Visited Great Yarmouth once in October. It was basically closed.
My abiding memory is it was the only place I’ve visited that had Horlicks as a drink option in all the cafes (and a few pubs too)
There’s a book called You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain by Tim Moore – Great Yarmouth gets it’s own chapter (alongside Slough, Rhyl, Hull, Bracknell and others)
There may be a slightly condescending tone, but it’s not a million miles from Bill Bryson
There is lots to love if you can be bothered to walk around the town and look into its history which is amazing.
The Town Museum is a great place to see. I never knew that fishing villages from Scotland would follow shoals of herring as they went south down the east coast of England to catch them during the summer for work.
When I was a student in the mid-1980s I always wondered why there where lots of Scots in Yarmouth on holiday in mid to late August – clearly linked to the fishing heritage.
Never been there, but I think most seaside towns are like this these days, aren’t they? I took the latest Mrs thep to Sarfend, where I spent my first 18 years. It was October and as you describe – tawdry and down-at-heel, with an air of desperation (80S NITE!!! LADIES COME IN FREE!!!). We went down the pier and there was literally nothing at the end of it – just a long walk on a long pier. Mrs thep loved it of course, because it confirmed exactly to her idea of an English seaside resort. She took dozens of Instagram photos on the highest retro setting. Great place to grow up though – always loads of music.
1975 me and a few mates decided to have a weeks holiday on the Norfolk Broads…..a few days in and we find ourselves in Great Yarmouth, wandering the streets we stumble across the local Tiffanys and who do you think is headlining in about 30 minutes????? T.Rex!!! now obviously Marc’s star was a little on the wain but I was a big fan in 71/72/73 so we all piled in to watch. Id love to say he wwas really good but it wasnt, the only thing I remember was he played his latest single New York City (yer know the one, “have you ever seen a woman coming out of New York City with a frog in her hand”) at least twice…..still, a nice memory of Great Yarmouth
Tiffany’s reinvented itself in the 1980s as one of those pubs that would have a DJ in the back/small dance floor and get an extended licence until 1am. It was full of 1980s XR3i/Capri driving types – espadrilles, mullets, Level 42 fans (good band) and the antithesis of me as an indie/metal loving student.
We went about eight years ago towards the fag end of summer.
There were some good looking buildings the old Municipal School of Art being one.
It also had the world’s worst wax museum but that had closed down.
The old photos of it look wonderful but now it had the sad air of a forgotten seaside town.
The Wax Museum on Regent Road (the main tourist drag) was a joke for years well before it shut. I am sure during its later years people went to see ironically how bad it was.
I lived for several years in that area. The very definition of a one horse town dragged into the modern age. A friend had a tiny little house in Borth that had been made from the wooden crates in which Borth’s wartime Spitfire had been delivered.
Most evenings the serious-drinking population of Borth would gravitate to the pub at the far end of the main drag, the Victoria, (there was only really one street through Borth*) where every night there was a lock-in until about 2 or 3am, when the local police sergeant got tired of playing the pub piano and went home to bed.
*A row of really substantial stone-built houses backing straight onto the shingle beach with really strong shutters on the beach side windows. I remember going to Borth one morning after a really severe storm and seeing the road littered with stones that had been hurled over the top of the houses by the waves.
My father was into steam trains and we’d often holiday on that coast. Over the years, we stayed in Tywyn, Fairbourne, Harlech, Porthmadog, and others.
On one of our “random get off the train and have a look around” adventures, we alighted at Borth. Having exhausted the delights in record time, we sat on the station platform until the next train out. A place with lovely views in every direction, as long as you stood with your back to the town.
We once got off the puffa at the Tanygrisiau hydro-electric power station. I think it directed me into a lifetime of engineering.
Borth as described by Malcolm Pryce in his Aberystwyth detective series.
Borth is the small seaside town one arrives at when you descend the hill that completes the slow road from Aberystwyth. Borth, according to Pryce, is a like a ‘fake Dodge City constructed by a movie studio in which all the buildings were frontages”. It is a long thin, ribbon settlement, squeezed in between the seashore on one side, and the bog on the other.
@fentonsteve did you visit the steam train graveyard at Barry with your fat?
Oh yes. Our holidays were all based on proximity to steam engines, and weekend day trips from home (Herts) to Derby or Didcot sheds.
We stayed in some nice places as a spin-off benefit – Barmouth, Harlech, Tenby, Strathspey, Fort William, et al are all lovely.
