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  • Norwich – Grosvenor Fish Bar

    Norwich – Grosvenor Fish Bar

    It’s a little bit of an omission that I haven’t written about this award winning chip shop before, since I’ve been coming here since 1997. Back then it was a very well run fish and chip shop, with a takeaway on the ground floor and a sit-down table service area downstairs which felt a little tired in terms of the decor. Then it modernised and the downstairs shut with the steps down closed off, although there was then limited seating available. As the popularity increased, Christian and Dwayne opened up the downstairs again and updated the look, and since then there have been two expansions in size to the cellar eating area. And a couple of years ago a new eat-in section was opened in the shop next door, along with customers being able to get their food brought over to the Bird Cage pub opposite if they wanted a drink with their chips.

    In terms of customer service, this is continually way above average, and the location became really rather on-trend. There was talk of selling it, but that got put to one side and so the owners are staying put. For many years higher prices were resisted, although I have to say that the price of some items was starting to creep up before lockdown. Nonetheless the service, the product and the location remained excellent and so I’ve continued to visit when I can.

    So, back to today. Obviously the talk of increased seating areas and sitting in the pub are a thing of the past, or at least, just for the moment. It’s a take-away service only, although the full menu is still being served. There were a queue of around seven people in front of me and a steady number of delivery orders were being processed.

    I have to say, with no disrespect to this wonderful place, that the ordering process is a little muddled at the moment. Customers have to order at the counter area, then stand to one side, collect their food from the delivery area and then go back to the counter area to get condiments to put on the food (well they do if they want access to the full range of condiments). And of course, I got confused, because if anything isn’t made very clear to me I tend to get muddled up. Anyway, the service was as friendly as ever and everything seemed clean and tidy to meet the current requirements.

    I would normally have something to accompany the chips, but it’s a cold day and I thought that chips would suffice. Medium chips come in at £2 which is towards the higher end of the scale compared to other chip shops in the city, but still seems entirely reasonable to me given the location and quality. I was pleased that the chipotle Tabasco sauce was available, although I didn’t have any today (not least because I tend to use quite a lot of it and that might have been obvious to the staff member, so I’ll wait until Dwayne is there and ask permission first) as I sufficed with that spice stuff (I can’t remember what it’s called, possibly Classic American Chip Spice). The chips were delicious as ever, no complaints there. They are cooked in beef dripping which is a problem for some customers, although if that’s what is required to make the food taste this good, I can see why they do it…..

    Anyway, I will be back soon no doubt. All very lovely.

    And a photo from September 2020, when it was warmer and we could sit outside. Battered sausage, chips and curry sauce, all equally lovely.

  • Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Richard Badcock Mayes)

    Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Richard Badcock Mayes)

    This is the grave of Richardson Badcock Mayes (along with Eleanor and Richard) and is located at Earlham Cemetery in Norwich. The first mystery here is why the grave has the name Richardson, as this wasn’t his name, which was the more simple Richard. I can only assume that it’s a nickname or similar, although the probate record gave his name as Richardson.

    Richardson (and I’ll call him that on the basis that it’s what his wife put on his gravestone) was born in around 1840, but I can’t find any records of this birth. I know that he was born in Norfolk, but despite trying all manner of differing spellings of his name, I can’t find him. Nor can I find his marriage to Eleanor that would have taken place in around 1860 and nor where they were living in 1861. It’s fair to say that this isn’t ideal….

    The children were both baptised at the same time, at St. Martin’s Church in Norwich, which is located opposite to the entrance to the modern gateway to the Bishop’s Palace. I’m not sure why baptisms were done as a job lot like this, but this happened to other families as well. Anyway, the children were baptised on 21 August 1864 and Richardson’s profession was noted as being a stonemason. Richardson at last appears on the official record, by way of the electoral registers, in 1868 when he lived at Barn Road.

    At the 1871 census, the family lived at Barn Road although this street has been substantially altered since then. It was once a relatively quiet road which led up to the railway station, but the road is now part of the inner ring-road and the station has been demolished. George Plunkett has several photos of what Barn Road once looked like and the type of house that the Mayes would have lived in. At this census, Richardson was 31, Eleanor was 28, Richard was 9 and Arthur was 7.

    Richardson died on 16 May 1878 at the age of 38. Unusually, the gravestone mentions his employers and how he worked for them as a foreman for 17 years. Such a mention would usually suggest that the employer paid for the stone and this is especially likely as Richardson worked for Mr JB Childs stonemasons. It certainly wouldn’t be bad advertising for a stonemason to get his name on the grave, although since his occupation isn’t mentioned, I can’t imagine that there was any commercial imperative here.

