It's been a while since I was last on my virtual bus journey home from Great Yarmouth. Some of you many recall that we'd just passed the former Barking Fishery at the junction of High Road and Ferry Hill, and as the number 8 bus continues to rattle on its way it passes 75 High Road followed immediately by 1 High Street. This nightmare for those performing the final step in the logistics chain for Evri, Yodel, DPD et al. is the legacy of a historic boundary change and this first property on High Street used to be a pub – the Rising Sun. A couple of other Rising Suns have appeared in these pages. The one in Hastings I'd never been in, which is understandable as I've never, ever, been in Hastings, whilst the one in Woodville, being about a quarter of a mile from my then home, had been graced with my presence.
This Rising Sun, whilst also being about a quarter of a mile away from my one-time home, never had the joy of my custom as it closed well before I reached drinking age. In fact it closed well before I was born and even well before my parents were too.
The pub was operating from at least 1830 when Ann Browne had the place...
...but for around forty years or so was linked with the Darby family.
In the late 1850s, boatbuilder Beaumont Darby moved from Beccles to Gorleston with his wife Charlotte and their family, settling on High Road.
At the time the Rising Sun was in the hands of Robert Annison...
...but by 1869 Beaumont was pulling pints as well as building boats.
Victorian author and photographer P. H. Emerson took numerous images in Norfolk. A believer in naturalistic photographer, all his photographs were created with a single shot and no retouching – what would he make of all the modifications and tweaks employed by the Photoshop users of today? – including this one of a view of the rear of the properties along this section of High Street/High Road. The stretch of land where the boats are being mended or broken up is still known today as Darby's Hard.
It wasn't far for Beaumont to wander to work in the morning after a busy night of dispensing beer...
...and we can see just how near his workplace was if we take a closer look at the property on the left-hand end of the terrace.
Beaumont continued to run the pub until his death in 1873 whereupon his widow Charlotte took over the licence. Upon her retirement she moved along the road a short distance, to 79 High Road where she lived with her son William whilst another son, Henry, was in the Rising Sun. Although not shown as a pub in the 1901 census...
... it was listed as an inn in the Town & Counties Directories' edition for the Eastern Counties of England, published the same year.
A quick look at that entry suggests that only two of the listings are currently still operating as pubs. The Crown and Anchor and the Royal Oak both made an appearance in this earlier post and a number of the others will eventually feature in future posts detailing this virtual bus journey. One of those closures was obviously the Rising Sun or it wouldn't be featuring in this post. Its closure occurred a couple of years after publication of the directory.
In 1903 the railway arrived in Gorleston and just across the road from the station Steward & Patteson had built a new hotel, imaginatively named the Station Hotel. It opened in August of that year. The brewers surrendered the Rising Sun's licence so that this new establishment could meet the needs of its thirsty guests. With no further need of the premises they sold the Rising Sun a couple of months later, presumably to a Darby as in 1912 Henry's son Percy, a butcher, was still living there.
And it's here that we'll leave this virtual bus journey for now. But don't worry, just like buses, another bygone boozer will come along soon.
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