What I didn’t realise until a fairly recent BBC4 documentary is the Porthmadog to Ffestiniog line was being rebuilt as we were (repeatedly) going there on holiday in the 1970s. If it had been closer to home, I’m sure he’d have been a volunteer.
When you’re a kid, all steam trains look the same – old (and smelly).
Sorry about the fat, I did type father but somehow autocorrect thought better @fentonsteve
We probably didn’t go to as many as you but yes Welsh steam trains were a popular visit.
I bought some PA speakers for cash from someone there a few years ago. I thought it all sounded a bit dodgy so took my pal for security. He lived in a council flat with his parents, these big speakers were piled up in the tiny spare soom.
Turned out his mum was a pub singer and they were lovely, and so were the speakers.
It was a February and Yarmouth seafront looked pretty grim.
Oh blimey, what have you done!?
I’m a Gorleston boy but occasionally slummed it up town. Peggoty’s, Tiffany’s, The Big Apple. First gig was unbelievably Wishbone Ash somewhere on the front on a Sunday night….had to go home early because it was a school night.
Hammy – Richard Hammerton was the singer. The Needles were a punk band who became Red Star Belgrade and then years later Stare. This is Stare actually playing in Gorlestone.
There was a BBC documentary about music in the east which featured Hammy talking about his history. If I can find it I will post it.
My now-Steven-Wilson/PT-obessessed pal was massively into Catherine Wheel. It is the continuing source of annoyance to him that I have the promo CD single of this, and he does not. I loved Belly, so I bought it for Tanya’s BV’s.
No I was a Naarge buh, and a big fan of the Needles as a live act. Hammy was a mate. I left Norfolk 40 years ago but still visit a few times each year.
Ah, Great Yarmouth. Not so long ago the 12th most deprived town in England, an always present air of desperation, none of the glamour of Blackpool and all of the tawdry tackiness.
Then a few years ago a friend dragged me along to the “Out There” festival, a celebration of European circus and street-performer culture. One of the best days of my life. Acts on every corner: stand-up comedians, jugglers, Hungarians blowing themselves up, Belgians setting fire to each other, amazing food stalls, beer tents a hundred yards long, parades, music, people so so happy even as the heavens opened and drenched us all. Love Great Yarmouth, I do.
As mentioned I’m a Gorleston boy ((over the river, slightly more upmarket) and I’ve not heard of this. My parents still live nearby and they never told me!
I understand from my friend that a lot of the festival has been funded by the EU. It was obviously cancelled this year but God only knows if it will reappear in 2021.
Can’t seem to reply to your comment up there . Gorleston is the smaller, more well behaved brother to Gt Yarmouth. Barely any tacky amusements, Marine Parade is the poshest part along the front and the beach is huge (and clean) these days thanks to some work further along the coast. Still reliant on tourism though. The Yare and Southtown act as a barrier to those horrid oiks up town, and from Caister. And Norwich….😬
Gorleston is a nicer place with fewer tacky amusement arcades and chippies than GY but they are there. The beach is nice and I have been there with the kids and parents followed by lunch at the Pier Hotel on a few occasions over the last 10 years.
For more interesting views Corton beach a few miles south is well worth a visit!
I vaguely remember going to Gorleston on holiday in my primary school days. Must have been ’60 0r ’61. Can’t remember anything about it, good or bad. I have never been back since.
There was stuff going on that day that would have surprised even the Good Mr Lacey. I can just see all the performers trying to gain entry into the UK next year. “Is all that rubber tubing really necessary? Good god, is your friend on fire?”
I saw the Jam in Great Yarmouth in 1978 at the ABC, they were fantastic. I also saw the Stranglers at Tiffany’s, the Damned at the Star & Garter (I may be making that venue name up) and I saw the Boys, possibly also at the Star & Garter. I liked Yarmouth, but I liked it best outside of the holiday season when it was a much safer place for us punks.
A fish and chips lunch about 12 years ago was my last GY trip, I like the Suffolk /Norfolk Coast, what with tales of the old Saxon/ Viking landings and MR James stories etc. Cromer in Norfolk is the best: setting to both Alan Partridge and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
Whilst about the South Wales riviera, this song, and the whole album, captures the seedy whiff of decaying seaside splendour: all seagulls and squalor.
Already mentioned on here a couple of times – David Boulter’s “Yarmouth” – just released and a lovely musical homage to that strange part of the world.
Yes, absolutely.
I’ve been listening to David Boulter’s “Yarmouth” all week. ‘Tis a lovely record.
