Pre-Medieval & Medieval Timeline

700,000 years ago - Early humans (hominids) present, using flint tools in what is now Pakefield. These anthropoids long pre-dated Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. The cores and flakes found date from roughly halfway through the Lower Palaeolithic age, which stretches from c. 1.5 million to 200,000 years ago.

1700 - 1100 BC/BCE - Late Neolithic-early Bronze Age. Flint artefacts, dating from this time, have been found in different parts of what is now the parish of Lowestoft and there is a widely distributed scatter of such material over much of the Lothingland area. 

500 BC/BCE - Aerial photographs of the Island of Lothingland show evidence of an extensive vestigial Iron Age field-system, of which Lowestoft would probably have been part. OS maps of the area show many of the fields in rural surrounds aligned, even now, in what is best described as a north-by-west compass bearing. And this, after many centuries of change in agricultural practice and the layout of the land. 

AD 200|300|400|500|600|700|800|900| 1000|1100|1200|1300|1400|1500| 1501-1974

3rd-4th centuryAD/CE - Roman presence of some kind indicated by finds of coins and pottery fragments in the Roman Hill area of Lowestoft, when drains were being dug for housing development during the 1870s. Fragment of a bronze statue found during the year 1904 in the Beckham Road-Roman Road area. Gorleston Road once named Steyngate Way (i.e. Stonegate Way) - a term going back into Anglo-Saxon times and referencing Roman highways. In this case, part of one which led south from the shore-fort of Gariannonum - located at what later became Burgh Castle - heading down into what was eventually to become the county of Suffolk. The word gate itself derives from Old Swedish gata, meaning “road”, which indicates the Scandinavian element present in the English language. Beccles has many of its town-centre streets using the term.

Mid-late 6th century? - Founding of Lowestoft as Hluda’s toft, meaning “the homestead of Hluda” - with Hluda itself translatable as “the loud one”. On the evidence of the layout of ancient tracks and other landscape features, the location was possibly somewhere in the north-eastern sector of what is now Normanston Cemetery. Whoever Hluda was, his influence in the area seems to have been considerable, since both local half-hundreds carried his name. At Domesday, in the abbreviated Latin used, Lothingland Half-hundred is termed Dim. H. De Ludingalanda (“the land of the descendants of Lud, or Hlud”), while the Mutford jurisdiction is referred to as Ludinga H. (“the descendants of Lud, or Hlud”).

869-70 - Township’s name possibly changed to the Scandinavian form of Hloðver’s toft, following the great Danish invasion of these years. For about 100 years, East Anglia was part of the so-called Danelaw and eight of today’s sixteen parishes in Lothingland have place-names which have Scandinavian elements in one way or another. They are as follows: Ashby, Corton, Flixton, Gunton, Lound, Lowestoft, Oulton and Somerleyton. There is some debate about Ashby, which may have its first element deriving from Old English aesc, meaning “ash tree”. 

1066 - Accession of William I.

1086 - Year of the Domesday Survey. Lowestoft recorded as an “outlier” to the manor of Lothingland (centred on Gorleston). It had 450 acres of arable land and sixteen male tenants (three villans or serfs, ten smallholders and three slaves) – this, giving a notional population of c. seventy-five people, with the men regarded as the heads of families (which they may not all have been). The adjoining small manor of Akethorp, to the north and north-west, was held by an Anglo-Saxon priest named Æthelmær. This indicates a Christian congregation locally, but not necessarily a church building to accompany it.

1086 to c. 1200 - Series of boundary changes in Lothingland implemented. Akethorp, Browston, Caldecot, Dunston and Gapton disappeared as communities in their own right. Ashby (part-Herringfleet and part-Lound), Blundeston (part-Corton, part-Lound and part -Somerleyton), Bradwell (part-Browston and part-Gapton), Gunton (part-Corton and part -Lowestoft), Oulton (part-Dunston and part-Flixton) and Southtown (part-Gorleston) emerged as new ones.

1087 - Accession of William II.

1100 - Accession of Henry I.

Circa 1130 - Gift of St. Margaret’s Church to St. Bartholomew’s Priory, Smithfield, by Henry I. Thereafter, the Priory appointed vicars to the parish of Lowestoft. A church was probably built in the post-Domesday period, as only three such buildings are recorded in Lothingland in 1086: Burgh Castle, Flixton (now St. Michael, Oulton) and Somerleyton (now St. Mary, Blundeston). By c. 1200, all seventeen Lothingland parishes (including “lost” Newton) had churches.

