Enjoy Wells-next-the-sea. It's a great place. Do the walkaround. Go to the Butlands.
Wells Walkabout – 12 October 2008:
On this wonderful sunny Sunday morning, following the Bunting Society annual get-together at the Village Hall in East Barsham on the previous day, a number of us “Buntings”went on a guided tour of Wells next the Sea. This was led by Mike Welland who proved to be an extremely well informed and knowledgeable researcher and local historian. A thoroughly nice chap!
We met near the old police station close to St Nicholas Parish Church where there was ample free parking..
From here we walked around the corner to the Church and went inside. The original gravestone and other very interesting notes and photographs concerning Fryer can be found in the church porch.
John Fryer,one of Norfolk’s famous men, was the sailing master of the Bounty. He was in the long boat with Captain Blighe following the mutinee on the Bounty. Mike discovered John Fryer’s grave stone on the South side of Saint Nicholas Church. Previously it was thought to have been on the North side of the Church. The devils side!
The Church had been struck by lightning in the nineteenth century and much was destroyed in the fire that followed. However John Fryer’s chest dated 1639 survived the fire and can be seen not far from the entrance.
On leaving the church we noticed many old gravestones neatly placed along the churchyard wall. All of these had been discovered by Mike who had painstakingly cleaned them so future generations could read the inscriptions thereon.
Proceeding along Burnt Street we paused to see where the London coaches had come before they were made redundant by the arrival of the railway in the mid nineteenth century.
We stopped again to look at this interesting house on the left side of Burnt Street.
Continuing along the road Mike showed us Ostrich House. This was a coaching Inn in the seventeenth century with a brick frontage added about 1730.
Before turning right we passed this yard where a well known photographer Mahomet had once lived. He was the son of an Indian seaman. His father married a local lass in Wells. His parents moved to the East End of London and after his father died Mahomet ended up in the workhouse in Stepney and as was often the case at the time they, discovering his mother was from Norfolk, sent him to the workhouse in Great Snoring.. That might have been the end for him but luckily an uncle of his in Wells took pity on him and brought him up.
Mike explains the history of Ware Hall House which was originally in Ware in Hertfordshire and was dismantled and then rebuilt in Wells by its owner May Savidge who accepted no help from anyone else. She personally numbered every beam but had problems later as some of the numbers had worn off during the many years they were stored before the reassembly of the house was completed. May never threw anything away and as a result the house was crammed with items she had bought during her lifetime. For example she had kept every copy of the Radio Times.
When May died some of these things were sought after and indeed quite sellable.
We continued up the slope into the Buttlands where there are some very interesting cottages which Mike explained were once the property of Sarah Godfrey who became Sarah Bunting. They became her husband’s property when she married. Sarah and her husband were people of some standing in the town. He a gentleman and she a lady. But unfortunately Sarah’s husband borrowed money against the cottages and got into terrible debt keeping up their lifestyle. When he died everything had to be sold and Sarah, in her eighties, ended up in poverty putting ribbons on straw bonnets which she sold in order to have enough money to live.
Mike explained the mixture of architecture in the Buttlands from the grand Georgian and Victorian houses to the earlier cottages owned by Sarah Bunting. This was an area where wealthy people in the town such as solicitors and well to do merchants lived.
We walked on to the Crown Hotel which was purported to have been where Nelson drank. Mike explained why this was absolute rubbish as at that time the Crown had closed and its contents had been auctioned at the nearby Globe.
Some of the grand georgian houses in the Buttlands can be seen across its rectangular green which is lined with lined with Lime Trees.
We left the Buttlands and walked along a lane towards the High Street.
As we left the Buttlands we glanced to our left and saw the Globe Inn that Mike had been referring to earlier.
Once in the High Street Mike pointed out the much faded writing that could just be seen on the brickwork below the upstairs window of one shop showing the name and type of shop that had traded there many years earlier. Amazingly, although Mike’s researcher eyesite had seen the writing, it had not been spotted by those who now lived there and in nearby houses who passed it every day! Many secrets exist if one looks carefully for them.
The High Street was quite narrow which Mike explained had not always been the case as the later shops and houses had been built like a facade bolted against the much older cottages behind.
Looking down the High Street we saw Howell’s butchers, originally Ram’s, on the left which many years ago had much game hanging outside which would probably be illegal now under Health and Safety laws! The Inn pictured on the right is on the left corner at the top of the High Street. Mike explained that it had been named the Fighting Cock before being renamed the Edinburgh Hotel when Cock fighting became illegal. The then landlord was purported to have come from Scotland but in reality had been one of the Leicester’s gamekeepers at Holkham Hall!