I think its initial yellow vinyl pressing has now more or less sold out, but the always-fabulous Clay Pipe Music will release a second pressing in 2021.
My old firm worked there a few times in the early noughties and I ventured there occasionally. I remember the first time discovering a mass of eateries that were really cheap. Big portions, everything bundled with bread & butter and a cup of tea. There were one or two high end eateries, and nothing inbetween. I mentioned this to the hotel manager as I was checking out. He said that competition was fierce and no-one dared put the prices up for fear that their customers would go elsewhere
I occasionally do family research. I had done a fair on my maternal grandmother’s line and had established that they emanated from Halesworth in Suffolk. There were lots of them and they either lived and died there, or moved to London, notably Pancras area where presumably older relatives were already established. Last year I discovered that one of the Halesworth lads, shown in the Census as a Butcher had broken the mould by moving his to Great Yarmouth sometime around 1875, presumably to take over an existing business. His family grew and as a result I have had lots of distant relatives there. One thing that surprised me during my research was that a young woman who had recently married into the family was killed along with her mother and her younger brother when their house at 21 Elsie Rd was hit by a German bomb. I googled this and was taken aback to find that they were amongst 171 Civilian War Dead in Great Yarmouth
I mentioned this to some pals and said I had imagined that bombings were restricted to major cities. One of them told me he had relatives who lived on the Luftwaffe flight path and that if the Bombers didn’t find their target they would often jettison their bombs on their way back so as not to risk running out of fuel. My brother who is better informed on this sort of stuff was surprised when I told him I’d seen a Google image of a Civilian War Dead memorial in Great Yarmouth as he thought this was rare and that most memorials would be for fallen members of the Armed Forces
On Remembrance Day I went to pay my respects at my nephew’s grave (KIA in Afghanistan 10 years ago) in North Watford Cemetary.
There is a memorial there that I pass every time I go there, to the 37 civilians killed when a German V1 flying bomb came down in Sandringham Road, Watford on Sunday 30th July 1944. 64 others were injured in the blast and 50 homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Twelve of the victims are buried at the memorial site including, by the looks of it, an entire family. There is also another memorial at Sandringham Road, erected in 1950.
I went in 1983 with a couple of mates. The Summer show was Freddie Starr topping the bill supported by Lennie Bennett. Special guest was Lisa Stansfield. This was in her pre soul diva, Razamatazz presenting teenage years. As she was a local lass we stagedoored her and had a lovely chat . 10 Years later holidaying in America, driving along Hollywood Boulevard and saw a huge poster for….Lisa Stansfield. Ee the lass did alright for hersel`
Never been to Yarmouth – a pain to get to from my neck of the woods. Got Scarborough and Whitby within reasonable travelling distance. They’ll do for me.
I did a gig there in the summer of 1994. We took a coachload of our mates to the town for a day on the beach followed by a gig in the evening at a pub two (I forget the name). At the time all the local bands were taking their mates on coaches to see them at ‘pay to play’ gigs in London, clearly a day out at the seaside was a much better idea, and a bigger draw (we filled the coach).
We owned a caravan at Caister for 4 years, sold it last year, quite happy we did with lockdown this year. Spent many a day in Yarmouth. I rate the area, not perfect but there’s plenty around when you have young kids. Ours are now 11/13 hence the appeal died.
Wasnt it all caister soul weekenders back in the 80s?
I did my foundation course at the Art College from 1982-83, and after some first term wobbles I had a great time… obviously there were no “halls of residence” so we students were billeted in the out-of-season B&Bs. Thank you to Freddy Steady above for reminding me that my first digs were a few minutes from Peggoty’s, where me and my new housemates spent our first evening out (first song the DJ played as we walked through the door was Heaven 17’s “Let Me Go”… how on earth do I remember that?)
To answer Alias’ question, yes there was a Star & Garter venue, up by the river near the train station, but closed now apparently… I’m semi-surprised no-one’s mentioned Rosie O’Grady’s Disco, the big club behind the cinema by the pier, and I think my most regular haunt was the Brunswick, a hotel that also had a bar… of course the weather was atrocious outside the summer months, but I have good memories of my time at Yarmouth, and flitting between there & Norwich, where most of my classmates lived… I went back to Yarmouth for the first time in decades a few years back, ostensibly on business, but I fixed things to give me plenty of exploration time, and it was almost unrecognisable to my early-80s self… the art college is now flats I was sorry to see, but there were plenty of other Proustian rushes to be had as I wandered around…
My dad went on a round the world trip in 1975. He offered to take my mum with him, but not me. So, honourably, my mum said no. She and I would take a holiday of our own. So we went to Great Yarmouth on a coach trip. It was great. We stayed in a hotel by the seaside and I saw my first real band there. (I was from north Wales remember…bands never came). They were just a pub band playing Quo covers but I was transfixed. I bought a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and my mum bought me a Southern Comfort because I was keen to try it after seeing t-shirts advertising it in the NME. It was horrible.
