The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name. The image is a glossy real photograph.
There is an interesting collection of signs in front of the pier:
-- Coaches Leave Here Daily for
London and Special Scenic Tours.
-- Hugh Vernon and the Imperial
Light Horse Band.
-- Speedboats Running Daily.
-- Frank Monckton's Showtime Revels
Every Evening at 7.45.
-- Sea Trips Running From This
Pier 1/6d.
--Saloon Buses to Gorleston-on-Sea
Fare 4d., Return 8d.
The year after the card was posted, the comedian Frank Monckton presented his 1934 edition of 'The Carnival Follies.' This was broadcast by the BBC on Saturday the 23rd. June 1934. It was relayed at 21.00 from the Pier Pavilion, St. Anne's-on-Sea. Fellow performers were:
Cecily Haines (comedienne)
Leyland White (baritone)
Pauline Maunder (soprano)
Noreen Davies (soubrette)
Pagan & Ross (speciality dancers)
Don Gemmel (light comedian)
Geoffrey DuPree (entertainer).
The card was posted in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk on the 8th. August 1933 to:
Mrs. H. Kay,
14, Manor Road,
West Ealing, London.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Lucy & Herbert
& Herbert,
Just a card to let you know
we are having a fine time, it
is a lovely place.
I shall not want to go home.
We all send our very best
wishes to little Herbert -
Mother showed us his
certificate.
Love to you all from us all,
Gertie."
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth is a seaside resort and minster town in Norfolk straddling the River Yare, 20 miles (30 km) east of Norwich. A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk's third most populous place.
Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, fell steeply after the mid-20th. century, and has all but vanished. North Sea oil from the 1960's brought an oil-rig supply industry that now services offshore natural gas rigs. More recent offshore wind power and other renewable energy have created further support services.
Yarmouth has been a seaside resort since 1760, and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. Tourism was boosted when a railway opened in 1844, which gave visitors easier, cheaper access and triggered some settlement.
Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th. century, Yarmouth was a booming resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops and theatres.
There is also the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, as well as a surviving Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.
Great Yarmouth in the Past
The town was the site of a bridge disaster and drowning tragedy on the 2nd. May 1845, when a suspension bridge crowded with children collapsed killing 79. They had gathered to watch a clown in a barrel being pulled by geese down the river. As he passed under the bridge the weight shifted, causing the chains on the south side to snap, tipping over the bridge deck.
Great Yarmouth had an electric tramway system from 1902 to 1933. From the 1880's until the Great War, the town was a regular destination for Bass Excursions, when 15 trains would take 8000–9000 employees of Bass's Burton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.
During the Great War, Great Yarmouth suffered the first aerial bombardment in the UK, by Zeppelin L3 on the 19th. January 1915. That same year on the 15th. August, Ernest Jehan became the first and only man to sink a steel U-Boat with a sail-rigged Q-ship, off the coast of Great Yarmouth.
Great Yarmouth was bombarded by the German Navy on the 24th. April 1916. The town also suffered Luftwaffe bombing during World War II because it was the last significant part of the UK on which the Germans could drop their remaining bombs before returning home.
Despite damage in both wars, much is left of the old town, including the original 2,000-metre (1.2 mi) protective medieval wall, of which two-thirds has survived. Of the 18 towers, 11 are left.
On the South Quay is a 17th.-century Merchant's House, as well as Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings. Behind South Quay is a maze of alleys and lanes known as 'The Rows'. Originally there were 145 of them. Despite bombing, several have remained.
Great Yarmouth was badly affected by the North Sea flood of 1953. More recent flooding has also been a problem, with four floods in 2006, the worst being in September. Torrential rain caused drains to block and an Anglian Water pumping station to break down. This caused flash flooding in which 90 properties were flooded up to a depth of 5 ft (1.5 m).
Great Yarmouth Sights and Amenities
The Tollhouse with its dungeons, dating from the late 13th. century, is one of Britain's oldest former jails and oldest civic buildings. Major sections of the medieval town walls survive around the parish cemetery and in parts of the old town.
Great Yarmouth Minster (The Minster Church of St Nicholas, founded in the 12th. century as an act of penance) stands in Church Plain, just off the market place. It is the third-largest parish church in England, after Beverley Minster in East Yorkshire and Christchurch Priory in Dorset.
Church Plain also has the 17th.-century timber-framed house, in which Anna Sewell (1820–1878), author of Black Beauty, was born.
The market place, one of the largest in England, has been operating since the 13th. century. It is also home to the town's shopping sector and the famous Yarmouth chip stalls. The smaller area south of the market is used as a performance area for community events.
The Scroby Sands Wind Farm of 30 generators is within sight of the seafront. Also visible are grey seals during their breeding season. The country's only full-time circus, the Hippodrome Circus, is just off the seafront.
The Two Piers
Great Yarmouth has two piers, Britannia Pier (which is Grade II listed) and Wellington Pier. The theatre building on the latter was demolished in 2005 and reopened in 2008 as a family entertainment centre, including a ten-pin bowling alley overlooking the beach.
