The Denes, Liver Trench

Down on the Denes, again, with the Birds Eye Factory dominating the middle ground and with the Gulliver wind-turbine in the distance beyond. Also visible in the shot, the net-drying spars in the middle distance to the right (commented on in Lighthouse essay picture). But what of the Liver Trench? This, being feature seen running down the middle of the frame, with a mini-bund on either side to define it (work carried out when the Ness Park was laid out). The walkway seen in the immediate foreground destroyed a few metres of it, leaving the rest intact, but the full size (running in a straight line from north to south) was ninety paces in length by three in width.
 

Edmund Gillingwater, in his published history of Lowestoft (1790), p. 110, refers to the Trench as still being visible, but the material revealed when the walkway was created showed that it was filled in with building rubble and other waste dating from the early 19th century. It was originally dug at some point in the past, possibly during the 16th century (archaeological investigation might reveal when), to house the fire-pits used to boil down cod livers deriving from the lining voyages to Faeroe and Iceland, to extract their oil - not for medicinal use, but to fuel household lamps and treat newly made leather (Lowestoft had two or three tanneries, at one time, located in the lower section of the cliff near Lighthouse Score).

The Springtime hand-lining voyages for cod and ling, carried out by East Coast ports, began at some point during the first half of the 15th century and became a profitable enterprise, with the fish being decapitated, gutted, dry-salted and placed in special compartments on board and the livers extracted and stored in small sealed casks. The fish were re-processed in various kinds of ways on return to the home-ports and the livers boiled down in large iron cauldrons or coppers - located in Lowestoft’s case along the Trench. The feature came to the writer’s attention during the 1980s, during a particularly dry summer, when a visible stripe down the length of the Denes revealed itself in being slightly greener than the parched vegetation on either side. Closer scrutiny revealed that the flora (grasses and other plants) were different from those to east and west and a slight depression in the ground showed that it had been dug out at some point and later filled in.

Again, so much more could be said about the lining ventures to the far North and their significance in the town’s economy, but a line has to be drawn. The last voyage referred to in the Lowestoft tithe records (a single vessel, in this instance) took place in the year 1743 - by which time it had become an occasional affair rather than a regular one. The post mortem accounts of a merchant named Thomas Mighells, who died in 1636, make reference to a quantity of oil and casks left at the Trench. And, on that note, this account must end!