I was one week into my first ‘proper’ relationship. She was a gorgeous redhead called Carolyn and she liked the Beach Boys so I thought I’d buy her a greatest hits compilation as a present. My mum said ‘don’t be silly. That’s such a waste of money. Buy her a soft toy instead.’ I wasn’t happy about it but I did as I was told.
A week after we got back Carolyn came back from her own holiday and gave me the present she’d bought me. It was a mug. A week after that she got her friend to phone me telling me I was dumped.
A month ago I bumped into Carolyn in a Caernarfon restaurant. We laughed about those heady days.
Uncle Wheaty says
And they played this
Uncle Wheaty says
It is worth coming for this alone. Pity the poor brake guy in the middle of the ride doing that as a Summer job!
Rigid Digit says
Visited Great Yarmouth once in October. It was basically closed.
My abiding memory is it was the only place I’ve visited that had Horlicks as a drink option in all the cafes (and a few pubs too)
Uncle Wheaty says
Closes from October to March apart from a few dodgy amusement arcades on the sea front who trade on the local gamblers.
The town centre is now bereft of any decent shops and it’s past glory as a port is long gone.
I was born and bred there and still love it but haven’t lived there since I went to Uni in 1983.
Rigid Digit says
There’s a book called You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain by Tim Moore – Great Yarmouth gets it’s own chapter (alongside Slough, Rhyl, Hull, Bracknell and others)
There may be a slightly condescending tone, but it’s not a million miles from Bill Bryson
Moose the Mooche says
I don’t believe he really likes Hull (or Frank Sinatra)
Uncle Wheaty says
There is lots to love if you can be bothered to walk around the town and look into its history which is amazing.
The Town Museum is a great place to see. I never knew that fishing villages from Scotland would follow shoals of herring as they went south down the east coast of England to catch them during the summer for work.
When I was a student in the mid-1980s I always wondered why there where lots of Scots in Yarmouth on holiday in mid to late August – clearly linked to the fishing heritage.
retropath2 says
https://www.girlmuseum.org/herring-girls/
Kaisfatdad says
Wonderful tip, Rigid. I suspect I would really enjoy that.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/23/you-are-awful-but-i-like-you-review
Uncle Wheaty says
His description of Great Yarmouth in that article is brief and adds little.
mikethep says
Never been there, but I think most seaside towns are like this these days, aren’t they? I took the latest Mrs thep to Sarfend, where I spent my first 18 years. It was October and as you describe – tawdry and down-at-heel, with an air of desperation (80S NITE!!! LADIES COME IN FREE!!!). We went down the pier and there was literally nothing at the end of it – just a long walk on a long pier. Mrs thep loved it of course, because it confirmed exactly to her idea of an English seaside resort. She took dozens of Instagram photos on the highest retro setting. Great place to grow up though – always loads of music.
Uncle Wheaty says
Perfect description.
Still love it though and Great Yarmouth has had some refurbishment in the Water Gardens – don’t ask!
colrow26 says
1975 me and a few mates decided to have a weeks holiday on the Norfolk Broads…..a few days in and we find ourselves in Great Yarmouth, wandering the streets we stumble across the local Tiffanys and who do you think is headlining in about 30 minutes????? T.Rex!!! now obviously Marc’s star was a little on the wain but I was a big fan in 71/72/73 so we all piled in to watch. Id love to say he wwas really good but it wasnt, the only thing I remember was he played his latest single New York City (yer know the one, “have you ever seen a woman coming out of New York City with a frog in her hand”) at least twice…..still, a nice memory of Great Yarmouth
Uncle Wheaty says
Tiffany’s reinvented itself in the 1980s as one of those pubs that would have a DJ in the back/small dance floor and get an extended licence until 1am. It was full of 1980s XR3i/Capri driving types – espadrilles, mullets, Level 42 fans (good band) and the antithesis of me as an indie/metal loving student.
hubert rawlinson says
We went about eight years ago towards the fag end of summer.
There were some good looking buildings the old Municipal School of Art being one.