    As for the other members of the family, Eleanor lived until 21 June 1918, when she died at the age of 78. Their son Richard had been living alone at 54 Lothian Street in Norwich following a career as a general labourer and he died on 18 March 1948, at the age of 81. As an aside, Lothian Street is located just off of Barn Road, and is visible on the map above. And as for Arthur, he had married Phoebe and had two children.

    There’s not much of a story here since the first half seems to be missing, but I do wonder what it must have been like for Richard to have stood at the grave of his mother in 1918, just over 40 years since he stood there to bury his father. Richard was about 16 when he stood there for the first time and it must have been a strange situation to be there again after such a long time delay.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 269, 270 and 271

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 269, 270 and 271

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

     

    Pursy

    This is defined by Grose as “short-breathed, or foggy, from being over fat”. From the French ‘pousser’ to mean to breathe with difficulty, the word evolved to ‘pursif’ in Middle English. It was used not just to describe people who were overweight, but also horses who suffered from problems with breathing.

    The word is now archaic, having started to fall out of usage by the end of the nineteenth century.

     

    Quakers

    I sense a slight lack of respect with how Grose defines this, namely “a religious sect so called from their agitations in preaching”. The word origin is still unclear, for some it comes from when members would “tremble in the way of the Lord”. Others have said it evolved from how the established Church of England trembled with the threat of this new religious thought and others that when the Quakers were being taken through the courts that it was said the Judge would quake with fear on Judgement Day.

    The official name wasn’t the Quakers, but the Religious Society of Friends and the likely origin of the word is something to do with religious fervour as other groups had been referred to in a similar way in the past. Initially the word quaker was used in a derogatory manner, but over time the usage became more positive and it’s now used by the Religious Society of Friends themselves.

     

    Queen Dick

    I’ve never heard of this phrase, defined as “to the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick. That happened in the reign of Queen Dick: ie, never”. It was also a nickname given to Richard Cromwell, although not in a positive manner, when he was the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The phrase doesn’t seem to have ever been in common usage, since it doesn’t appear on Google Ngram, and it seems that the “when pigs fly” alternative (which was also in usage in the time of Grose) instead entered the vernacular.

  • Norwich – Missing City Sign

    Norwich – Missing City Sign

    This isn’t entirely ideal, the sign welcoming people to Norwich has disappeared, perhaps due to theft or more hopefully down to cleaning or similar. And I never cease to be amazed, well more moderately surprised, at the sheer range of articles on Wikipedia as they even have a Street Sign Theft page.

  • Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Edwin Vickers and George Vickers)

    Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Edwin Vickers and George Vickers)

    This gravestone at Rosary Cemetery in Norwich suggested initially that there might be something of a story, with two deaths at relatively young ages both in the same year. I’m not entirely sure I’ve found much of a story here, notably because I haven’t found out why these brothers died in their 30s.

    Edwin was born in Penkridge, Staffordshire in 1838, the son of William Vickers and Harriet Vickers. George was born in Hyde, Cheshire in 1842, also the son of William and Harriet. Edwin and George also had James and William as brothers and Martha and Emma as sisters.

    At the 1851 census, the family had moved to Norwich and were living at 24 Railway Cottages on Carrow Road in Thorpe. William was working as a journey blacksmith, with in this instance that word journey deriving from the French ‘journee’ meaning day as this was how frequently they’d be paid. It evolved from when there were masters and apprentices, with journeyman being in the middle of that scale. The family had only just moved to Norwich as William, the youngest in the family, had been born in Shropshire.

    George married Mary Anne Meek in early 1869 and it appears that their daughter Jane was born on 19 March 1869 (perhaps not an ideal situation in Victorian times). She went to St Peter Parmentergate National School and the family were living at Rising Sun Lane. Jane later went to Thorpe Hamlet Girls’ School and she left in 1881.

    At the 1871 census, George was living at the Thorolds Buildings in St Peter Parmentergate, along with his wife Mary Anne and their daughter Jane, aged 2. At the same census, Edwin was living at Castle Meadow, also in St Peter Parmentergate, along with a Maria Goatley.

    We know a little about Edwin Vickers due to an argument that took place in 1874 which led to Robert Baxter, the landlord of the Nag’s Head pub smashing Edwin’s windows. The argument was concerning who could use an out-building at the rear of their properties, although the matter was later resolved by the mutual landlord. It though tells us (I say us, but mean me….) that Edwin was a carpenter, but this is unfortunately the only information that I can find in the media of the time about either him or his brother.

    Edwin Vickers died on 22 January 1876 at the age of 37 and George Vickers died on 19 November 1876 at the age of 34. George was buried in the same grave as Edwin and I think that George’s wife remarried, hence why she isn’t listed on the grave. Why they died so young is another mystery that I can’t resolve, but maybe someone knows….

