James Woodforde and Yarmouth
Woodforde's fifth visit, 1786
James Woodforde's visit to Yarmouth in 1786 was a fleeting one, as he stayed just one night at the Angel Inn. It was his final halt before returning to Norwich, during what he describes in his diary as a little Tour towards the South East Coast of Norfolk. He travelled with William Woodforde (Nephew Bill) and his servant Brettingham Scurl, usually referred to in the diary as 'Briton'.
The arrival of Nephew Bill
Woodforde and Anna Maria (Nancy) had been anticipating the arrival at Weston of Nancy's brothers, William and Samuel, for more than a week:
8 November 1785 . . . Had not been home much more than an Hour before Nancy's Brother Willm came on horseback to our House from the West – he supped & slept here – He came thro' London, called at his Brother Saml Who will also come to Weston in a few Days
Nephew Bill had both a naval and a military career, and it is interesting that on 11 November Woodforde refers to him as 'the Captain', although he never attained that rank or commanded a ship, leaving the Navy as a midshipman. Samuel Woodforde eventually arrived from London in a chaise on 19 November and remained at Weston parsonage until 5 December. At this time he was both a student and an exhibitor of his paintings at the Royal Academy in London, becoming a full member of the Academy in 1807.
5 April 1786 . . . Between 12. and 1. o'clock we sat of [sic] for Yarmouth about 10. Miles from Lowestoff, and got there abt 3. and there we dined, supped & slept at the Angel, kept by one Dark - a very good Inn
Frustratingly, Woodforde did not record anything of his journey from Lowestoft to the Angel, although it can be reconstructed from contemporary maps. The most historically significant element, however, was his crossing of the River Yare.
'From out the azure main'
Plan of the Town of Yarmouth, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, 1764 [Private collection]The site of Yarmouth began as an offshore sandbank in the estuary where three rivers – the Bure, the Yare, and the Waveney – reached the sea. As silt was washed down by the rivers and longshore drift carried sands eroded from the north Norfolk coast, the sandbank became joined to the mainland and extended southwards to form the low-lying north–south peninsula on which the town and port of Yarmouth now stand.
The Great Yarmouth Hutch Map, dating from the late sixteenth-century, purports to show the great estuary extending east from Norwich around the year 1000 AD. Norwich is represented by a drawing of its cathedral, and Yarmouth's sandbank can be clearly seen, coloured in sandy yellow.
Over time, the course of the River Yare was diverted southward between the peninsula and the mainland, and this stretch of water became the port, or the 'haven', of Yarmouth.
The 1764 plan by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a bridge crossing the River Yare – the haven – from the town of Yarmouth to what became known as Little Yarmouth, or Southtown. This was the fourth haven bridge, constructed in 1710.
The Haven bridges
Perhaps he did not realise it, and he certainly did not mention it in his diary, but on 5 April 1786 Woodforde, Nephew Bill, and Briton rode over the fifth haven bridge, which had been opened just two days earlier.
To date, there have been seven haven bridges. The first was opened in 1427, ten years after King Henry V granted a charter to the town for the construction and maintenance of a bridge at their own expense. This bridge was a single span with no means of opening, but in 1553 it was converted into a drawbridge of two leaves, thereby allowing ships to pass from the North Sea into the River Yare and thence to Norwich. All subsequent haven bridges have been bascule or drawbridges.
Other bridges have been built at various times both upstream and downstream of the haven bridge. Currently, there are three (two spanning the Yare and one crossing the Bure) in addition to the haven bridge, designed to smooth traffic flow into and around the town and to improve access to the port and outer harbour. The most unfortunate of these was the Yarmouth Suspension Bridge which spanned the River Bure: opened in 1829, it collapsed in 1845 with the loss of 79 lives. In 2024, the Great Yarmouth Herring Bridge came into operation.
The 1786 bridge was opened by means of weighted levers. These were replaced with iron pulleys and chains in 1809 to ease the lifting operation. It was this construction, viewed from upstream, with the famous quay on the left, that was drawn by John Preston for The Picture of Yarmouth published in 1820. It was, though, essentially the same bridge over which Woodforde rode.