It also had the world’s worst wax museum but that had closed down.
The old photos of it look wonderful but now it had the sad air of a forgotten seaside town.
Uncle Wheaty says
The Wax Museum on Regent Road (the main tourist drag) was a joke for years well before it shut. I am sure during its later years people went to see ironically how bad it was.
dai says
“come come, nuclear bomb”, actually written about Borth in W Wales. One of my bestfriend’s hometown (and where “Hinterland” was filmed)
Mike_H says
I lived for several years in that area. The very definition of a one horse town dragged into the modern age. A friend had a tiny little house in Borth that had been made from the wooden crates in which Borth’s wartime Spitfire had been delivered.
Most evenings the serious-drinking population of Borth would gravitate to the pub at the far end of the main drag, the Victoria, (there was only really one street through Borth*) where every night there was a lock-in until about 2 or 3am, when the local police sergeant got tired of playing the pub piano and went home to bed.
*A row of really substantial stone-built houses backing straight onto the shingle beach with really strong shutters on the beach side windows. I remember going to Borth one morning after a really severe storm and seeing the road littered with stones that had been hurled over the top of the houses by the waves.
fentonsteve says
My father was into steam trains and we’d often holiday on that coast. Over the years, we stayed in Tywyn, Fairbourne, Harlech, Porthmadog, and others.
On one of our “random get off the train and have a look around” adventures, we alighted at Borth. Having exhausted the delights in record time, we sat on the station platform until the next train out. A place with lovely views in every direction, as long as you stood with your back to the town.
We once got off the puffa at the Tanygrisiau hydro-electric power station. I think it directed me into a lifetime of engineering.
hubert rawlinson says
Borth as described by Malcolm Pryce in his Aberystwyth detective series.
Borth is the small seaside town one arrives at when you descend the hill that completes the slow road from Aberystwyth. Borth, according to Pryce, is a like a ‘fake Dodge City constructed by a movie studio in which all the buildings were frontages”. It is a long thin, ribbon settlement, squeezed in between the seashore on one side, and the bog on the other.
@fentonsteve did you visit the steam train graveyard at Barry with your fat?
fentonsteve says
Oh yes. Our holidays were all based on proximity to steam engines, and weekend day trips from home (Herts) to Derby or Didcot sheds.
We stayed in some nice places as a spin-off benefit – Barmouth, Harlech, Tenby, Strathspey, Fort William, et al are all lovely.
What I didn’t realise until a fairly recent BBC4 documentary is the Porthmadog to Ffestiniog line was being rebuilt as we were (repeatedly) going there on holiday in the 1970s. If it had been closer to home, I’m sure he’d have been a volunteer.
When you’re a kid, all steam trains look the same – old (and smelly).
hubert rawlinson says
Sorry about the fat, I did type father but somehow autocorrect thought better @fentonsteve
We probably didn’t go to as many as you but yes Welsh steam trains were a popular visit.
fentonsteve says
I didn’t much care about the steam trains, but they tend to be in lovely parts of the country. I still enjoy a good walk.
Sitheref2409 says
Mid 80s at the amusement arcades, playing Space Harrier, which at the time was one of the coolest games out there.
Great Yarmouth. The place that makes Norwich look hip and happening.
Uncle Wheaty says
Norwich was always hip and happening.
Well the UEA was musically once we lost West Runton Pavilion (RIP)
Alias says
Do you know this book?
Essential for anyone who frequented West Runton Pavilion, (or Cromer Links, but I suspect you were too young).
fentonsteve says
I bought some PA speakers for cash from someone there a few years ago. I thought it all sounded a bit dodgy so took my pal for security. He lived in a council flat with his parents, these big speakers were piled up in the tiny spare soom.
Turned out his mum was a pub singer and they were lovely, and so were the speakers.
It was a February and Yarmouth seafront looked pretty grim.
Freddy Steady says
@uncle-wheaty
Oh blimey, what have you done!?
I’m a Gorleston boy but occasionally slummed it up town. Peggoty’s, Tiffany’s, The Big Apple. First gig was unbelievably Wishbone Ash somewhere on the front on a Sunday night….had to go home early because it was a school night.
Uncle Wheaty says
Wishbone Ash was my second gig in GY.
They played upstairs at Tiffanys. (Film fans insert quote here)
Trevor Bolder (ex Ziggy Stardust band was on bass)
Freddy Steady says
Bloody hell @uncle-wheaty
My first actual rock n roll gig. Upstairs at Tiffany’s.