  • Norwich – It’s Snowing….

    Norwich – It’s Snowing….

    I can’t recall the last time that I was in Norwich when it was snowing, but overnight there was a reasonable covering over the city. This morning it continued to snow and so it looks like it might be here for a little while yet. This post is mostly photos, a couple of Norwich Cathedral and the rest from Mousehold Heath which felt positively Austrian in the snow….. There were already a few people tobogganing at Mousehold and I imagine there will be many more children there this afternoon.

  • Norwich – The 1834 Case of Whether Freemen Should Pay for Stalls at Norwich Market

    Norwich – The 1834 Case of Whether Freemen Should Pay for Stalls at Norwich Market

    Whilst looking for information about a different John Burrows buried at Rosary Cemetery, I found a story in the Norwich Mercury from August 1834 about how a butcher named John Burrows refused to pay for his stall at Norwich Market. He claimed that as a freeman of the city that he shouldn’t have to pay the sums which the City Corporation said were owed by him.

    A special jury had been called to hear the case and there was a busy courtroom of Norwich freemen and other market traders who wanted to see how this would all turn out. If I’m being honest, this is the sort of excitement that would have made me turn up in court, a fascinating bit of drama being played out. I can imagine it was portrayed by some as an honest and hard working local man against the might of the greedy City Corporation.

    The City Corporation explained that they wanted their 16s 1d from John Burrows, as he had been trading at the market as a butcher at a stall whilst knowing the costs involved. They claimed that there was no right of exemption and if there ever had been, then it was no longer in force. The Corporation wanted this settled as otherwise there would be other people not paying their bills and the market administration would soon descend into some sort of farce.

    Richard Harman was called as a witness and he had been the clerk of the market for 38 years, which to be fair did make him something of an expert about the local arrangements. Burrows was not content at this and his defense team made a call for Harman’s evidence to be rejected as he was an interested witness as a collector of fees at the market, so he couldn’t be independent. The court said that it would note this, but that Harman was still entitled to speak to the court to explain the situation. I can understand why, it’d be hard to find anyone of Harman’s experience to try and give insight to this situation.

    Harman explained that there were something like 300 or 400 notices at the market explaining the rates that were charged. This sounds like the bureaucracy that I can imagine from a city council, so is no doubt true. He added that he also understood that Norwich Market was corporate property and that the Norwich Corporation could build on it and charge accordingly if they so wished.

    The defense team wanted to know where the charter was that gave the City Corporation the right to charge monies and they raised the point that without such evidence that the Corporation could lay any charge they wanted on their client. I can honestly almost feel the murmurings of support in the court for that line of argument. They said that custom meant that if a practice had gone on for 60 years, it might be seen as acceptable. But the market’s Richard Harman had worked there for 38 years, so there were still 22 years that weren’t explained before that.

    The historical argument continued; the defense said that the only way that the City Corporation could have any right to the market was by the Charter of King Henry II, or “one of the Henrys” (that argument seems slightly vague, but there we go), and in that the waste grounds were given to the City Corporation. If that was the case, then the city freemen, who were a part of the corporate body, would have free access to it.

    The chairman of this committee, who I can imagine was entirely confused by what had turned into an historical debate, said that it was foreign to his duty to enter into discussions about charters and corporations. I think that’s legal speak for he didn’t have a clue what was going on and probably wanted to go home. He asked the jury to give a decision based on what they’d heard, thereby resolving this predicament.

    It took the jury 15 minutes to decide what to do. John Burrows was ordered to pay the City Corporation all the monies which he owed. I have to say, this is a little bit of an anti-climax to what could have caused the city no end of difficulties to try and resolve. But, Burrows was not giving up and he announced that he still wasn’t paying it.

    Now, the City Corporation had a choice here of how it wanted to act. Did it want to be graceful and try and find a workable option on how to progress, especially given some officials wanted a resolution? No, it issued a debtors order against Burrows and he was sent to Fleet Prison in London. I’m not sure that much has changed here with the arrangements that councils go through, but there we go….

    A group of Norwich freemen were not content about this and in September, they met at a pub in St. George’s Street in Norwich to discuss what to do. It was agreed that funds would be raised to clear the debts of Burrows and also for clarification of the laws and rules that the City Corporation were following.

    In November 1834, the court said that a petition would be heard the following week at the Court House on Portugal Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which effectively meant that he would be discharged from his debts and released from prison. The subscriptions had been successful and Burrows was free once again, although he had had to endure a couple of months in prison. There’s something of the recent shopkeepers claiming rights dating back to the Magna Carta (a case without merit, but that’s for others to explain) going to court, with the outcome perhaps inevitably the same. But, at least it was some drama for the people of Norwich….

