Ideas welcomed

This entry is not cast in stone. Should more local information be included? At the moment there is little, the reasoning behind this being that information goes out of date quickly. Should there be recommendations about where to go and what to do? The thinking here at the moment is that personal opinion creeps in and such references are often of doubtful assistance. Your thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.

Introduction

Lowestoft is the Most Easterly Town in the UK, and home of the Most Easterly Point at Lowestoft Ness, generally referred to as Ness Point. If you were unaware of the geographical uniqueness of the town before arriving, a short exposure to the surrounding marketing will leave you in no doubt: local media make much of the Most Easterly aspect and within the boundaries of a short walk you will discover the Most Easterly Church, Most Easterly Post Office and even the Most Easterly Doctors' Surgery all proudly displaying their Easterliness on hoardings.

The town may have a population somewhere in the region of 70,000 although it is hard to tell. In the last few years since the official census, the population has expanded so rapidly that even official estimates are unreliable. New housing estates have sprung up where the town once met the surrounding countryside and this rapid expansion continues at a furious rate, which is rather curious in a town where there is little employment, few prospects of early recovery, and an overall feeling of weariness with the world.

An Unreliable History

There have been settlements in the area for as far back as anyone can go. Sadly, until a relatively recent change in the law it was possible for housing developers to build on potentially important archaeological sites and therefore much may well have been lost forever, or at least until the modern houses (and the developers of same) become archaeological relics themselves. Happily, developers must now permit archaeological excavations and these have uncovered extensive settlements dating from around 500 - 800 AD or thereabouts. The origins of the town's name are also lost in the mists of time, and theories abound - most commonly that it was the home (toft) of Lothu, hence Lothu's Toft, which became Lothuwistoft and, through further variations and changes in spelling, Lowestoft.

Being a small and rather isolated place, centuries passed without the major upheavals that characterise larger and more socially active communities. In other words, a great deal happened, but not much of it was (or is) worth reporting. The major incidents in early history seem to have revolved around the feud between the town and its arch-rival, Great Yarmouth, which lies about a dozen miles to the North and which culminated in the fishermen from both towns striving to sink each other's boats. Lowestoft was briefly almost involved in the war against the Dutch ¹ at the end of the 18th century, when the foreign boats appeared just off the beach; however, it was discovered that the Lowestoft battery of cannons had no carriages or ammunition at the time and one presumes that the gun crews merely ran up and down on the top of the cliffs hurling Pythonesque insults at their Dutch enemies. In a similarly unwise militaristic venture, the town sided with the Royalists during the Civil War - possibly because Great Yarmouth was solidly Republican. Unfortunately Oliver Cromwell happened to be in Norwich at the time and took a side trip to Yarmouth to collect a small army before coming down to Lowestoft to quell the rebellion. On arrival he found the town defended by (1) a chain across the High Street, which he simply removed, and (b) a cannon, whose crew immediately ran away. Cromwell stayed overnight and left with the cannon, either to be on the safe side or, more probably, to prevent the locals from accidentally hurting themselves, and as a final gesture he imposed an 8pm curfew on the town. The Curfew Bell in the clock tower of the Town Hall still survives.

Although the main source of income and economic well-being has, for centuries, been fishing, the town had no harbour until the closing years of the 19th century and no connection with the inland waterways known as The Norfolk Broads (nothing at all to do with the ladies of dubious repute known to favour certain areas of Norwich, although the former are old peat diggings and the latter may well dig old Pete, or come to think of it, John, Dick and Harry too). It was the potential profit to be had from a harbour that encouraged Norwich businessmen, tired of Yarmouth's monopoly of the trade, to seek an alternative route for their goods and Lowestoft today has both a harbour and a link via Mutford Lock into the Broads.

Changing faces of the town

The man who began the modernisation of Lowestoft was Samuel Morton Peto, who purchased land to the South for a pittance at the end of the 19th century and proceeded to build a complete Victorian seaside resort on it. A great deal of the Lowestoft that visitors see today is entirely Peto's work, and many visitors arrive on the railway line that also wouldn't be there without Peto. Modern Lowestoft extends from Gunton, in the North, across Lake Lothing and as far as Pakefield in the South, more than three miles in all, whereas prior to Peto the town existed entirely to the North of what is now the harbour.

During the Second World War, the town was bombed extensively by the Germans. Subsequently it has been rebuilt although the standing joke is that the town planners have done more damage than the Germans ever did. Floods have also been responsible for major changes, notably the demolition of the old beach fishing village, commonly known as "The Beach", following a major flood in 1953 which sealed the doom of this close community. The site is now occupied by the Birds Eye frozen food plant, and sadly no effort was made to save any of the beach village for posterity.

