Samuel Morton Peto bought out the Lowestoft Navigation Company that built Lowestoft harbour after it went bust. Peto was responsible for introducing railways to Oulton Broad in the 1840s. This encouraged the massive growth of the fishing industry, and of the town - much of the development to the south of the harbour is due to him.

He inherited his uncle's building firm aged 14 and learned the trade. Early London contracts for his building firm included Nelson's column, the Lyceum, St. James's and the Houses of Parliament. Then in the early 1840s he got very interested in the railway system and railway works.

In 1843 Peto came to Lowestoft, and by 1847 had established a proper harbour and railway line so fish could be delivered alive to Manchester. Just imagine trucks full of fish swimming about inside them! As a result millions more fish were caught and sold to much wider markets. Lowestoft became a thriving fishing town of national importance.

In 1844 Peto bought Somerleyton Hall, near Lowestoft, which he lavishly extended & rebuilt as a huge mansion for himself.

Indeed Morton Peto made the Port of Lowestoft a success by building the railway from Norwich with a station on his estate at Somerleyton and on to Oulton Broad North to Lowestoft. He brought great commerce by developing connections with Denmark including laying out their railway system for which they invested him with the Order of the Daneburg. A report of which can still be found in the archives of the Illustrated London News.

During the 1840s Charles Dickens came to stay with Sir Samuel Morton Peto at Somerleyton Hall, and the novel "David Copperfield" is set partly at nearby Blundeston. Descriptions of people living in upturned boats in that novel (below), were based on what Dickens saw during a visit to the Lowestoft Beach Village.

Towards the end of his life Peto got badly into debt, (either his bank collapsed or his debtors didn't pay), and the worry affected his health. However he didn't let up with his schemes. He worked on the Victoria Docks project in London, and in 1855 was made a Baronet for building railways for the army in the Crimea.

Somerleyton Hall was sold to another wealthy self made industrialist, the Crossley family of Halifax, who made carpets. The present Lord Somerleyton is a descendant of that family.

Somerleyton Hall

Somerleyton Hall was also to play an important role in the development of the Hovercraft nearly a hundred years later. Christopher Cockerill after moving from Oulton Broad with his business Ripplecraft, actually tested the first prototype of the hovercraft on the lawns of Somerleyton Hall. It was tested here as the high hedges offered privacy and ensured the secrecy of the invention. Indeed after the successful first flight which was captured on film. The prototype was tested on Wherry dike next to his workshop. Unfortunately the workshop burnt down, but the site was situated on the Angles way, which leads to Beccles via the Oulton Broad.