The High Street

The High Street was first causewayed in 1737, before which it must have been a very rough and, in wet weather, muddy thoroughfare. Even after that, there seems to have been a stream running through it, for there is a record of 1759 of ‘the water that runs from the High Street to sea’ being taken ‘by a Cannall’ through the garden of a maltster for his business. Water would be obtained mostly from wells, but an improvement was made in 1766 when leaden pipes were laid to bring water from wells near Spott. Lamp lighting in the streets came in 1785, so that the torches in processions mentioned later may have been in the first instance necessary for lighting the way.