Lowestoft ( or ) is a town in the county of
Suffolk,
England, lying between
Suffolk Broads. With
Lake Lothing being
Lowestoft Harbour which heads towards
North Sea. Lowestoft is also the most easterly town being home to
Ness Point, the
most easterly point of the
United Kingdom and of the
British Isles. It is
twinned with the
French town of
Plaisir and was twinned with
Katwijk in
the Netherlands until that relationship ended in the 1990s.
Geography
Suburbs
Borough of Lowestoft.
History
Lowestoft is Suffolk's second largest town (second to
Ipswich). It has
Lake Lothing, home of its
Marina, itself divided into an inner- and outer-harbour by a
bascule bridge carrying the
A12 through the town. The town contains a variety of business and residential areas, with the main shopping centre lying just to the north and the award-winning
Blue Flag beaches
to the south.
The one main
pier in Lowestoft, Is The South Pier situated on
Lowestoft Harbour.. The other
pier in
Kirkley, is called the Claremont Pier, originally served as a port of call for steamers travelling to and from
London. The Claremont 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 things.
Lowestoft railway station is centrally placed within the town, within walking distance of the beach, and provides services to
Ipswich on the
East Suffolk Line. Many services also continue to
Ipswich along the main line from
London Liverpool Street. All services are operated by
National Express East Anglia.
The settlement's name is derived from the
Viking personal name
Hlothver, and
toft,
[Mills, A.D. (1998). A Dictionary of English Place-names. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford. p227. ISBN 0-19-280074-4] 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 and described as a small agricultural village of 20 families, or about 100 people.
In the
Middle Ages, Lowestoft developed into a fishing harbour , 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 off the coast of the town .
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
Ipswich. After that Peto helped development of
Lowestoft Harbour he provided mooring for 1,000 small boats.
The major development of
Lowestoft Harbour 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 to establish Lowestoft as a flourishing
seaside holiday resort by connecting several other
parish's still keeping there name which know are apart 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 . As a result it was the most heavily bombed town per head of population in the UK. 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 . 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
Pakefield a suburb of 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 1990. In order to carry on the skills and traditions of the threatened shipbuilding trade, the International Boatbuilding Training College 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.
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.
Places of interest
- 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.
right|thumb|Excelsior, Lowestoft- Historic High Street Shopping Area, it also has; Triangle Marketplace and Eastern Sails Events Canopy all to do with High Street Traders Association. It also consists of the Heritage centre and Historic Scores.
- Sparrows Nest Gardens has one Fountain in the middle of a pond as a water feature located in Gunton
- The Marina Theatre, in town centre
- The South Pier itself consisting of an entertainment centre along with, The Royal Plain Water Jet Fountain's and The Royal Plain Events Area.
- Crown Meadow Stadium, home of Lowestoft Town F.C., called The Trawlerboys, established in 1887 who play in Isthmian League Division One North, at the 4th step within the non-league pyramid.
- Suffolk Broads at Oulton Broad, the most visited area. Motorboats can be hired to travel on the broads, however 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 East Anglia Transport Museum is located in Carlton Colville, 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.
right|thumb|[[Mincarlo (trawler)|Mincarlo, Lowestoft]]
Lowestoft Seafront Air Show
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.
In 2002, a
Royal Air Force Harrier plane crashed into the sea during the festival. 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. 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. 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 Waveney 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. 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.
In April 2009, Associated British Ports announced that the
Lowestoft Harbour 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.
Connections to arts
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.
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 went to
Pakefield Primary School, and played on Hilly Green - stories of which are recorded in his book
War Boy.
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. In 1933 he returned to
Suffolk to establish a Festival, it was not to Lowestoft, for which he had little regard but to
Aldeburgh.
The Benjamin Britten High School and The Britten,
Shopping Centre are named after the composer.
A
Darlington Band once played in Lowestoft. There is The Denes Public Park and
The Denes High School named in their honour.
Connections to Lowestoft
- Sir Samuel Morton Peto - bought Somerleyton Hall in 1843. Has one of the town's main roads named after him (which does lead to the train station he created).
- Thomas Crisp - Royal Navy Skipper with one of the towns main roads named after him.
- Zeb Soanes - BBC Radio 4 Newsreader and Television Presenter.
- Terry Butcher - former England football captain educated in Lowestoft.
- The Darkness - a popular rock band originating from Lowestoft.
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