Alias says
Were you familiar with the Needles? Gorlestone’s finest band.
Freddy Steady says
@alias
No I wasn’t I’m afraid. What era?
Freddy Steady says
Just googled them. I vaguely remember Hammy as being a “name.”
Moose the Mooche says
Wasn’t he in Tales From The Riverbank?
Alias says
Hammy – Richard Hammerton was the singer. The Needles were a punk band who became Red Star Belgrade and then years later Stare. This is Stare actually playing in Gorlestone.
There was a BBC documentary about music in the east which featured Hammy talking about his history. If I can find it I will post it.
Freddy Steady says
Bloody hell, I remember Red Star Belgrade. They did one song that sounded like the main riff from Burn by Deep Purple. I think.
The Ocean Rooms, gee!
I suppose the scene , as it was, finally begat Catherine Wheel.
fentonsteve says
My now-Steven-Wilson/PT-obessessed pal was massively into Catherine Wheel. It is the continuing source of annoyance to him that I have the promo CD single of this, and he does not. I loved Belly, so I bought it for Tanya’s BV’s.
Judy Staring At The Sun (feat. Tanya Donelly):
Freddy Steady says
@alias
And that was the song!
Edith. Not the Catherine wheel one, the Stare one.
Alias says
It turns out that it was their first single. which I own but have no recollection of the song.
The documentary I mentioned was from Radio 1 Sound City Norwich which I had seen on on iPlayer, but I’m not sure if it is still available.
Freddy Steady says
@alias
Thanks for the info. Were you a Yarmouth or Gorleston lad then?
duco01 says
I’ve heard of Yarmouth, of course.
But I’ve never heard of Gorleston.
Alias says
No I was a Naarge buh, and a big fan of the Needles as a live act. Hammy was a mate. I left Norfolk 40 years ago but still visit a few times each year.
Moose the Mooche says
Barkus is willin’!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Ah, Great Yarmouth. Not so long ago the 12th most deprived town in England, an always present air of desperation, none of the glamour of Blackpool and all of the tawdry tackiness.
Then a few years ago a friend dragged me along to the “Out There” festival, a celebration of European circus and street-performer culture. One of the best days of my life. Acts on every corner: stand-up comedians, jugglers, Hungarians blowing themselves up, Belgians setting fire to each other, amazing food stalls, beer tents a hundred yards long, parades, music, people so so happy even as the heavens opened and drenched us all. Love Great Yarmouth, I do.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
You had to be there methinks…
Freddy Steady says
@lodestone-of-wrongness
As mentioned I’m a Gorleston boy ((over the river, slightly more upmarket) and I’ve not heard of this. My parents still live nearby and they never told me!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I understand from my friend that a lot of the festival has been funded by the EU. It was obviously cancelled this year but God only knows if it will reappear in 2021.
Uncle Wheaty says
I think we have confirmed in previous threads that we both attended East Norfolk Sixth Form College when it was formed in 1982.
Gorleston was boring compared to GY, nothing to see and do at lunch time.
Freddy Steady says
True but just a bit “nicer.”
Freddy Steady says
@duco01
Can’t seem to reply to your comment up there . Gorleston is the smaller, more well behaved brother to Gt Yarmouth. Barely any tacky amusements, Marine Parade is the poshest part along the front and the beach is huge (and clean) these days thanks to some work further along the coast. Still reliant on tourism though. The Yare and Southtown act as a barrier to those horrid oiks up town, and from Caister. And Norwich….😬
Uncle Wheaty says
Oi…leave it!
Gorleston is a nicer place with fewer tacky amusement arcades and chippies than GY but they are there. The beach is nice and I have been there with the kids and parents followed by lunch at the Pier Hotel on a few occasions over the last 10 years.
For more interesting views Corton beach a few miles south is well worth a visit!
Freddy Steady says
Oh yeah , that was the nudist beach wasn’t it??
I go to the Pier with my parents when I’m back too. The cliff has gone upmarket too, used to be the last calling place on the way to the Rooms.
Mike_H says
I vaguely remember going to Gorleston on holiday in my primary school days. Must have been ’60 0r ’61. Can’t remember anything about it, good or bad. I have never been back since.
Moose the Mooche says
Hungarians blowing themselves up… did this involve some kind of rubber tube?
Asking for an extremely disturbing friend.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
There was stuff going on that day that would have surprised even the Good Mr Lacey. I can just see all the performers trying to gain entry into the UK next year. “Is all that rubber tubing really necessary? Good god, is your friend on fire?”
