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This brief
guide was compiled from A Walk Around Old Harwich
published by the Harwich
Society; and The Harwich Story and Harwich:
Gateway to the Continent by Leonard Weaver.
This page
is designed to give you a taste of old Harwich by showing you a few of
its old buildings in a route that should take you about 30 minutes on
foot. If we whet your appetite we hope that you’ll come and
visit and have a longer look, taking advantage of the tours organised
by the Harwich Society. There are actually over 200 listed buildings in
the old town. Take a look at the Travel page, Contact Point
and Essential
Harwich to plan your stay, and the Diary page for events (including
guided tours).
The pattern
of streets in old Harwich dates back to medieval times and is based on
the grid-iron pattern. Although changes have occurred over the years
the basic pattern can still be clearly seen today, with the main
thoroughfares running north and south connected by narrow alleyways
which act as windbreaks. The waterfront is further north now, much work
being done here in the mid 19th century when the railway ran along the
quay face to allow continental travellers to disembark outside the old
Great Eastern Hotel.
It is here
we start our tour at the Ha’penny Pier (8 on map) which was
built 1851-4 and was so called because of the entrance toll. Originally
the pier was twice as long as at present but half of it burnt down. It
was a popular departure point for paddle-steamers until after the first
world war. The pier ticket office, a charming and typical example of
late 19th century architecture, was originally a two-storey building
but without the bell cage. Today it serves as the Tourist Information
office.
At the end
of The Quay, close to the Ha’penny pier, we find the gates to
the Navyard Wharf (7 on map).
The site is operated by the Harwich Dock Company Ltd., who transport
roll-on roll-off cargo to and from various ports in Finland, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark and Belgium. Previously this was the site of the naval
shipyard and, before that, the 16th century castle. Ships were built
here in the 16th century under Chapman and Pett. Elizabeth I came to
inspect the shipyard in 1561, commenting that Harwich was ‘a
pretty town’. The shipyard was developed in 1660 and many
fine naval ships were built here to the design of Anthony Deane. It was
mentioned by the diarist Pepys who was secretary to the Navy and also
M.P. for Harwich. A list of the Men of War constructed on the site
between 1660 and 1827 is displayed on a board near the entrance to
Navyard Wharf, along with the old shipyard bell.
• The
Electric Palace cinema is the oldest unaltered purpose-built cinema in
Britain
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Continuing
round into Kings Quay Street the road narrows and we come to the
Electric Palace (6 on map).
The Palace was built in 1911 and is the oldest unaltered purpose-built
cinema in Britain. It was built for Charles Thurston, a well known East
Anglian showman. It was designed by Mr. H.R. Hooper ARIBA of Ipswich
and the original plans are still in existence. It was opened by the
Mayor in November 1911, after which Kings Quay Street became the mecca
of the Harwich night life. It closed as a cinema in 1956. The Harwich
Electric Palace Trust (a sister organisation of the Harwich Society),
was founded in 1975 and has restored the cinema at a cost of
£28,000 — plus 2,500 man hours of volunteer labour.
It re-opened (to Trust members) in 1981.
Walking to
the end of Kings Quay Street we come to the Vicarage and an interesting
example of site re-use in old Harwich. Until 1669 this area was waste
ground at the back of the Three Cups Hotel when the Harwich Corporation
built a workhouse on the site. The workhouse took in the poor of the
parish, poverty being widespread at the time. In 1836 north-east Essex
parishes formed a union with a common workhouse at Tendring* and the
workhouse building was sold to the Cobbold family for conversion into a
brewery. The Cobbold family had founded their brewing empire at Harwich
early in the 18th century with Thomas Cobbold building his first
brewery in the town in 1723.
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*
The last workhouse at Tendring, a substantial building, eventually
became Tendring Heath Hospital. It still stands, housing a private
institution.
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It is known
that the local water supply had become brackish and therefore
unsuitable for brewing, so Cobbold moved his main operation to Ipswich
in 1746, where it exists (as Tolly Cobbold) to this day. The family
owned a large number of pubs in the area however, and the workhouse
brewery would have been a way of the supplying them with locally
produced beer, possibly brewing with water brought down river from
Ipswich. In any case, the brewery was demolished in 1871 to make way
for the present vicarage.
Anyone
interested in the story of the Cobbold brewery at Harwich should visit
our Brewery
page. |
• The
treadwheel crane enjoyed an operational life of over 250 years
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Turning
right into Wellington Road we head towards St. Helen’s Green
and the treadwheel crane (2 on map). The crane
was built in 1667 on the site of the Naval Yard, now Navyard, and
— astonishingly — it was in use there until 1928.
(How many cranes built in 2000 can expect an operational life of 260
years?) It was moved to its present site on Harwich Green around 1932.
The crane was worked by two men walking in the interior of the wheels
(as opposed to jail treadmills where the operators walked on the outer
surface), two wheels producing a balanced action. Each wheel is 16ft
(5.2m) in diameter, 3ft 10ins (1.2m) wide and made of oak. The wheels
are spaced 4ft (1.3m) apart on a common axle of 13.5ins (34cm)
diameter. The jib has a projection of 17ft 10ins (5.8m). It is
described as a ‘House Crane’ in official records,
to distinguish it from the unenclosed type. Originally it had a boarded
roof, but pantiles were later substituted.
Rejoining
the road and turning right into Church Street we approach St.
Nicholas’ Church (13
on map). The present church was built in 1822 at a cost of
£20,000, a church having existed on this site since 1177. The
old church was a resting place for crusaders on their way to Europe and
the Holy Land. It was almost certainly attended by Samuel Pepys (twice
M.P. for Harwich), Willoughby, Drake, Howard, Frobisher, Nelson and
Daniel Defoe whilst staying in the town. The Master of the Mayflower,
Christopher Jones, was twice married there. The present church is built
of London brick and Coade stone and it represents the simple Gothic
style. It consists of a tower and spire and eight bells, a nave,
aisles, galleries and chancel and was designed to seat 1,500 people,
the largest in the district. The slim graceful columns inside the
church are not stone but iron as are the window frames, a product of
the industrial revolution.
• The
guildhall still plays an important part in Harwich life
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Continuing
down church street we come to the Guildhall (12 on map) which is a
fine Georgian building of 1769, the site being previously occupied by
The Bear where the council met since 1673. Harwich Borough Council last
met there in 1951. The interior contains a fine panelled court room. In
1974 due to local government reorganisation the Guildhall became the
home of Harwich Town Council, who restored it. Restoration revealed a
medieval wall painting and boarded walls covered with engravings of
18th century ships and houses carved into the woodwork. The engravings,
which had subsequently been cris-crossed with iron bands, were probably
executed by prisoners, as this was part of the lock up, the Police
Station being contained in the Guildhall.
We now
continue down Church Street, turning right into Market Street and then
left into King’s Head street. We then follow the street down
towards the quay until we come to number 21 (10 on map). This is an
Elizabethan house rebuilt in the 17th Century. It was the home of
Captain Christopher Jones, Master of the Mayflower,
a Harwich ship in which he took the Pilgrim Fathers to America in 1620.
Before the 17th century rebuilding it was possibly a larger house,
extending towards the river. At that time the waterfront would have
been much closer to the house than now as the quay has been rebuilt
progressively further out into the river. It is believed that
Christopher Jones’s house was on the waterfront with its own
quay and steps.
Excerpts Copyright © The Harwich
Society 1991
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