Originally Posted by
Asturias56
tell me - is there a "Lesser" or Small" Yarmouth ?? Or is it just Great???
Being a fishermens town since the romans I too thought the “Great” was probably a red herring.
But I found the following on this site:
History site
Great Yarmouth – the qualifier distinguishing it from its southern neighbour, Little Yarmouth – is situated near where several rivers, among them the Yare, flow into what was once a very broad estuary (much larger than the present-day Breydon Water) opening out into the sea. In Roman times there was a port and market town a little further north, at Caistor, and a small fort inland at Burgh Castle; these were later abandoned.
Subsequent settlement focused on the site of Great Yarmouth itself. Tradition has the first settlement there established by the Saxon leader, Cerdic, ca. 495, but this is unsubstantiated and doubtful. More certain is that silting in the mouth of the "Great Estuary" over time formed a
huge sandbank that came to be several miles long, with breaches leaving the Yare access into the sea through two channels at either end of the sandbank; one channel separated Yarmouth and Caister, the other ran southwards for some miles and separated Great and Little Yarmouth/Gorleston before entering the sea.
Gorleston still exist as the southern side of the river mouth.
SLB