Lowestoft - multiview incl lifeboat 1970s Dennis

Postcard

 

• Picture / Image:  A lovely 1970s Dennis multiview. Pictures: Yacht basin & lifeboat, Pakefield Cliffs, The Beach
• Publisher:  Dennis (L3368L)
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes & Key words: 

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal or Google Checkout ONLY please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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Lowestoft (pronounced /'lo?st?ft/ or /'lo?st?f/) is a town on The Sunrise Coast in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the eastern edge of Suffolk Broads on Oulton Broad and Lake Lothing which heads towards North Sea within the parliamentary constituency and District of Waveney. Lowestoft is also the most easterly town being home to Ness Point, the most easterly point of the United Kingdom and of the British Isles. It is twinned with the French town of Plaisir and was twinned with Katwijk in the Netherlands until that relationship ended in the 1990s.

Lowestoft is Suffolk's second largest town^[2] (second to Ipswich) and is divided in two by Lake Lothing, home of its Marina, itself divided into an inner- and outer-harbour by a bascule bridge carrying the A12 through the town. Both north and south sides of the town contain a variety of business and residential areas, with the main shopping centre lying just to the north and the award-winning Blue Flag beaches^[3] to the south.

The town has two piers, situated on the south beach. The southerly pier, called the Claremont Pier, originally served as a port of call for steamers travelling to and from London.^[4] The pier structure itself has been closed for many years, is now in a state of disrepair and not open to the public, though the building at the land end still hosts an arcade, bar, club and fish restaurant. Just over half a mile (1 km) to the north of that is the South Pier^[5] (so called because it is placed on the south side of the outer harbour).

Lowestoft railway station is centrally placed within the town, within walking distance of the beach, and provides services to Norwich along the Wherry Line and Ipswich on the East Suffolk Line. Many services also continue to London Liverpool Street along the main line from Ipswich. All services are operated by National Express East Anglia.

The settlement's name is derived from the Viking personal name Hlothver, and toft,^[6] a Viking word for 'homestead'. The town's name has been spelled variously: Lothnwistoft, Lestoffe, Laistoe, Loystoft and Laystoft. In the Domesday Book, it was spelled Lothu Wistoft^[6] and described as a small agricultural village of 20 families, or about 100 people.

In the Middle Ages, Lowestoft developed into a fishing port^{[citation needed]}, a trade that continued to be its main identity until the 20th century.

In the 1665, the first battle of the Second Dutch War was the Battle of Lowestoft 40 miles (64 km) off the coast of the town^{[citation needed]}.

In the 19th century, the arrival of Sir Samuel Morton Peto brought about a change in Lowestoft's fortunes. Railway contractor Peto built a rail link between Lowestoft and Reedham, the line being funded and operated by the Norfolk Railway. At Reedham this line joined the Yarmouth to Norwich Railway. Other local railway links where built and initially these were operated by the Eastern Counties Railway. After obtaining funding from the Norfolk Railway, Peto helped developed the port and together they provided mooring for 1,000 small boats. From 1845, the port was leased by the Norfolk Railway on an indefinite lease, Peto only being responsible for it for a matter of weeks.

The major development of the port including the building of the docks was carried out from 1848 by the Eastern Counties Railway, and continued from 1862 by the Great Eastern Railway with Peto having no input to this work. Upon completion, the improvements gave a boost to trade with the continent. Peto helped to establish Lowestoft as a flourishing seaside holiday resort by expanding the south of Lowestoft. However, some of the buildings associated with him have now been demolished.

In World War I, Lowestoft was bombarded by the German Navy on 24 April 1916.

During the World War II, the town was used as a navigation point by German bombers^{[citation needed]}. As a result it was the most heavily bombed town per head of population in the UK.^{[citation needed]} Old mines and bombs are still dredged up and have been hazardous to shipping.

Lowestoft has been subject to periodic flooding; the most notable was in January 1953 when a North Sea swell driven by low pressure and a high tide swept away many of the older sea defences and deluged most of the southern town.

Until the mid-1960s, fishing was perceived as Lowestoft's main industry, although from the 1930s the percentage of those employed directly and in trades associated with fishing was actually only around 10% of the working population^{[citation needed]}. Fleets comprised drifters and trawlers, with the drifters primarily targeting herring while the trawlers caught cod, plaice, skate and haddock. By the mid 1960s, the catches were greatly diminishing, particularly the herring. Consequently the drifter fleet disappeared and many of the trawlers were adapted to work as service ships for the new North Sea oil rigs. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), a large fisheries research centre, which is a part of Defra is still located in south Lowestoft.

The Eastern Coach Works was another big employer and in the 1960s it was a regular occurrence to see a bare bus chassis being driven through the town to the coach works by a goggled driver. Installing the bus's superstructure, body work and seats was the job of Eastern Coach Works. Both double decker and single decker buses were built there and sent all over the country.

Brooke Marine and Richards shipbuilding companies, who together employed over a thousand men, went out of business in 1990. In order to carry on the skills and traditions of the threatened shipbuilding trade, the International Boatbuilding Training College [1] was formed in 1975 and has been largely successful at producing graduates who carry on the legacy of Lowestoft shipwrights.

From the late 1960s to the late 1990s, the oil and gas industry provided significant employment (if often seasonal and erratic) in the Lowestoft area. For many years the Shell Southern Operations base on the north shore of Lake Lothing was one of the town's largest employers. A decision to close the Shell base was finally made in 2003.^[7]