Moose the Mooche says
“Nous sommes Les Freres Dangereuses!”
Uncle Wheaty says
It is a StrangeTown.
Here’s one for Rigid Digit
Rigid Digit says
I do live in a strange town.
Many is the night walking the streets when I’ve heard “Break it up, break it up, she’s not worth it”
Alias says
I saw the Jam in Great Yarmouth in 1978 at the ABC, they were fantastic. I also saw the Stranglers at Tiffany’s, the Damned at the Star & Garter (I may be making that venue name up) and I saw the Boys, possibly also at the Star & Garter. I liked Yarmouth, but I liked it best outside of the holiday season when it was a much safer place for us punks.
Pessoa says
A fish and chips lunch about 12 years ago was my last GY trip, I like the Suffolk /Norfolk Coast, what with tales of the old Saxon/ Viking landings and MR James stories etc. Cromer in Norfolk is the best: setting to both Alan Partridge and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
retropath2 says
Whilst about the South Wales riviera, this song, and the whole album, captures the seedy whiff of decaying seaside splendour: all seagulls and squalor.
Morrison says
Already mentioned on here a couple of times – David Boulter’s “Yarmouth” – just released and a lovely musical homage to that strange part of the world.
duco01 says
Yes, absolutely.
I’ve been listening to David Boulter’s “Yarmouth” all week. ‘Tis a lovely record.
I think its initial yellow vinyl pressing has now more or less sold out, but the always-fabulous Clay Pipe Music will release a second pressing in 2021.
Smiles Diles says
This was a great tip. I love it.
Black Type says
It’s still allowed to love this, I hope…
MC Escher says
Filmed in Southend of course.
mikethep says
Well that took me back.
Freddy Steady says
@black-type
It is. Great song. Perfectly evokes the misery of my home town!
Kaisfatdad says
That does sound promising. Like a soundtrack for an unmade film.
I just read that he’s a Tinderstick.
https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2020/10/yarmouth-david-boulter-tindersticks/
They were always very cinematic.
Kaisfatdad says
Excellent interview with Boulter
https://concreteislands.com/telling-his-own-story-david-boulter-interview/
Vince Black says
My old firm worked there a few times in the early noughties and I ventured there occasionally. I remember the first time discovering a mass of eateries that were really cheap. Big portions, everything bundled with bread & butter and a cup of tea. There were one or two high end eateries, and nothing inbetween. I mentioned this to the hotel manager as I was checking out. He said that competition was fierce and no-one dared put the prices up for fear that their customers would go elsewhere
Colin H says
Vince Black says
I occasionally do family research. I had done a fair on my maternal grandmother’s line and had established that they emanated from Halesworth in Suffolk. There were lots of them and they either lived and died there, or moved to London, notably Pancras area where presumably older relatives were already established. Last year I discovered that one of the Halesworth lads, shown in the Census as a Butcher had broken the mould by moving his to Great Yarmouth sometime around 1875, presumably to take over an existing business. His family grew and as a result I have had lots of distant relatives there. One thing that surprised me during my research was that a young woman who had recently married into the family was killed along with her mother and her younger brother when their house at 21 Elsie Rd was hit by a German bomb. I googled this and was taken aback to find that they were amongst 171 Civilian War Dead in Great Yarmouth
I mentioned this to some pals and said I had imagined that bombings were restricted to major cities. One of them told me he had relatives who lived on the Luftwaffe flight path and that if the Bombers didn’t find their target they would often jettison their bombs on their way back so as not to risk running out of fuel. My brother who is better informed on this sort of stuff was surprised when I told him I’d seen a Google image of a Civilian War Dead memorial in Great Yarmouth as he thought this was rare and that most memorials would be for fallen members of the Armed Forces
Uncle Wheaty says
Some, if not the first, air raids in WW1 by Zepellin air ships were on Great Yarmouth.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-16620650#:~:text=St%20Peter's%20Plain%2C%20Great%20Yarmouth,Taylor%20and%20shoemaker%20Samuel%20Smith.&text=%22The%20L3%20flying%20over%20Yarmouth,killed%20a%20couple%20of%20residents.%22
Mike_H says
On Remembrance Day I went to pay my respects at my nephew’s grave (KIA in Afghanistan 10 years ago) in North Watford Cemetary.