The Haven Bridge, Yarmouth, John Preston, The Picture of Yarmouth, 1820 [Private collection]The Angel Inn
The Angel Inn in the Market Place, Yarmouth, c.1820 [Private collection]The 'one Dark' whom Woodforde mentions was Absalom Darke, the licensee of the Angel. Charles Palmer in The Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, 1872, relates the moving tale of Darke's demise and that of his beloved wife:
In the latter part of the last century this Inn was kept by Absolom Darke, who went to Tewksbury for the recovery of his health, and died there in 1792, aged 60, probably of grief for the loss of his wife, Amelia, who expired in the previous year, aged 58. There is a highly eulogistic epitaph to her memory in St. Nicholas' church, from the pen of James Sayers, the caricaturist and political poet, who also wrote the following epigram:
At the Angel at Yarmouth – a singular Inn,
There's the shadow without, and the substance within;
This paradox proving, in punning's despite,
That an Angel, tho' Dark, is an Angel of Light.
Amelia Darke was esteemed for her charitable endeavours in Yarmouth. Her memorial in St Nicholas's Church was destroyed in the bombing raid of 25–26 June 1942, but it had previously been recorded, and documented in stone, that the favourite object of her life was to administer comfort to the distressed.
James Sayers was born in Great Yarmouth. He was a supporter of William Pitt the Younger and regularly stayed at the Angel in the 1770s; for, in addition to hosting local festivities, the Angel was also home to Yarmouth's Tory supporters. It is unsurprising, therefore, that Woodforde chose to stay there, much as he chose the King's Head in Norwich, which was also sympathetic to the Tory cause.
An c.1820 engraving shows that the Angel had changed little since John Butcher painted the Market Place in 1791, apart from losing its hanging sign. The building was, however, demolished in 1957, and the site is now occupied by two shops.
Curious pebbles
Museum Boulterianum, Yarmouth, catalogue of exhibits c.1793 [Ecco Print Edition, reproduction from Cambridge University Library]The Norfolk Chronicle for Saturday, 8th August 1778 carried this advertisement item:
Just open'd for the Inspection of the CURIOUS, BOULTER's MUSEUM in the Market Place, Yarmouth . . . Admittance Sixpence each person – Admission Money is returned to Purchasers
5 April 1786 . . . We walked on the Beach at Lowestoff near 2. Hours but could find nothing very curious – After Dinner at Yarmouth also we walked on the Beach there, but nothing curious to be found
The inspiration for their search of the beaches was almost certainly the exhibits in Daniel Boulter's museum which Woodforde had visited in 1778 and again in 1779, and where he purchased various items of interest. At the Museum Boulterianum many of the curiosities on view were for sale. A catalogue was issued in 1793 (or possibly 1797). The Collection from the new discovered Islands in the South Seas, by Capt. Cook and others (page 76) included: a 'Tataowing instrument' from Otaheite (Tahiti) – price 2 shillings and 6 pence; 'spears 11 feet long, made of Hard Wood' from New Holland (Australia) – price 4 shillings; a 'Patta-pattoo or War Bludgeon made of the Bone of a Grampus' from New Zealand – price 6 shillings and 6 pence; and a 'Scalping knife and sheath' from North America – price 2 shillings and 6 pence.
Perhaps Woodforde and Nephew Bill hoped to find some of the 'great variety of Carnelians in their native state, some curiously veined, from Yarmouth and Lowestoff beaches' listed under Agates, Chalcedonies, Jaspers, Carnelians, and various other Pebbles polished on page 28. 'Curiously veined and brecciated pebbles, many of them from Yarmouth-Beach', are also listed, as well as 'Varieties of the Plumb-Pudding Stone found upon Yarmouth-Beach'.
The museum also listed fish vertebrae and whale bone that had been washed up on the beach.
The agates and carnelians found on Norfolk beaches are 'erratics' originating in Scandinavia. They were transported to Norfolk by glaciers moving across the North Sea Basin during the last ice age and left behind when the glaciers receded. Pudding stones originate in Hertfordshire and were most likely brought to Norfolk when an ice sheet moving east from the Chilterns picked up the pudding stones and deposited them as the ice sheet ablated. Pebbles on Yarmouth beach are often partly polished by the action of the waves, which moved them down them coast.
