The North End of the town has always held a rather separate identity as the base for the fishermen. They lived around the Fisher Fleet in North Street (formerly Fishergate) and Pilot Street.  It was the old fishing quarter of the town, and home to a sturdy and independently  minded race  of people who for generations had lived and worked here within the shadow of the magnificent twelfth century chapel of St Nicholas.  Over the years many of these  families had intermarried to such an extent, that their filial relationships were more entangled than  a bucket of eels.  They gave each other strange names too.  

This handy looking old sailor at the wheel on the left is "Popman" Guy.   The Guy family were prominent in the North End  and through intermarriage were related to other fishing families such as the Chase's, the Howard's, the Bailey's, the Jagg's and the Wilkin's.  The family  included such illustrious members as "Geyser", "Dilbugs", Jasper and his brother Ernest.  Ernest was decorated posthumously for bravery in the First World War. And then there was little Jimmy Guy.  Jimmy  had a fearsome reputation among the young fishermen who sailed with him, he was known to fill the dinghy carried on deck with water and then make them pump it out with a tablespoon.

Next to Popman  is "Trunky" Bunting shown relaxing with his mug of char.  Trunky liked to sing in the Tilden Smith.  One of his favourite songs was, 'The Hairin Scarin Fisherman:

I'm a hairin scarin fisherman and I hail from Kings Lynn town,

And in this old life I've seen many an up an down.

And when we've spent our stocker bait and had a jolly spree

Away we'll crack on board the smack and plough the angry sea.

To watch her and trigger and pipe her as she goes,

Give her the sea and let her rip, we're the boys to pull her through,

You want to see our Ally when the wind is blowin through.

Sailing from the Dogger Bank to Great Grimsby.

One of  the first jobs on the fishing boat before leaving the fleet was brewing up.  A handful of tea would be thrown into a  saucepan of  water which would soon be boiling on the little coal stove in the forward cabin below deck. As the day went on more water and more tea would be added until after several hours the mixture was as thick as liquorice and smelt  like old boots. The fishermen thrived on it.

The shops of the North End also held some famous characters like these two ladies seen above.  Second from the right is "Polly" Goodson, who everybody knew as Aunt Polly,  and pictured standing outside her shop on the extreme right is "Chitley" Gordon.  Polly was in North Street and sold everything from a pennyworth of black treacle and 5 Woodbines for tuppence, to a pint of paraffin which could be collected in a beer bottle.    Cabbages, potatoes and other vegetables, usually supplied by the Midnight Gardner, mingled on the shelves with sugar,  tallow candles, tea and a host of other items essential to the daily lives of the North Enders. She also changed the poor law tickets and gave tick.  Sometimes she gave away more than she sold.  Nobody went without  if Polly could help.  

Chitley 's shop was round the corner in Pilot Street and she was another redoubtable lady still remembered with affection, who supplied many  of the day to day food needs of the inhabitants of the yards.  There were  hard times in the Depressions of the twenties and thirties for many of the North End families, and both Chitley and Polly probably gave away more than they sold.