to poor weather on the first day) is considered a positive step towards the future of the show, as is the new link forged with the Honda Powerboat Grand Prix which was held on the two days following the air show.

Renewable energy

A large wind turbine, named 'Gulliver', was built in December 2004 and is located near Ness Point. It was the first commercial wind turbine in Suffolk and the largest wind turbine in Britain^[10]. The site is also home to OrbisEnergy, a state-of-the-art building intended to attract business in the green energy sector to the town^[11]. In April 2009, Associated British Ports announced that the Port of Lowestoft is to become the operations centre for the Greater Gabbard Offshore Windfarm which, when completed, will be the world’s largest offshore windfarm. The turbines will be located 15 miles off the Suffolk coast, and Lowestoft’s Outer Harbour is to be used to house the necessary operational support facilities.

Literary and artistic connections

Lowestoft has a number of literary and artistic connections.

The Elizabethan pamphleteer Thomas Nashe, one of the fathers of modern journalism and a primary source for the literary milieux of William Shakespeare, was born in Lowestoft in 1567.

In the 1840s, Charles Dickens came to stay with Sir Samuel Morton Peto. Lowestoft's Beach Village, along with Blundeston village, became the inspiration for David Copperfield.

The 19th-century writer and traveller George Borrow lived in Oulton Broad for many years and wrote most of his books there. Joseph Conrad came from his native Poland to live in Lowestoft in 1878. Edward Fitzgerald, the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, lived in Lowestoft. W.G. Sebald, who taught at the University of East Anglia and was tragically killed in 2001, wrote about Lowestoft in The Rings of Saturn.

The composer Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft in 1913. He lived on the seafront at 21 Kirkley Cliff Road until 1933. When he returned to Suffolk to establish a Festival, it was not to Lowestoft (for which he had little regard) but to Aldeburgh. A High-School and a shopping centre are named after the composer.

The children's author and illustrator Michael Foreman was born in 1938, and spent his childhood years in Pakefield where his mother kept the grocers shop in Pakefield. He attended Pakefield Primary School, and played on Hilly Green - stories of which are recorded in his book War Boy.

The Television comedy writer Andrew Marshall, probably most famous for the BBC One situation comedy 2point4 children, also lived in Lowestoft and attended Fen Park Primary and (the then) Lowestoft Grammar School.

Glam rock band, The Darkness was formed in Lowestoft with three of the four founder members were raised in there: Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins and Ed Graham. Several of their songs are either about or make reference to the town, or the surrounding area.

Places of Interest

Royal Naval Patrol Service Memorial

• The Royal Naval Patrol Service Memorial, located in Belle Vue Park.
• The East Anglia Transport Museum is located in Carlton Colville to the west of the town, which has a collection of working Trams, Trolleybuses and a Miniature Railway, as well as various buses and other transport artefacts, many with local connections.
• Africa Alive is a wildlife park located to the south of the town with, amongst others animals, Cheetahs, Lions, Rhinos and Giraffes. It is also home to one of the United Kingdom's few Aardvarks.
• Pleasurewood Hills is located in the north of the town.
• Ness Point, the most easterly location in the United Kingdom, is located in the town close to the wind turbine. At the most easterly point is a large compass rose set in the ground which gives the direction and distance to various cities in Europe.
• Oulton Broad, the most visited area of the broads by tourists, is located in the town. Motorboats can be hired to travel on the broads, however ith tours are also available. Powerboat racing also occurs every Thursday throughout the summer, hosting local boats and occasionally a round of a national or international championship throughout classes of powerboat.
• The Broads National Park is located near to the town and some of its walks are in Carlton Marshes located in Carlton Colville, a suburb of the town.
• Corton Nudist Beach is located in Corton near the northern suburbs of the town.
• The town is also well renowned for its beaches, three of which are the holders of blue flags.
• Belle Vue Park is near the North Beach and has many features including a restaurant, two museums, bowling green, a small auditorium, and many mature trees.
• Mincarlo is the last surviving sidewinder fishing trawler of the Lowestoft fishing fleet and can be visited at Lowestoft Yacht Harbour.

Suburbs and Districts

• Gunton
• Normanston
• Oulton District
• Lowestoft Central
• Kirkley
• Pakefield
• Whitton
• Carlton Colville
• Oulton Broad
• Corton
• Blundeston
• Kessingland
• Gisleham

^[12]

Notable People Connected to Lowestoft

• Sir Samuel Morton Peto - bought Somerleyton Hall In 1843
• Bob Blizzard - local Member of Parliament (Labour)
• Benjamin Britten - composer
• Thomas Crisp - Royal Navy Skipper with main road named after him.
• Sir John Ashby - famous admiral born in Lowestoft in 1640
• Michael Foreman - author and illustrator born in Pakefield
• Sir Christopher Cockerell - (inventor of the hovercraft) lived in Oulton Broad, he tested craft in Somerleyton
• George Borrow - wrote some of his books while living in Oulton Broad
• Andrew Marshall - Television comedy writer
• Rider Haggard - author who lived nearby in Kessingland
• Sir Michael Caine - during 1953-1955 met his wife and lived in the town.
• Tony Scannell - D.S. Ted Roach in ITV’s The Bill.
• Bill Crooks - right hand of William Douglas Cook, the creator of Eastwoodhill Arboretum, Ngatapa, Gisborne, New Zealand
• Karl Theobald - comedian & Actor
• Bernie Ecclestone - F1 CEO(Born near Bungay and lived on Denmark Road in Lowestoft)
• Tim Westwood - DJ & BBC Radio Presenter
• Terry Butcher - former England football captain educated in Lowestoft
• Reece Ritchie - actor from Lowestoft and educated at the Benjamin Briiten High School
• Justin Hawkins and Dan Hawkins- of multi-BRIT Award-winning local rock band The Darkness.
• Lil' Chris - musician and television presenter, also appeared in Rock School on Channel 4 Television.

References

• Suffolk County Council
• Waveney District Council
• Port Of Lowestoft(ABP)
• Lowestoft Town FC (Trawler Boys)

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