Mariners Score

Also known as Swan, Scarll and Cross Score.

The name Mariners Score could have come from one of two places, either the Mariners Inn or Samuel Mariner, a Lowestoft merchant. Swan Score would have been called after the Swan Inn, which stood at the top southern corner of the score. Scarll was a Lowestoft family and Cross was probably because of the medieval Corn Cross, once sited where the Town Hall now stands.

Mariners Score is opposite the Town Hall. It is the only score to have an archway at the top entrance. On the south corner stood a butcher's shop in the 1950's and earlier.

At the foot of the score stood the first Low Light, erected in 1627. For over 300 years boats would line up the beams from the Low Light (lit by candles) and the High Street (lit by a coal fire), which provided a guide through the Stanford Channel, avoiding sandbanks and allowing a safe passage through.

A school was erected in 1846 for 182 children in the score and was first known as the Great Girls' School. It went through various amalgamations with other schools until it finally became known as Mariners Score School in the early 1900's. The school closed in 1934.