1135 - Accession of Stephen (contested by Matilda, 1139-48).

1154 - Accession of Henry II.

1189 - Accession of Richard I.

1199 - Accession of John.

1212 - Lowestoft described as a manor in its own right in a collection of Exchequer records known as Liber Feodorum(al. “The Book of Fees”), p.134. Thus, it was no longer just an “outlier” to the Manor of Lothingland. It is possible that the granting of manorial status was in some way connected with the manor of Lothingland being given market rights by King John in May 1211. Both titles seem to have been linked with each other thereafter.

1216 - Accession of Henry III.

1272 - Accession of Edward I.

1274 - Lothingland Hundred Roll (a record of lands held, of landholders, and of the rents paid) shows Lowestoft as a growing community of about 200-250 people, with a number of discernible trades and occupations in evidence. It now shared governance of Lothingland Half-hundred with Gorleston, with gaol and stocks located in both places for the apprehension and punishment of wrongdoers.

First half of 14th century - Township relocated to an area of cliff-top heathland, where a medieval town was laid out along what is now known as the High Street, Mariners Street, Compass Street, Crown Street East, Wesleyan Chapel Lane and Duke’s Head Street. The Town Chapel and the Corn Cross (for trading in grain) were built on the site of what is now the Town Hall. The Chapel was intended for use in winter, mainly, when the roads and pathways to St. Margaret’s Church were more or less impassable (especially for the elderly and infirm). Most of the tower of St. Margaret’s Church and the crypt at the east end of the building were also constructed at this time, with an earlier fabric left in place for use. The relocation of the township appears to have been largely completed by c. 1350.

1302 - Edward I granted the manors of Lothingland and Lowestoft to his nephew, John de Dreux (al. John of Brittany), Earl of Richmond. This privilege was confirmed in 1306. It is hard to ascertain whether or not both of these manorial titles were combined at this point or whether this had been done a century earlier during the reign of King John.

1307 - Accession of Edward II.

1308 - Grant of a weekly market (Wednesday) and annual fair (19-26 July) made to John de Dreux. The Fairstead (al. Fair Green) occupied the area of land now known as St. Margaret’s Plain, with the fair itself being focused on the feast of St. Margaret of Antioch (20 July), the town’s patron. The grant, in its original Latin, referred to the fair as being held infra villam, which Edmund Gillingwater translated as meaning “below the town” – interpreting this as referring to the Denes. However, he was using the classical Latin meaning of the preposition and not its medieval successor, which meant within. The name St. Margaret’s Plain has nothing at all to do with the fair, but derives from a 19th century school of that name which was once located there. 

1327 - Accession of Edward III.

Mid-14th century onwards - Increasing development of the local herring industry and other maritime activity (coastal and cross-North Sea trade). The local inshore waters between the beach and the outlying sandbanks provided safe anchorage for all kinds of vessels, both English and foreign. All kinds of illegal maritime activity occurred, which can be traced in government legislation of the time. Much of it centred on attempting (and often succeeding) to evade payment of the customs duty required on goods which should have been made in the head-port of Great Yarmouth.  

1348-9 - Black Death – during which, the township would have lost 50-60% of an estimated population of about 500 people. It would have taken some considerable time for the community to have recovered both demographically and economically from the effects of this. 

1357 - Great Yarmouth granted control of the local autumn fishing activity and trade (within seven leagues of its quayside) by Edward III, via the so-called Statute of Herrings, which began 300 years of commercial strife between it and Lowestoft. The length of the “league” (one mile or two?) was left undefined. Yarmouth claimed it was the former (which placed Lowestoft well within its area of jurisdiction); Lowestoft argued for the latter (which placed it safely beyond).

1372 - Great Yarmouth’s grip on the herring trade confirmed by it being granted control over Kirkley Roads (the name given to local inshore waters), with its citizens claiming that the “seven leagues” should be measured from the harbour’s mouth, not the town’s quayside. The harbour mouth, at the time, was much closer to Lowestoft than now because of a large sandspit which reached nearly as far as Gunton Church. The channel between this and the inner shoreline provided the lengthy access to Yarmouth’s quayside. 

April 1377 - Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward III vol. 14 (1952), no. 339, records an inquiry held in Lowestoft on the 24th of the month, which refers (among other things) to a deer park belonging to the manor. Scrutiny of the record suggests that this relates to the Lothingland Half-hundred manor rather than that of the town itself. The deer park (some forty acres, in area) probably accommodated the smaller native Roe species, rather than the larger Fallow and Red breeds, and was once situated where the housing complex to either side of Northgate now stands - lying between present-day Oulton Road and Normanston Drive, and bounded on the east by Rotterdam Road and on the west by High Beech. Nothing is known of its creation, in terms of which manorial lord ordered it or how long it remained in use. It was obviously formed by fencing in the eastern part of Skamacre Heath.