Britannia Pier holds the Britannia Theatre, which during the summer has featured acts such as Jim Davidson, the comedian Jethro, Basil Brush, Cannon and Ball, Chubby Brown, the Chuckle Brothers and the Searchers. It is one of the few end-of-the pier theatres surviving in England.
The Winter Gardens
The Grade II listed Winter Gardens building sits next to the Wellington Pier. The cast iron, framed glass structure was shipped by barge from Torquay in 1903, purportedly without the loss of a single pane of glass. Over the years, it has been used as ballroom, roller skating rink and beer garden.
In the 1990's it was converted into a nightclub by Jim Davidson, and has since been used as a family leisure venue. It is currently (2020) closed. In the meantime it has been named by the Victorian Society as a heritage building at risk of disrepair.
The Marine Parade
Great Yarmouth's seafront, known as 'The Golden Mile' attracts millions of visitors each year to its sandy beaches, indoor and outdoor attractions and amusement arcades.
Great Yarmouth's Marine Parade has twelve Amusement Arcades within 2 square miles. Their names draw heavily on Las Vegas and include: The Flamingo, Circus Circus, The Golden Nugget, The Mint, The Silver Slipper, The Showboat, Magic City, Quicksilver and The Gold Rush.
In addition to the two piers, tourist attractions on Marine Parade include Joyland, Pirates' Cove Adventure Golf, Yesterday's World, the Marina Centre, Retroskate, the Arnold Palmer Putting Green, the Sea Life Centre, Merrivale Model Village and the Pleasure Beach and Gardens.
The Great Yarmouth Floral Clock
Alas, the clock in Marine Parade is no more - it had to be removed in 2005 following repeated attacks by mindless vandals.
The Yarmouth In Bloom group, who had regularly planted flowers and attended the displays, were dismayed by the continual trampling of plants and breakages to the clock hands, and decided that enough was enough.
The Venetian Waterways
In August 2019, the Venetian Waterways and gardens re-opened. The waterways, running parallel to the main beach, were a feature constructed as a work-creation scheme in 1926–1928, consisting of canals and formal gardens, with rowing boats, pedalos and gondolas.
The waterways had been allowed to silt up, decay and become abandoned. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £1.7 m and the labour of volunteers, the flowerbeds have been restored with 20,000 plants, and the 1920's cafe has been restored. That and the boat hire are being run by a social enterprise.
The Nelson Monument
The South Denes area is home to the Grade I listed Norfolk Naval Pillar, known locally as the Britannia Monument or Nelson's Monument. This tribute to Nelson was completed in 1819, 24 years before the completion of Nelson's Column in London. The monument, designed by William Wilkins, shows Britannia standing atop a globe holding an olive branch in her right hand and a trident in her left.
There is a popular assumption in the town that the statue of Britannia was supposed to face out to sea but now faces inland due to a mistake during construction. However it is thought that she is meant to face Nelson's birthplace at Burnham Thorpe.
The monument was originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, but fund-raising was not completed until after his death, and it was instead dedicated to England's greatest naval hero. It is currently surrounded by an industrial estate, but there are plans in place to improve the area.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens used Great Yarmouth as a key location in his novel David Copperfield and described the town as 'The finest place in the universe'. The author stayed at the Royal Hotel on the Marine Parade while writing the novel.
Great Yarmouth Museums
The Norfolk Nelson Museum on South Quay houses the Ben Burgess collection of Nelson memorabilia and is the only dedicated Nelson museum in Britain, other than one in Monmouth. Its several galleries look at Nelson's life and personality, and at what life was like for men who sailed under him.
The Time and Tide Museum in Blackfriars Road was nominated in the UK Museums Awards in 2005. It was built as part of a regeneration of the south of the town in 2003. Its location in an old herring smokery harks back to the town's status as a major fishing port.
Sections of the historic town wall stand opposite the museum, next to the Great Yarmouth Potteries, part of which is housed in another former smoke house. The town wall is among the most complete medieval town walls in the country, with 11 of the 18 original turrets still standing.
Other museums in the town include the National Trust's Elizabethan House, the Great Yarmouth Row Houses, managed by English Heritage, and the privately owned Blitz and Pieces, based on the Home Front during World War II.
The First Savings and Loan in the United States
So what else happened on the day that Gertie posted the card?
Well, on the 8th. August 1933, the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami, founded by William Walker Jr., received the first charter ever issued under the 1932 Federal Home Loan Bank Act.
This made it the first-ever "S & L" in the United States. The institution later renamed itself AmeriFirst, and on its fiftieth anniversary in 1983, announced that it was ridding itself of the charter so that it could become a bank.
Joe Tex
The day also marked the birth in Baytown, Texas of Joe Tex (Joseph Arrington Jr.), African-American soul singer.
Tex died on the 13th. August 1982 following a heart attack, 5 days after his 49th. birthday.
