We're continuing on our virtual bus ride from Hall Quay in Great Yarmouth which started with this post featuring the Star and the Star and Garter. So far, amongst others, we've passed the Anson Arms, the Halfway House, the Greyhound and the Barking Fishery. Our most recent stop was at the former Earl Grey which I managed to snap in December, on my first return to Gorleston from Derbyshire in over a decade.
That trip, which I made with former work colleague Eric, to visit some of the pubs of my youth – well, those which are still operating – saw us exit the Short Blue and turn left along the High Street heading for the Dock Tavern. On doing so we soon passed the starring role of this post, the appropriately named Star, which stood at number 199 High Street, on the corner of Priory Street. Here it is in Edwardian times, just beyond the man in the bowler hat, with what is probably its sign attached to the wall.
The fact that the tram system was electrified in 1905, along with the photography shop on the corner opposite the pub, helps to date the picture. Enlarging the image reveals that the photographer's name is Alice something or other, and Alice Yardley took over the studio of Alfred Yallop around 1907. She is listed in Kelly's directory of 1908, by a strange quirk of alphabetical fate, immediately below the landlord of the Star.
Six decades on from when Alice had her studio there, I used to pop into the building on a weekly basis to see Mr. Mobbs the greengrocer to collect a large paper sack containing the discarded outer leaves of cabbages, cauliflowers, etc., along with the occasional carrot of questionable quality, to feed to various rodents that I had as pets. We'll meet George Mobbs again a little bit later.
Just as in 1908 Alice had recently taken over her premises Jimmy Wylie had also recently taken on the Star, but the pub's history goes back a lot further. Originally going by the name of the Three Hammers it used to belong to Gorleston's Bells Brewery in the second half of the eighteenth century.
The earliest that I've been able to ascertain a licensee is 1871 when George Hurren was keeping an unnamed boozer next door to shopkeeper George Allen...
...which I'm presuming was the Star as ten years later John Major – I seriously doubt if it was that John Major – was next door to Mr. Allen and running the Star public house.
Going back before 1871 has proved to be impossible as there's no mention of it by name in any directory that I have or in any census return. The census records fail to provide any other clues either, in that there seems to have been little continuity in the residents living in the immediate vicinity.
By 1891 the house had come into the ownership of Cann & Clark's Wymondham Brewery and the landlord was John Hilham. Like many beerhouse keepers of the day he had another trade. John made blocks and masts, which was not uncommon for the residents in this area of the town, being so close to the river.
Still simply a beerhouse, John was granted a wine licence in August of the following year. I struggle to see the demand for one. Perhaps my twenty-first century perception of his clientele is somewhat out of kilter with his nineteenth century reality, but I can't see the hardened fishermen of the area coming out with, "A quart of porter please John. And can I have a glass of Château de Goulaine as well? I'll have the '87, if you've got it."
The Star passed into the hands of Norwich brewers Morgan's in 1894 and that may have contributed to John leaving the place. Pure speculation on my past, but Charles Harboard was ensconced in the Star by 1895 and was listed in Kelly's directory which was published the following year...
...but he'd been replaced by Henry Clarke by the time of the next census.
There followed a couple of short tenancies by Henry Armes and Robert Leeds before, in 1907, we find one Matthew James Wylie in residence. Which is where we came in.
Jimmy Wylie remained at the Star until 1932 when, on 12th February, the chief constable objected to the renewal of the Star's licence at the Annual Licensing Sessions and on 4th March the pub was referred for compensation. Its licence expired at the end of December that year.
By 9th January 1933 Jimmy was pulling pints in the Red Lion in Upper Sheringham, but what became of the Star? By 1934 the former boozer was the property of George Mobbs. I said we'd meet him again. When I used to go and see him in his greengrocer's shop at the end of Priory Street to collect guinea pig/rabbit food, on the opposite corner was Mobbs's grocery shop – a typical corner shop of the late '60s, early '70s – run, if I remember correctly, by Mrs. Mobbs. The two shops are long gone as, I expect, are the Mobbses. The former greengrocer's is in residential use and the former Star now houses the Gorleston base of care company One to One, and has done for more than fifteen years.
If we revisit the Edwardian view of this stretch of the High Street today, with the help of Mr. Google, it now looks like this. No Star and no photographer's studio. No trams either, but the buses still run though, which is how Eric and I arrived at the Short Blue at the start of this tale.
And as I said at the top of this page, having finished our pint of Rocking Rudolph in the Short Blue, we turned left along the High Street on our way to the Dock Tavern. As I crossed Priory Street I looked back and took this picture of the former Star in the fading December light. It had been more than ten years since I'd seen Gorleston's High Street. I wonder when, or even if, I'll see it again.
Thanks to the Norfolk Pubs website for the additional information.
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