Lowestoft

Lowestoft is a fishing town on the Suffolk coast, facing the North Sea. Its fishermen pursued herring and competed with the larger port of Great Yarmouth to the north. The catch supported a local trade in salting and curing fish as well as the boats and crews that brought it ashore.

Rivalry with Yarmouth continued through the seventeenth century. In March 1645, a serious fire swept through the town of Lowestoft, and the buildings used for fishing and curing had to be rebuilt. A settlement in 1663 freed the town's fishermen to expand their own herring fishery; in 1679 a port licence allowed salt and other supplies to be landed at Lowestoft instead of being landed at Yarmouth and brought overland along the coast road.