In recent years, although the town has been broke - the current budget deficit at the time of writing stands at £800,000 - it has seen an influx of money from European funds and sources such as The National Lottery and English Heritage. A great effort is being made to regenerate, or at the very least give the appearance of regeneration. A new private development is set to bring £32 million in investment into the town in the form of a new shopping and leisure complex and a new relief road is also in the offing.

In discussing the face of Lowestoft one cannot overlook the obvious - the town is divided in two by the harbour. The division is spanned by a bascule bridge, which opens and closes to allow ships to pass through, and since the bridge spans the only main road ² it brings all traffic to a standstill every time it opens. On the thankfully rare occasions that it breaks down, the town comes to a virtual standstill. Whilst there is a second crossing at Oulton Broad, it is out of the way and a traffic bottleneck at the best of times, and all attempts to persuade the Government to hand over some cash for a third crossing have fallen on deaf ears. The division seems to extend psychologically and economically, too: South of the bridge is an area of economic degeneration and poverty, whilst all the economic growth has, up to now, taken place North of the bridge.

Modern times

In post-war years, Lowestoft has suffered the collapse of its fishing industry and seen the fleet reduced from around 700 boats to around 7. The saviour of the town, the North Sea gas and oil industry, has kept many employed but is now saturated and no new rigs are being built, with the likelihood that the fields themselves will be worked out by the middle of the 21st century. With poor road and rail links to the outside world, the main industry in the town has become tourism and every effort is made to attract as many visitors as possible and extract as much cash from them as possible before they leave to go back to less hospitable climes. The town is now home to a major air festival - quite an achievement since it has no airfield - and a wide range of other tourist attractions throughout the summer season. It strives to maintain as much of its Victorian aspect as possible, not falling prey to the gross consumerism of Yarmouth's Pleasure Beach with its entertainments, arcades and nightclubs but settling instead for a small Family Golf Course and the Victorian-style East Point Pavilion. There are two piers, the Claremont Pier and the South Pier, the latter being at the North end of the beach, and a very extensive and well-maintained stretch of beach it is, too, occasionally winning the European "Blue Flag" to signify high water quality (by European standards).

The end of Lowestoft's dependence on the North Sea and the herring fishing has left a town often seen to be unsure of where it is going in the future, with poor communications, a high unemployment rate and, in one part of the town, one of the highest rates of child pregnancy in the country - something that is always associated with poverty. The people are a pretty resilient bunch by and large and accept their town's difficulties with stoicism. The Lowestoft Local is widely described by outsiders as being insular, keeping himself to himself and putting off until next week things that could be done today.

Miscellanea

Come to Lowestoft for:

• Cheap housing
• Fresh air
• Clean beaches

Things to avoid:

• Ness Point
• London Road South after dark

How to pronounce it in the local dialect:

Lowst'ff

The Media

The local organ is The Lowestoft Journal, a weekly newspaper published on Fridays. Owned by the Eastern Counties Press group, which controls virtually all newspapers in this part of the world. The Lowestoft Journal is a pretty typical local newspaper except that it has possibly fewer misspellings and misplaced ads than some. The position of Editor is a post held in local esteem and the current incumbent is well-known and praised for support of the local community whilst willing to criticise or at least question the activities of local authorities. The LJ will happily give front page space to the birth of quadruplets to a local zoo's prize camel, whilst placing the story about the outbreak of World War Three on page five, but in that respect it is no different from any local newspaper anywhere.

Local radio is supplied by the imaginatively named station "The Beach", churning out a continual stream of bland popular music and local advertising, and in so doing, rapidly becoming the most popular radio station around. The most local BBC stations are BBC Radios Suffolk and Norfolk, catering for a more elderly audience, and the nearest mainstream commercial station is Radio Broadland, which is similar to The Beach only a lot bigger.

The town sports independent directories, the best of which at the time of writing is Futura-Lowestoft.

Last but not least:

Lowestoft's sole claim to fame is Ness Point. Avoid it. It is home to The UK's Most Easterly Rubbish Tip, Gasometer and Sewage Works and the local council fervently wishes that it were not there at all, because foolish tourists come to see the Most Easterly Point and go away laughing or crying or both. It is also home to The Euroscope, a large concrete and metal wheel showing the approximate bearings and distances to places in the civilised world, but few tourists ever see it because it is not signposted at all.