1377 (June) - Accession of Richard II.

1384 & 1401 - Enquiries held into riots in Lowestoft, directed at officers of the Crown who had come there to publicly declare Great Yarmouth’s maritime trading privileges. Such social disorder was viewed with some alarm by the authorities, with memories of the Peasants’ Revolt (May-June 1381) still in people’s minds. Lothingland had been a local centre of unrest, with fatalities resulting from the civil disorder.

1399 - Accession of Henry IV.

1413 - Accession of Henry V.

1422 - Accession of Henry VI.

Early-mid 1400s - Hand-lining voyages to Iceland, to catch cod and ling, began. Both fish were of high value because they kept well after being salted down and dried on board, and they could be reprocessed in various ways on return to the home port. Both species (especially the former) were important stock items of the medieval diet. The cod livers were kept on board in small, sealed casks and boiled down for their oil on return to Lowestoft. This was used mainly to fuel household lamps and dress newly made leather, and the filled-in trench which once contained the fire-pits for the reduction process is still visible within the Ness Park area. 

1440s - Decade of notable immigration into the town from the near-Continent, particularly the Netherlands and France. Trades and occupations detectable among the incomers include those of brewer, cooper, skinner, shoemaker and tailor. 

1445 - Re-grant of the Wednesday market privilege to William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk (lord of the manor), and of the right to hold two annual fairs (1 May and 29 September). The annual commemoration of St. Margaret therefore gave way to those of St. Philip & St. James and St. Michael the Archangel – the latter one being commonly known as Michaelmas.

1450-80 - St. Margaret’s Church rebuilding resumed and continued, following a century of disruption and gradual recovery following the Black Death. At 182 feet in length, it is the third longest parish church in Suffolk. Members of the Jettor family (merchants) were among those who contributed towards its construction. Medieval parish churches were built as statements of civic pride as well as places of Christian worship. 

November 1456 - Reference made in the Venetian State Papers to loesti and lowesto cloth – a coarse linen fabric made locally (probably from hemp) – which was shipped to the Italian state’s warehouses in London for transportation abroad. It has been traced by specialist economic historians to Damascus (1413), Beirut (1417) and Alexandria (1424).

1456-78 - Incumbency of John Manyngham as Vicar. During his time in office, he endowed three almshouses on the north side of Fair Lane (now Dove Street), at its junction with White Horse Street. At some point, unknown, a fourth one was added. Because of this charitable accommodation, the road was also known as Almshouse Lane. These units may have been of “one-up one-down” construction, from the start, but are more likely to have been converted (using the roof space) at a later date.

1461 - Accession of Edward IV.

1478-9 - Manor of Akethorp was transferred into the hands of Magdalen College, Oxford - having originally been left by Sir John Fastolf of Caister Castle (among other lands in Lothingand) to found a chantry college there for seven priests. After he died in 1459, his estate came under the control of his two co-executors, John Paston and William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. Following Paston’s death in 1466, Waynflete eventually transferred Fastolf’s college bequest to the Oxford college (founded by him in 1458) to finance seven scholars there. Magdalen remained as owner of the Akethorp lands until 1955, when they were sold to a local, Lowestoft building firm for housing development.

1483 - Accession of Edward V – three-month reign.

1483 - Accession of Richard III.

1485 - Accession of Henry VII. 

1509 - Accession of Henry VIII.

1508-11 - evidence available in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Chamberlains’ Accounts that coastal trade in coal between that port and Lowestoft was well established.

1524-5 - Lay Subsidy of these two years (a nationwide tax) shows Lowestoft as a flourishing urban community with a population of around 1,000 people, a wide range of different trades and occupations, and a position as(by far) the largest and richest of all the communities in Lothingland and Mutford half-hundreds. It was in 16th place out of Suffolk’s twenty-five wealthiest towns (sitting between Bungay and Stoke-by-Nayland) and in 11th place by number of taxpayers (sitting between Bungay and Mildenhall). Beccles, by comparison, was 5th and 4th and Southwold 19th and 20th. Among the Lowestoft tax-payers, and resident in the town, were six Dutchmen, four Frenchmen, one Breton, two Channel Islanders and four Scotsmen. Their presence was almost certainly related to fishing and maritime trade. 

CREDIT: David Butcher