Abstract
Norfolk has a long coastline, its history steeped in the ebb and flow of all things maritime. The relationship of Nelson’s county with its neighbour, the North Sea, has changed markedly over time, the boundaries being fluid in more than one sense of the term. For centuries, Norfolk’s coasts and waterways, whilst often sources of uncertainty and hazard, were also avenues of communication and commerce, sometimes offering the opportunity of accruing rich rewards from maritime trade. These waters have provided livelihoods for countless generations of local fishermen and other mariners, often enriching local ports and villages, inland and on the coast alike. From shrimping to shipbuilding, medieval to modern, be it wherries or windfarms, so much of the story of the county’s fascinating and complex engagement with the sea and waterways has been captured with remarkable clarity by Robert Malster in these two absorbing and substantial books
The first book covers a great deal of ground and spans many centuries as it examines numerous aspects of the lengthy maritime history of places such as King’s Lynn, Cromer, Hunstanton, Wells, and a host of other coastal communities. It also provides a substantive discussion of the Broadland waterways, whilst examining the range and depth of inland Norwich’s waterborne trade. The second book focuses on Great Yarmouth and its extensive and changing array of maritime activities.
Not surprisingly, fishing features strongly in these volumes. Norfolk has embraced many different fisheries over the centuries, and some of these were key components in the economic well-being of the county’s coastal towns and villages. These books cover all sea-fishing activities and, whether Malster is discussing inshore crabbing, or the involvement of ports such as Blakeney, Cromer and Lynn in the medieval and early modern Iceland trade, he draws on a wide range of sources as well as his vast knowledge of the county’s coasts to pull together a cohesive and quite clear account of the nature and range of such pursuits. Quite naturally, the Yarmouth fisheries, especially the famous autumn herring seasons – a source of wealth to the town from the medieval period to the middle of the twentieth century – are well researched and recounted in fascinating detail. The book also provides a comprehensive account of the nineteenth century development of the trawling trade, and particularly the innovative role of Hewitt and Company who had moved many of their North Sea fleeting operations from Barking to Gorleston in the middle of the nineteenth century.
But these books are about much more than fishing. They cover almost every dimension of the county’s maritime related activities and survey the lives and livelihoods of those involved in such pursuits. They also examine the design and operations of the seemingly countless classes of craft that worked on Norfolk’s waterways or sailed from the adjacent coasts at one time or another, often placing them in their wider economic and social context. The discussions surrounding lifeboatmen and lifesaving activities are also illuminating, as is Malster’s discussion of the role of Yarmouth beachmen, not only in salvage and rescue but also in servicing the many hundreds of colliers and other vessels which often sought shelter and anchorage in Yarmouth Roads during the sailing era. The county’s relationship with the sea may well have altered over time but it continues, as the chapter on developments in the field of oil, gas and now windfarms clearly emphasizes.
Britain is, of course, an island and the sea is the constant physical reminder of our geographical separation from continental Europe. Whilst the North Sea has often proved an avenue for nurturing economic and social co-operation and exchange, it has always meant that, in the past, the Norfolk coast, like other stretches of Britain’s eastern seaboard, have found themselves on the front-line at times of conflict with some of our continental neighbours, and many readers will find the chapter on Yarmouth at war, especially the section on the Great War, of particular value in terms of both local contributions to the fighting enemy forces off our coasts and the nature and impact on the region of hostile action from overseas.
These books are enlightening and engaging, and to be recommended to both academic and lay readers alike. They are extremely well illustrated and pull together such a wide variety of relevant research and local knowledge. Perhaps their impact could have been improved by the early positioning in the first volume of a relevant map of the coast but this is a quibble. These authoritative volumes will prove an invaluable addition to our knowledge of Norfolk’s maritime history.