There is a memorial there that I pass every time I go there, to the 37 civilians killed when a German V1 flying bomb came down in Sandringham Road, Watford on Sunday 30th July 1944. 64 others were injured in the blast and 50 homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Twelve of the victims are buried at the memorial site including, by the looks of it, an entire family. There is also another memorial at Sandringham Road, erected in 1950.
Uncle Mick says
I went in 1983 with a couple of mates. The Summer show was Freddie Starr topping the bill supported by Lennie Bennett. Special guest was Lisa Stansfield. This was in her pre soul diva, Razamatazz presenting teenage years. As she was a local lass we stagedoored her and had a lovely chat . 10 Years later holidaying in America, driving along Hollywood Boulevard and saw a huge poster for….Lisa Stansfield. Ee the lass did alright for hersel`
count jim moriarty says
Never been to Yarmouth – a pain to get to from my neck of the woods. Got Scarborough and Whitby within reasonable travelling distance. They’ll do for me.
Jackthebiscuit says
Great Yarmouth? I spent a fortnight there one weekend.
hubert rawlinson says
Remember it this way.
For some reason this film struck a chord.
https://youtu.be/DCGr3wJodF0
Kaisfatdad says
What a wonderful postcard from the 1950s that is!
So many details captured: particularly what people were wearing. It was made to be shown in cinemas and that really shows,
pawsforthought says
I did a gig there in the summer of 1994. We took a coachload of our mates to the town for a day on the beach followed by a gig in the evening at a pub two (I forget the name). At the time all the local bands were taking their mates on coaches to see them at ‘pay to play’ gigs in London, clearly a day out at the seaside was a much better idea, and a bigger draw (we filled the coach).
Almost Simon says
We owned a caravan at Caister for 4 years, sold it last year, quite happy we did with lockdown this year. Spent many a day in Yarmouth. I rate the area, not perfect but there’s plenty around when you have young kids. Ours are now 11/13 hence the appeal died.
Wasnt it all caister soul weekenders back in the 80s?
Uncle Wheaty says
It was indeed – lots of spray string all over the streets!
I lived in Caister-on-Sea for 18 years before going to University and my parents are still living there.
metal mickey says
I did my foundation course at the Art College from 1982-83, and after some first term wobbles I had a great time… obviously there were no “halls of residence” so we students were billeted in the out-of-season B&Bs. Thank you to Freddy Steady above for reminding me that my first digs were a few minutes from Peggoty’s, where me and my new housemates spent our first evening out (first song the DJ played as we walked through the door was Heaven 17’s “Let Me Go”… how on earth do I remember that?)
To answer Alias’ question, yes there was a Star & Garter venue, up by the river near the train station, but closed now apparently… I’m semi-surprised no-one’s mentioned Rosie O’Grady’s Disco, the big club behind the cinema by the pier, and I think my most regular haunt was the Brunswick, a hotel that also had a bar… of course the weather was atrocious outside the summer months, but I have good memories of my time at Yarmouth, and flitting between there & Norwich, where most of my classmates lived… I went back to Yarmouth for the first time in decades a few years back, ostensibly on business, but I fixed things to give me plenty of exploration time, and it was almost unrecognisable to my early-80s self… the art college is now flats I was sorry to see, but there were plenty of other Proustian rushes to be had as I wandered around…
eddie g says
My dad went on a round the world trip in 1975. He offered to take my mum with him, but not me. So, honourably, my mum said no. She and I would take a holiday of our own. So we went to Great Yarmouth on a coach trip. It was great. We stayed in a hotel by the seaside and I saw my first real band there. (I was from north Wales remember…bands never came). They were just a pub band playing Quo covers but I was transfixed. I bought a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and my mum bought me a Southern Comfort because I was keen to try it after seeing t-shirts advertising it in the NME. It was horrible.
I was one week into my first ‘proper’ relationship. She was a gorgeous redhead called Carolyn and she liked the Beach Boys so I thought I’d buy her a greatest hits compilation as a present. My mum said ‘don’t be silly. That’s such a waste of money. Buy her a soft toy instead.’ I wasn’t happy about it but I did as I was told.
A week after we got back Carolyn came back from her own holiday and gave me the present she’d bought me. It was a mug. A week after that she got her friend to phone me telling me I was dumped.
A month ago I bumped into Carolyn in a Caernarfon restaurant. We laughed about those heady days.
I still have the mug.
Freddy Steady says
Great story @eddy-g
What sort of mug?
eddie g says
It has a poem on it about an empty glass of beer called ‘The Bitter End’. Ironic really given what happened…
Freddy Steady says
@eddie-g
You don’t sound bitter though!