Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth, often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town in Norfolk, England, straddling the mouth of the River Yare, some 20 miles east of Norwich. A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk's third most populous place. Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, fell steeply after the mid-20th century and has all but vanished. North Sea oil from the 1960s brought an oil-rig supply industry that now services offshore natural gas rigs. More recently, offshore wind power and other renewable energy have created further support services. Yarmouth has been a seaside resort since 1760 and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. As a tourist centre, it was boosted when a railway opened in 1844 gave visitors easier, cheaper access and triggered an influx of settlers. Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th century, Yarmouth was a booming resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops and theatres, as well as the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, and a surviving Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass. The town itself is on a 3.1-mile spit of land between the North Sea and River Yare. It features historic rows of houses in narrow streets and a main tourist sector on the seafront. It is linked to Gorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47 and A149 by Breydon Bridge. The urban area covers 8.3 sq mi and according to the Office for National Statistics in 2002 had a population of 47,288. It is the main town in the Borough of Great Yarmouth. The ONS identifies a Great Yarmouth urban area with a population of 68,317, including the sub-areas of Caister-on-Sea and Great Yarmouth. The wider Great Yarmouth borough had a population of around 92,500, which increased to 97,277 at the 2011 census. Ethnically, Great Yarmouth was 92.8 per cent White British, with the next biggest ethnic demographic being Other White at 3.5 per cent-Eastern Europeans in the main. Great Yarmouth lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare. Its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest. Henry I placed it under the rule of a reeve. In 1101 the Church of St Nicholas was founded by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, and consecrated in 1119. This was to be the first of several priories founded in what was a wealthy trading centre of considerable importance. In 1208, King John granted a charter to Great Yarmouth. The charter gave his burgesses of Yarmouth general liberties according to the customs of Oxford, a gild merchant and weekly hustings, amplified by several later charters asserting the rights of the borough against Little Yarmouth and Gorleston. The town is bound to send to the sheriffs of Norwich every year one hundred herrings, baked in twenty four pasties, which the sheriffs are to deliver to the lord of the manor of East Carlton who is then to convey them to the King. A hospital was founded in Great Yarmouth in the reign of Edward I by Thomas Fastolfe, father of Thomas Fastolf, Bishop of St David's. In 1551, a grammar school founded and the great hall of the old hospital was appropriated for its use. The school was closed from 1757 to 1860, but re-established by charity trustees and settled in new buildings in 1872. In 1552 Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction, later confirmed and extended by James I. In 1668 Charles II incorporated Little Yarmouth into the borough by a charter with one brief exception remaining in force until 1703, when Queen Anne replaced the two bailiffs by a mayor. In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Zealand Expedition was assembled in the town. In 1702 the Fishermen's Hospital was founded. In the early 18th century, Yarmouth, as a thriving herring port, was vividly and admiringly described several times in Daniel Defoe's travel journals, in part as follows: Yarmouth is an antient town, much older than Norwich; and at present, tho' not standing on so much ground, yet better built; much more compleat; for number of inhabitants, not much inferior; and for wealth, trade, and advantage of its situation, infinitely superior to Norwich.
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