This is part 3 of my transcription of an old Diary written by Julia Harriett Grubbe in 1879. Between the transcriptions, I will share the census records that list Julia from 1891 until her death on 22 May 1907.

I have been kindly lent Julia’s wonderful Diary, by Jeremy Carson, a Dealer in Books and Ephemera, and also a Collector. Link to Jeremy’s website here: Antiquarian Book Company

September.

The weather is fine as we go into September.

2) We drove to Lowestoft & called on the Miss Staff’s & walked on the pier. Julia would have walked on the South Pier at Lowestoft, as Claremont Pier wasn’t built until 1902/3.

3) It had been the Regatta day. We had a lunch party & Mrs Ker to tea. I am so glad the day is over.

Regatta Day in Southwold. Regatta Day is now very different from how it was in Julia’s day in 1879. Back then, they were real boats competing, called Yawl’s. Now, and since the 1890s, there are several Regattas, but with model boats.

Not only did I find some great photos of the South Pier through the ages, but I also found this super little video, just over 3 minutes long, by Tom Cunliffe, all about the local Yawls on YouTube: Tom Cunliffe. Local Yawls.

Southwold now hosts model yacht regattas throughout the year on its boating lake, where participants sail boats typically between 15 and 36 inches long, including vintage models from the early 20th century. These events are a tradition dating back to the late 19th century, with races and championships for various model boat designs and skill levels.

Not everything went smoothly, as you can see below.

Regatta Day in Southwold goes back much further than I initially thought, as I found this Newspaper report below from 1876. It says that there has not been one for several years.

So, when did the Regattas begin in Southwold? I decided to try and find out, and I think this is very likely to be the first that was arranged. It’s the first mention I’ve found in the Newspaper archives of a Regatta being held in Southwold on 21st August 1835.

The King’s Birthday referred to King William IV (William Henry; born 21 August 1765, died 20 June 1837)

4) Edmund has gone to join the depot of his Regiment in Ireland. Constance & I alone to tea with Miss Strickland. As I mentioned in the previous blog, Edmund was in the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers). Miss Strickland, I believe, was Jane Margaret Strickland.

Jane Margaret Strickland. When her father, Thomas Strickland, passed away in 1818, the family had already lost a significant portion of their fortune due to his role as guarantor for a failed firm. The family continued to reside at Reydon Hall, Southwold, and the six daughters began to seek ways to earn a living.

In 1832, the two younger daughters, along with their husbands, sailed from Southwold via Greenock to Quebec to start new lives in Canada. When Mrs. Strickland died in 1864, the family home was sold.

After moving around to various addresses, Jane Margaret (b18 April 1800) and later Agnes Strickland (b18 July 1796, d8 July 1874) decided to settle in Southwold, specifically in Park Lane, in the house that is now known as Strickland House. The cottage in Park Lane, Southwold, was bought by Jane Margaret Strickland with the proceeds of her book ‘A Family History of Rome’, which was edited by Agnes and published in two volumes in 1854.

Jane also wrote some books for children and a biography of her sister, ‘The Life of Agnes Strickland’, published in 1887. The cottage was later leased to her sister Agnes Strickland. The two sisters never married.

Jane Margaret Strickland lived at the cottage in her later years. Agnes died in 1874, and Jane Margaret on 14 June 1888. Jane was buried in the churchyard in St. Edmund’s Church, Southwold, beside her sister Agnes.

6) Frankie’s birthday 18 today. Miss Fitzgibbon came to tea.

8) We have been to a musical party at Mrs Gaufsen’s.

9) The two Mrs Metcalf’s came to luncheon. The three Chapman girls to tea.

10) Walter went to London.

11) Eustace & Walter are expected but have not yet arrived.

12) The Dog Cart came to grief on the way to the station but happily no one was hurt. Constance & I have been to tea with Miss Strickland.

16) Mr Sherwood came Father & I drove to meet him. Miss Fitzgibbon dined here.

17) Uncle Robert dined here.

18) Mrs Gwillym & Miss Strickland, Mrs Moody & Alice Fitzgibbon dined here.