  • Thurton – Name Origin

    Thurton – Name Origin

    This village was on the walk that I went on recently, located on the A146 towards Loddon. I’m sure that this must have caused inconvenience and confusion before, but the village isn’t that far away from the similarly named Thurlton.

    The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Place Names notes:

    Thurton, Norfolk. Tortuna in Domesday Book, Thermtona in 1150, Thuriton in 1248 and Thurnton in 1302. From the Old English ‘thorn-bush’.

    Relatively little has changed in the village, other than the Norwich Road has been straightened, as it formerly followed the route of what is shown above as the Loddon Road. Some of the old businesses in the village have gone, but it seems that the George & Dragon pub is still trading.

    I thought this was interesting, the circular marks on the modern day map on the right. When looking at an historic map on the left, they make sense as they are tumuli, or ancient barrow mounds. There were also numerous Roman coins found at the site, so it seems that there was something of a settlement here.

  • Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Samuel Brock)

    Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Samuel Brock)

    This is the grave of Samuel Brock which is located in Rosary Cemetery in Norwich.

    Samuel was born in 1810 and he married Ann Steward at St. John the Baptist Church in Old Lakenham (a church I visited a couple of weeks ago) on 27 October 1834.

    At the 1841 census, Samuel and Ann were living on Middle Street in the St. Augustine parish of Norwich. They lived with their sons Samuel, aged 4, and William, a new-born. Samuel appeared on the electoral registers at this time, because he operated a shop on Middle Street. This street name changed to become the northern end of St. George’s Street where it met Botolph Street, and this area has now been partly demolished.

    At the 1851 census, the couple were living on Botolph Street along with their son Henry, aged 16, and a servant Mary A Wells, who was aged 17. Samuel was working as a baker, by this time having a shop on Botolph Street, and Henry was still studying. This didn’t help the family in terms of their finances, as the local press reported in 1857 that Samuel had gone insolvent. And for this ‘crime’, Samuel was sent to Norwich prison, although I can’t find out for how long. However, there’s no record of any of Samuel’s family in the 1861 census.

    At the 1871 census, the couple were living at Howletts Yard, located off Botolph Street. This yard had fifteen houses and was demolished as part of the city’s slum clearance in 1935. Botolph Street used to link Augustine Street to Magdalen Street, a part of Norwich wrecked by the Anglia Square development.

    Howletts Yard isn’t marked on this map from the 1920s, but it’s the one above Cat & Fiddle Yard. The house that Samuel Brock and his wife lived in is where Iceland now stands on Anglia Square.

    Samuel died on 15 August 1874 at the age of 64 and his son, Samuel jr, took over the bakery. A notice in the Norfolk News said “Samuel died after a long affliction, borne with Christian fortitude”.

    At the time of the 1881 census, Ann lived with her son Samuel jr on Botolph Street, along with Anna, his wife, and their children Harry and Anna (there are a lot of Ann or Anne Brocks in this story). Ann Brock died on 11 March 1883 at the age of 72.

    There isn’t perhaps much of a story to tell about Samuel Brock beyond where he was living and what he did. But, it’s a slice (excuse the pun) of a baker’s life in the north of the city centre, in an area which has now nearly entirely been demolished. What I have found out about Samuel is that his finances sound challenging and his health seems to have been poor, this could not have been an easy life.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 266, 267 and 268

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 266, 267 and 268

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

    Pull

    I have nothing to add to this definition, which is “to be arrested by a police officer” other than to note that I’m surprised it has been used since at least the end of the eighteenth century. It was also used to describe other parts of the judicial process, including being taken before a magistrate or being searched on the street.

     

    Pump Water

    “He was christened in pump water; commonly said of a person with a red face” is how Grose defines this phrase, a usage that seems limited to the late eighteenth century period. It’s also a reminder of the state of some water supplies, notably in cities, at the time. The phrase has also been used to define crying, although that dates to a little later in the nineteenth century.

     

    Purl

    Back to alcohol again, this is defined as “ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk warm”. This is a whole area of brewing which has mostly been lost, although some of its influences remain. Vermouth is a wine which was once flavoured with wormwood and absinthe is made with grand wormwood.

    The drink likely had something of a woody feel to it and sometimes that would have been tempered with the addition of orange peel. But, it would have had flavour to it, which many beers from this period simply wouldn’t have had much of. The drink was often consumed in the morning and would have been more for its restorative benefits than anything else.

    Purl Bar in London takes its name from the drink and they briefly mention this old style of beer on their web-site. Northern Monk also produced a beer called Purl which was brewed with few hops (as these wouldn’t have been around in the brewing process back in Grose’s times) and was flavoured with wormwood, orange peel and juniper. This sounds rather lovely, but, unfortunately, it has been out of production for some years.