Great Yarmouth History

Maurice Joel

Apr 4th 1932 - Oct 21st 2019

Maurice Joel was a local historian and had a great affinity with Great Yarmouth even though he was actually born in Cambridge.

Well how did Maurice find himself in Yarmouth?

His brother, Geoffrey who had problems with his sight became a resident of the East Anglian School for the Deaf and Blind in Gorleston and the whole family moved to Great Yarmouth to be near to him.

Maurice wrote a book about the history of the school which was received favourably, resulting in many copies being sold. Maurice also wrote a book about the Yarmouth Rows which was published posthumously on this website. Both of these books are available to be downloaded free of charge from this website if you wish to read them.

Maurice was at various times an active member of the Great Yarmouth Archeological Society and the Gorleston-on-Sea Heritage Group.

He created over 30 talks on a wide range of subjects which he presented to local old people's homes, clubs and societies. If you never heard Maurice speak, fear not as his talks are reproduced as slideshows in these pages. Unfortunately Maurice never recorded any of his talks so his unique, spellbinding style is but a memory to those who heard him speak.

At the moment Maurice's historical collections are being compiled and will be added to this website once each subject is completed.

Page Updated September 17th 2026