19) Uncle Robert dined here.

20) Catherine & Fanny Worthington came to luncheon.

22) George went to London.

23) George has come back.

24) 🚂The Southwold railway has been opened & grand doings, very nice fireworks🎆

🚂Train travel from London to Norwich may have taken 3-4 hours, and then from Norwich to Halesworth Station, about 9 miles from Southwold, so they would likely have got a carriage to take them the last bit of the journey. Then, on 24 September 1879, Southwold Station opened. The 3-foot narrow gauge railway stretched 8 3/4 miles from Halesworth to Southwold. The railway operated for 50 years, closing on April 11, 1929.🚂 

25) Reggie went back back to Eton. Walter to London. Father, Mother, Mrs Sherwood & I went over to Beccles. The Moody’s & Alice dined here.

26) Alice Fitzgibbon dined here.

27) Alice dined here.

29) Mr Sherwood went to London, also George. Walter came back.

30) Willie Gaufsen came to tea.

October.

1) We have been to the flower show at Hensham. Eustace & Walter went to the Auberies.

2) The Hicklings & Miss Burleigh came to lunch. Edmund Hickling was a Clergyman & Private tutor.

3) Mother, Constance & I have been spending a festive day in Norwich.

4) Eustace & Walter came back.

8) Mrs Roberts & her two youngest children came to luncheon.

9) Walter went to luncheon.

13) Father & Mother went to Norwich. I dined with Mrs Gaufsen.

14) We have had a dinner party, Cautleys, Gaufsens, Powells.

15) Mrs E G came to luncheon.

16) We had a dinner party. W.Wilmers, Blacketts, Grey & Jack Holmes. Walter came back.

18) Mother & I have been to Norwich, for the last time this year I hope.

20) We had a luncheon party, Blois’ & Miss Strickland.

21) George came back.

22) Altogether a bad day. Father, Mother & Eustace went to London. We heard of poor Katie Kalc? death.

23) Walter & I dined with the Blois’.

25) Eustace made his appearance.

26) The worst day over.

27) I don’t know when Mother is coming back perhaps not until Saturday week.

28) Another day gone. We have been spending a very pleasant evening with the Holmes.

30) There has been an amateur concert this evening to which Arthur, Hubert, Constance & I have been. The image below is the nearest dated picture I’ve found of a typical musical evening.

November.

1) Hubert, Constance & I have been spending the evening with the Holmes, we all went to a musical party at Mrs Campbell’s.

3) Walter & Hubert went to London.

4) We dined with the Reinnants.

5) Mother came back.

6) Constance has gone to stay with the Meinnants.

7) Constance & I played a duet at the Musical Improvement.

8) Papa came.

10) Alas! Father is Mayor again. John Eustace Grubbe was a very busy man. He was a Barrister, Parliamentary Agent, and Justice of the Peace for Suffolk and Southwold who served as the Mayor of Southwold multiple times, including from 1867, 1875 and the extended period of 1879 to 1891. A portrait of him, painted in 1891, is held at the Southwold Town Hall.

John Eustace Grubbe died on 11 December 1899. This is his Obituary.

11) I have come to stay at St Margaret’s! Father, Mother & George went to London, Constance is staying with the Reinnants. What was St Margaret’s?

12) Mrs Holmes, Harriet & I lunched at Syleham. (About 25 miles away from Southwold) Checking up on Syleham, I found that the church there is called St Margaret’s. Is this the answer? As it does look to be a beautiful Church. Are there too many people with the surname Holmes to identify this family?

After spending some time going through the 1871 and 1881 census records for Suffolk, I came across the Holmes Family living in the Vicarage at St Margaret’s, South Elmham, Suffolk. The Rev Edward Adolphus Holmes was the Vicar there for 53 years. He was married to Harriet Judd in 1836. He died in 1886. He had a brother, Gervais Holmes, who died in 1890, who was the owner and Lord of the Manor of the Hall at Brockdish ( 22 miles from Southwold); he was also a JP. There is a brass inscription under a window of St Margaret’s Church in South Elham to them both. The Rev Edward O Holmes also had a daughter, Harriet Oldashaw Holmes, born in 1847, a year after Julia, and unmarried, so very likely to be her friend Harriet.