Whether Woodforde was simply unfortunate in finding 'nothing very curious' or whether he did not recognise the pebbles he saw, we can only surmise. Nevertheless, his diary includes one of the earliest records of pebble spotting.
Visiting a barber
Before returning to Weston via Norwich Woodforde and Bill breakfasted at the Angel, and before they departed from Yarmouth Woodforde paid a visit to a barber.
6 April 1786 . . . To a Barber at Yarmouth – gave – 0 : 1 : 0 [1 shilling]
Whether he was recommended by one of Woodforde's neighbouring clerics is not recorded, but Benjamin Mileham with premises at 8 London Lane, Norwich was to be Woodforde's regular barber and peruke maker from 1776 until 1785.
25 October 1776 . . . I bespoke an Elastic Wigg to be made for me by one Mr Mileham a Barber in London Lane for which I am to give him when done for the Same – 1 : 7 : 0 [1 pound 7 shillings]
15 November 1776 . . . 1 went to Milehams the Barber in London Lane, and there saw my new Elastic Peruke, & pd – for it – 1 : 7 : 0 [1 pound 7 shillings]. I was shaved there at the Shop – & gave – 0 : 0 : 6 [6 pence]. My new Wig pleased me so well that I ordered another –
A Country Barbers Shop; engraving, with etching and watercolour : A country barber shaving a farmer; another farmer looks into a mirror while he stanches the cut on his face; right, a second barber dresses a man's hair [PD image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, Ref. 30012i]The diary includes regular entries of payments of one shilling to Mr. Mileham for shaving, and usually two annual payments of around a guinea for unspecified services, possibly for regularly dressing his wigs. On a day-to-day basis, Will Coleman, Woodforde's manservant, was paid an additional ten shillings on top of his annual wage of four guineas for 'dressing my wigs'.
While a barber might dress a wig, making a new one was the craft of a peruke (wig) maker. Chase's Directory for 1783 lists forty-four peruke makers in Norwich.
It wasn't until December 1781 that Woodforde had another new wig from Mr. Mileham at a cost of one pound five shillings, and another for one guinea in January 1783. He gave away his old wigs, and on occasion, his wig was the object of New Year's Eve fun and occasional embarrassment:
2 July 1780 . . . Tom Carr dined with our Folks - I gave him an old Wigg
31 December 1780 . . . Nancy & Betsy Davie locked me into the great Parlour and both fell on me and pulled my Wigg almost to Pieces – I paid them for it however
5 October 1781 . . . Mr Charles Townshend of Honingham called on me this morning about 11. o'clock . . . He caught me on the hop, being in my Garden and dressed in my Cotton morning Gown, old Wigg and Hat
The last diary entry of a payment to Benjamin Mileham was early in 1785:
2 February 1785 . . . I breakfasted, supped & slept again at the Kings Head
Nancy breakfasted, supped & slept again at ditto – To my Barber, Mileham paid a Bill – of – 1 : 1 : 0 [21 shillings or one guinea] – To ditto – for shaving me – gave – 0 : 1 : 0 [1 shilling]
Mileham does not appear in the Peck's Norwich Directory for 1802, although he lived until 1823. Perhaps Woodforde was persuaded by his niece, Anna Maria (Nancy), to transfer to Charles Browne, Hair Dresser and Perfumer, of 74 St Stephen's Street. He was described in an earlier diary entry as 'the best Ladies-Frisseur in Norwich', and possibly had the patronage of Mrs Custance, the wife of Woodforde's squire.
28 January 1786 . . . Browne the Barber from Norwich called here this morning and measured me for a Wig -
On returning from Yarmouth, Woodforde spent the evening of 6 April 1786 at the theatre in Norwich and stayed overnight at the King's Head. The following day he must have called on Charles Browne:
7 April 1786 . . . We breakfasted and dined at the Kings Head, and stayed at Norwich till near 6. in the Evening and then we sat of for Weston Parsonage, and there I thank God we got safe and well . . . I rode home in a new Wig, made by Brown the Barber
Woodforde was to make a final visit to Yarmouth in 1790.
Yarmouth's literary associations
Woodforde's first visit in 1775
Woodforde's first visit in 1775 – Washbourne Cooke
Woodforde's second visit in 1776
Woodforde's third visit in 1778
Woodforde's third visit in 1778 – the journey to Yarmouth