Memories recorded at the Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival 2011

Great Yarmouth Memories (page II)

By Sarah Woods

Through out the 1950's a local lad used wall paper pattern sample books as scrap books and filled them with newspaper cuttings and personal memories of the herring industry. This was on display at the recent Maritime Festival, on the Great Yarmouth Museums' stand. Inspired by this, visitors recorded their own recollections in a Memory book. Some are the stories are recorded on this page (& page I)

A continuation from the first page:

I used to work on the stationary counter at Arnolds Dept store in the market place, 1045-52. At the start of the season fishermen would come in wearing their blues & caps. They would order lots of writing paper  and especially Biros. Then at the end of the season they'd come back to collect them and take them back to their ships. They'd buy something from every dept & you'd see the lorries in Regent Street waiting to take the stuff back to the boats.      E.Fuller

My Great Grandmother used to work with the Scotts girls, gutting fish. My mother can remember seeing her grannies & then sitting , picking all the scales of her hands.            J.Harvey

I was born in Row 51 & lived there whilst growing up. We all played in the Rows. I had 5 brothers & 2 sisters. Row 51 now forms part of Palmers Car Park. During the war I made camouflage nets which were put over guns on the quay & on top of the Regal Theatre. Grat Yarmouth was heavily bombed during the war & I saw St Nicholas Parish Church and the Brewery burning. Marks & Spencer was also bombed. In the war you had to hurry home down the row as it was pitch black. My sister & her friend used to miss the last bus home & used to call me to walk them home in the dark.         A.Hayman

I was born in the Short Blue Tavern, in Gorlestopn. The head office for the fleet was at St Mary on the Hill in London. The fleet was fished by the Hewett family & one of it's ancestor's was Lord Mayor of London.            Cliff Cooper