Also, Jack Holmes mentioned was likely to have been John Archer Holmes, the Rev Holmes’s son.

This accounts for Harriet, who died unmarried in 1914, and also maybe the visitor Gervais?

15) Mrs G Holmes came. It has set in so cold.

17) Mrs G Holmes went away.

18) We went into Norwich to an ambulance lecture & lunched at Mrs S Holmes.

20) Jack went away. Mrs & Miss Hopper came to dinner.

21) Harriet went to a lecture in Norwich but it was such a bad day, I did not go.

23) Such a pretty day, but the ground covered with snow, Gervas has been spending Sunday.

25) Harriet & I have been to Norwich, & lunched with Mrs G Holmes.

26) Mr Turner came to luncheon.

27) We came to Starston for a concert & slept at Mrs Hoppers. Starston is a small village in Norfolk, about 20 miles inland from Southwold and 20 miles from Norwich.

28) Harriet & I went to Norwich, lunched with Mrs S Holmes & came back to St Margaret’s.

29) Gervas came.

30) Such a fall of snow, I could not go to St Peter’s this morning.

December.

1) Such a fall of snow perhaps we shall not be able to go to Norwich tomorrow.

2) We managed to get to Norwich Harriet & I are staying with Mrs S Holmes.

3) Mrs & Miss Holmes dined out, so Harriet & I were left alone.

4) Bitterly cold.

5) I came home.

6 Reggie has come for Sunday to see Edmund.

7) Frank Burke & Willie Foster dined here.

8) Reggie went back to Eton. Uncle George & Rosie came. George has gone into lodgings with Frank Henry.

10) George dined here.

11) Louis dined here.

14) I think the frost is at an end.

15) Francis came. Mrs E G & the 4 little Halls came to luncheon.

17) Auntie came in for the day.

18) George came to dinner & Reggie from Eton.

19) Edmund left us this morning for India. Father, Eustace, Arthur, Lawrence & Reggie went to Portsmouth with him, all except Father & Reg’ are there now. Auntie came in for the day.

20) George dined here, Eustace, Arthur & Lawrence came back. Edmund sailed in the Jumna about 1.30. I finally managed to identify the ship, after various spellings, that Edmund sailed to India on, the Jumna.

21) George went back.

23) Francis came.

24) George came, so we are all at home now except Edmund.

25) A dreadful day, a thick fog.

29) A beautiful mild sun shiny day. Charlie Pierson dined here.

30) Father, Arthur & I came to Southwold. Francis went home. Lawrence back to Bedford.

31) The last day of the year, a quiet one, to myself, individually very uneventful.

Julia’s father, John, died on 11 December 1899, and then her Mother, Julia, died on 12 March 1901, not long before the census on 31 March 1901. Mother Julia left her money to the eldest son, Eustace Edward Grubbe. In the 1901 census, Julia was now living at 22 Park Lane, Southwold, just along the road from the larger house opposite the green where the Grubbes all lived as a family when they weren’t in London. Living at 22 Park Lane were also two of her unmarried brothers, Arthur Robert and Hubert Henry and her sister Constance Mary, also unmarried.

The Grubbe siblings. After Julia died in 1907, Lawrence died in 1912, Arthur in 1914, Edmund in 1920, Walter in 1926, George in 1929, Eustace in February 1933, Francis in August 1933, Constance in January 1937, Hubert in December 1937, and last of the siblings was Reginald (Reggie) in 1938.

Southwold. It’s a lovely place to visit now, actually, most of Suffolk is good to visit. So I was really interested to see this description of Southwold in the Ipswich Journal over 40 years before Julia’s Diary; it was described as a beautiful little bathing place rising in estimation.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my journey through Julia’s Diary of 1879. I certainly have. It has inspired me to do a bit more research over the coming months through various items of Ephemera, especially letters, that I have in my collection, not just old photos. So watch this space!

Huge thanks again to Jeremy for allowing me to have custody of this Diary for a little while.

Till next time then…..