Turning left at the top of the High Street we saw Leftleys which had in earlier days been Edward Bunting’s Drapery store.
We walked on past Leftleys with the Buttlands to the south and turned right into Newgate Lane. Here was the site of the Congregational Church whose members were second class citizens being penalised in many ways including among other things not being allowed to be Members of Parliament. Mike added that when these restrictions were rescinded about 35 non-conformists became MPs. The Congregationalist Church had been very popular as the established Church was really geared up only for wealthy people. For example in the latter, if one could not afford to buy a pew, one had to stand! Many poorer people therefore ignored the Church of England unless they were farm or estate workers who would face the sack if they did not go to Church with their employer.
This is a very interesting House, once an Inn, seen from the right hand side of Newgate Lane and fronting onto Staithe Street which can only be seen by piggy back or taking a photograph over the high black gates!
From here we turned East and walked through lanes and passages to Staithe Street. On the way we passed John Fryer’s House and noted the plaque between the front door and the window which read “John Fryer RN 1753-1817 lived here - Sailing Master Bounty” and had been placed on the house by the Wells Local History Group.
In Staithe Street we saw an interesting house, once owned by a wealthy corn merchant called Smith, which had several windows bricked in as a result of the Window Tax. Mike reminded us that this tax had been brought in to replace the tax on Tea and Coffeee which had not been successful because of the large amount of smuggling of these commodities at the time. Many people do not realise that the smuggling tea and coffee was more prolific than the illegal import of alcohol! Like many other houses once owned by wealthy shipowners and merchants there was a glass windowed observation point on the roof so the owner could see his ship or goods coming into port.
Mike explains more of the architecture in Staithe Street to our Group. You can see David Bunting, another keen researcher of Norfolk history, with his unusual walking stick and splendid leather case standing to the right of the picture.
This interesting building in Staithe Street known as “the eagles” has two eagles on the roof.
This is one of them.
But enough of Staithe Street. We now turned left at the top into Station Road and looked at the library which Mike points out must have once been a Methodist Chapel and was indeed the Wesleyan chapel.
Further along Station Road is the Station Hotel which Mike explained was built in anticipation of the arrival of the railway and which was expected to be next to the station. However when the railway eventually came some fifteen years later it ended about five hundred yards away.
A left turn into Standard Road brings into view the large House on the opposite side of the road which Mike shows us to have previously been a row of smaller houses. If one looked carefully one noticed, amongst other changes, that the centre façade had been added to make it look like an extremely grand house.
At the end of Standard Road can be seen the salt Marshes and the sea. You can see how nice the weather was from the beautiful clear pale blue sky.
Turning round we followed Mike back along Standard Road, past Station Road on the right, and down Polka Road to the old railway station. He pointed out that the cottages on the left of the road between the railway station and the Railway Hotel had not been allowed to have trees or vegetation growing to their front least passengers arriving at the station could not see the Railway Hotel when they came out of the station! You will recall that the line had originally been expected to end by the Station Hotel, which was built by an entrepreneur some years before the railway actually arrived. A fact which led some less ardent researchers to think the building could not have been the Station Hotel as it was not near the railway station and had anyway been built well before the railway arrived!
After a while we crossed the road and walked along Marsh Lane back towards the High Street passing a lovely House on the right of the lane where one of Nelson’s relatives had actually lived! The beauty of the house was only spoilt by the brown wheely bin behind the iron gates at the end of the drive! On the other side of Marsh Lane is, not unsurprisingly, a marsh which Mike said was not once the harbour as many books proclaimed. He pointed out that shells and other debris found there could be found all over Wells!
Finally we looked up an alley where a Fisher theatre had once been. The stage had been to the left of the bottom of the alley and the audience had sat in tiers on the rising ground above. Further up the alley was the Buttlands and the Crown Hotel.
After a thoroughly pleasant morning in beautiful warm sunshine our walk around Wells sadly came to an end. We all thanked Mike for a most informative tour and a splendid walk. Of course one always says that but Mike really did do a truly wonderful job so I will repeat it again here. What a knowledgeable man! So it was goodbye to new friends and time to find a suitable hostelry for lunch where hopefully we could sit outside in the glorious warm sunshine before Val and I commence our long drive back to London after a splendid weekend in North Norfolk. To those of you who did not come to the annual Bunting Society get-together do come along next year and have a break and some fun as well as researching the past. Best Wishes, Tony Bunting.
Cheers
Tony
