Diss Family History Group

DISS - THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
by Betty Morley

As it slipped from the 19th into the 20th century the market town of Diss was a very different place to that which we see today.

Queen Victoria just made it into the New Age, dying in 1901. For the new King and Queen, Edward and Alexandra, Norfolk – and especially Sandringham – was a special place. They had visited Diss in 1863 for their marriage celebrations and several streets in Diss, such as Denmark Street, had been renamed in their honour.

Take a look around in 1901 and there is not much change from 1891.

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In 1891 In Mount Street James Morley lived “over the shop” with his wife Phoebe, daughter of William Swootman the agricultural engineer. James and Phoebe were staunch nonconformists and regular attenders at the Baptist Church in Denmark Street. James had come from a large family at Winfarthing. He had 5 siblings, his brother Edward had 14 children and, not to be outdone, James had 15. He kept a grocers shop in Mount Street but it soon became a sort of Amazon stop off for Diss as you could buy just about anything there- if he hadn’t got it he would very soon get it for you. His son also had a shop in Mount Street but this was not so successful. By 1900 James and Phoebe had retired and moved to Victoria Road.

In Mere Street we find Henry Markwell with his basket makers business. Also Anness the butchers at the Shambles (his sign is still to be seen outside the Museum). Charles Fenn the surgeon would also be found in Mere Street.

Pubs were the Dolphin, the Half Moon Inn, Crown, Kings Head and Sun. Also the Ship Inn, the Cross Keys, the Star, the Cherry Tree, Red Lion, White Hart, Jolly Poters, Railway Tavern, the Beehive and Denmark Arms. Diss was granted a Friday market in 1195 and, as now, would be crowded every Friday when people came in from all the Norfolk and Suffolk villages for the day. Surely all the pubs did a roaring trade.

In Mere Street Fred Burrage kept the “Kings Head” and John Sutor kept the “Sun”. In Victoria Road the landlady of “The Jolly Porters” was Ellen Webster, whilst Fred Doggett kept “The Railway Tavern”. William Ling kept “The Denmark Arms”. In the Market Place Judith Hudson kept “The Star” and John Nicholls was landlord at “The White Horse”.

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The King’s Head

On Market Hill was “The Temperance Hotel” which was kept by Thomas Hopgood.

The railway had come to Diss and those that wished and could afford to could go to Norwich, Yarmouth and even London. The Station Master in 1901 was Robert Gillingwater.

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Piped water did not come to Diss until 1912 so people still had to climb up Pump Hill to fill their buckets. There were three pumps in Diss – the town pump at Pump Hill, one at the Mere’s Mouth and one at Mount Street. J.P. Albright and R.A. Bryant were instrumental in bringing piped water eventually to Diss after campaigning for some forty years!

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The sick were cared for in the hospital in Denmark Street. There was also an isolation hospital just off Mission Road where patients would be treated for smallpox, diphtheria and Phthisis (TB).

Quite a lot of small houses had been built in Mission Road to house the railway workers and we can find Mr. Rowland, Mr. Salter, Mr. Long and Mr. Knights, railway porters and their families.

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Mr. Kemp was a navvy and there is also a railway plate layer. David and Dick Marjorum each ran a chimney sweep business, J.S. Canfer was an agricultural machine fitter and there were also carpenters, shoe makers, blacksmiths, millwrights, and others. Many of the women worked at the corset factory in Heywood Road.

In Back Lane, Denmark Street, we find wheelwright Thomas Dye and family and James Read the butcher. James Cattermole kept the “Beehive Inn”.

Some of the many tradesmen in Diss were painters, drapers, bricklayers, boot makers, rag and bone merchants and coopers. Alice Markwell, brush maker was there and also Mr. Simmonds the sweep and Mr. Boyce the fishmonger. So too was Henry Lyus the solicitor and intriguingly Alexander Macdrufell “an unknown Scottish man”!

Montgomerie Lodge Freemasons still met in a room over the King’s Head – they did not move to the old Unitarian Chapel until 1954.

There were two banks in Diss - Barclays on Market Hill, which was managed by Thomas Slack, and The London and Provincial Bank where the manager was Charles Pearson.

Florrie Aldrich was a music teacher living in Mount Street. Head teacher Eliza Hall also lived in Mount Street. Widower William Balls of Church Street seemed to be the only male teacher living in Diss but there were at least six females – Alice Jolley, Edith Aldrich, Margery Gooderham, Blanche Tridgett, Sophia Collins and Margaret Hines – most of these living as boarders.

Laura Downton was living at Hall Hills with her daughter and several servants.

William Pearce in Roydon Road was the postmaster.

The spiritual welfare of Diss seemed to be well catered for as living at The Rectory was clergyman Charles Manning also Harold Havis of Meeting House Lane and Thomas Frith of Mount Street (all C. of E.). George Robinson of Victoria Road was the Wesleyan Minister, Henry Margaret the Society of Friends Minister, James Easter of Victoria Road, Baptist Minister, Frederick Hutt, also of Victoria Road, was Congregationalist Minister and James Poulton of Waveney Road was Primitive Methodist Minister.

Nestled in heart of Diss, undoubtedly the Mere fascinated people in 1900 and for many years to come, as well as act as a major tourist attraction.