15 High Street

In 1841 this was described in the Tithe Apportionment as being a “house and garden” owned and occupied by a Lowestoft-born, 45 year-old widow, Elizabeth Curtis.  Elizabeth also owned land to the east of her garden stretching down to Whapload Road. This was used as a “twine ground” and occupied by a twine-spinner named William Masterson. To the south of this land, also owned by Elizabeth, was a narrow roadway leading up to the rear of Nos. 15 & 16. In the 1841 census Elizabeth’s occupation is given as being “independent” and in the house with her were four children, Elizabeth aged 25, Mary aged 24, Amelia aged 19 and Walter aged 15.

At the time of the next census in 1851, Elizabeth Curtis and her daughter, Elizabeth, are recorded in the house.  Elizabeth, the mother, gives her occupation as being a “proprietor of house”; no occupation is given for her daughter.

In the 1861 census, Elizabeth Curtis gives her occupation as being a “lodging-house keeper”. Her daughter, Elizabeth was also there together with one “servant”. There were two lodgers in the house –  a 72 years old widow named Sarah Jermyn, who described herself as a “land holder”. Lodging there with her was 22 years old Mary A. George who is described as Widow Jermyn’s “ladies maid”.

Elizabeth Curtis continued to keep the lodging house here at 15 High Street until her death there on 1st January, 1881. Aged 87, she was buried at St. Margaret’s churchyard 5 days later. She left a Will which was proved at Ipswich by her daughter, Elizabeth, the sole Executrix, on February 1st.  The value of her estate was estimated to be under £200 [approximately £13,000] by today’s reckoning.  When the census was taken in April that year her daughter, Elizabeth, was running the lodging house. With her there on census night was her nephew, 11 years old Walter H. Curtis, her brother Walter’s son.

No. 15 High Street etc., were offered for sale by auction in June1881 [see advert from the East Anglian Daily Times]. Here there is a mystery as the owner of No. 15 High Street and the adjoining twine ground (together with two cottages nearby) were offered for sale by the Trustees of the deceased owner, Robert Hogg, of whom nothing is known to date. How he came to be the owner has not be ascertained.  However No. 15 at that time was occupied by Elizabeth Curtis the younger.  No. 15 was sold to a Lowestoft fish merchant, Robert Brown, for £400 and the twine ground fetched another £150 [Lowestoft Journal, 2nd July 1881].

Elizabeth Curtis does not appear to have remained at No. 15 after the sale, as the Lowestoft Street directory for 1886, lists one R. Woodrow, watchmaker as the occupier.

Elizabeth Curtis died in October 1888 and was buried in St. Margaret’s Church on October 19thand the link between the Curtis’s and No. 15 was basically severed.

The 1891 census lists a 45 years old widow, Sarah Mills, residing at No. 15, her occupation being given as a “lodging house keeper”.  On the night of the census her three adult children were also living there.  There was also a lodger, 67 years old Sophia A. Garner,  who occupies two rooms and is described as “living on her own means”.

In 1901 No. 15 was the home of a 46 years old bricklayer, Charles Houghton from Corton, together with his wife Malvina and their six children.  There were also lodgers there, a carpenter named Walter K. Brambridge, aged 34, and his wife Sarah. They had two rooms as did the other lodger, a “railway motor engine driver”, William Lammas, aged 58.

The 1911 census lists a “pawnbroker’s assistant”, William A. Sewell, aged 38 living at No. 15 with his wife Grace and two children.  They live in 9 rooms whilst there were three lodgers who occupied one room each – Alcwyn Elkington Jones, aged 30, a Clerk in Holy Order from Wales; Hugh Patrick Fowlis Scott, aged 27; and Henry Newton Eldershaw, aged 54, a Lay Reader in the Church of England.

The 1939 Register lists Robert Hammett, aged 53, a “pawnbroker’s manager” living at No. 15, having moved here some years early from No. 160 High Street with his wife Minnie and two daughters.  In 1939 his daughter Iris, aged 25, was a school teacher and Gwen,  aged 24, was a silk machinist.  On the eve of World War 2, Robert is recorded as being volunteer A.R.P. Warden and Iris is noted as being a First Aider with Saint John’s Ambulance .  On 12th May 1943 their house was severely damaged in the air raid  which, along with those of their neighbours, was later demolished. CREDIT:Ivan Bunn 

1911 Census - At 15 High Street we find that the premises was a pawnbrokers, William Sewell, and that he had three boarders: 

• Revd Alwyn E Jones - clerk in Holy Orders
• Revd Hugh P F Scott - clerk in Holy Orders
• Henry Newton Eldenshaw - Lay Reader 

12 May 1943, 2100 hours. Some 25 FW 190s, each carrying a single 500 kg HE bomb, swept across the town at 50 ft causing death and destruction on a dreadful scale. 4 bombs in High Street caused very serious damage to cottages and property in the area pictured. The bombs were released from a very low altitude which meant a number of them ricocheted  across the ground before exploding at ground level, causing severe blast damage over a wide area

CREDIT: Bob Collis