Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • North Walsham – Reeves Lane (The Dog)

    Still on the theme of pubs in North Walsham in 1839, the Dog pub (also known for a time as the Dog Inn) was in operation from the late eighteenth century until the late nineteenth century. For part of its time it was run by the Coltishall Brewery which at one point in the mid nineteenth century operated nearly sixty pubs in the county.

    By 1892, the Dog was operated by Morgans Brewery, who were trying to let the pub out. At the time Morgans operated 600 pubs and they remained trading until 1961 when they were taken out by Bullards and Steward & Patteson. There is no further mention I can find of the pub operating after 1892, so perhaps Morgans couldn’t find a new tenant and it ceased trading.

    After the pub fell out of use the building became used as Craske’s fish and chip shop. If a building can’t be used as a pub, then this seems a perfectly acceptable alternative to me.

    What was known as Dog Yard, I assume because of the pub, became Reeve’s Court when the council approved the demolition of some old and run down buildings with an anonymous and unexciting new one. I’m sure that they were more suitable and comfortable in which to live, but visually it’s not great. I can’t quite see from the map exactly where the Dog pub was, but it seems to be under the housing development that is known as Reeve’s Court.

  • North Walsham – Market Street / Bear Street (The Bear Pub)

    Again carrying on my theme of pubs now disappeared in North Walsham, the Bear was once located on Bear Street, now better known as Market Street.

    It’s possible that the name of the pub comes from a time of bear baiting, although I’m unsure how prevalent that would have been in the market town of North Walsham. The pub was trading from the late eighteenth century and it finally closed in 1967 when Bullards, the owner, decided that it was uneconomic.

    For anyone in the town on Thursday 10 October 1850, they could have gone to watch the auction performed by William Pope auctioneers. It was the property of William Youard who was the landlord leaving the pub and for sale was “all the household furniture, china, glass and sociable” belonging to him. There was an indication of the scale of the property, as it was noted that there was “a commercial room, a dining room, an assembly room, sleeping rooms, a porter room, a bar, store room, kitchen, wash-house and yard”.

    In 1872 the pub was available to be let and it was noted by the agent that “as the contemplated railroad from Norwich to Cromer will pass very near this house, it cannot fail to derive great benefit from it”.

  • North Walsham – Market Street (Angel Hotel)

    From Google Streetview

    Following on from my list of pubs from the 1839 Pigot’s Directory, the Angel (known both as the Angel Hotel and the Angel Inn) is one of those which is no longer trading. This is primarily as it was thought to be a marvellous idea to knock the building down in 1992 and build another one that looked like it. But the new building would be flats, not a pub.

    It’s a shame that the council in its wisdom allowed for the destruction of a pub that had been trading for perhaps as long as 350 years, especially as they seemed to like the design so much the replacement building looked nearly the same. Although they gained a pavement for pedestrians to walk along, which I suppose is an improvement.

    The building which was demolished was constructed in the late eighteenth century and built with white bricks. The landlord in the early 1890s was Edward J. Morris, apparently a well-known athlete according to the press of the time. He died at the age of 43, after he had left the Angel, and he also became the landlord of the George and Dragon in Haymarket (better known as McDonald’s now).

  • North Walsham – Pubs of 1839

    From 1839’s Pigot’s Directory of Norfolk, these were the pubs that existed in North Walsham at the time. Those still trading include the Black Swan, the Blue Bell and the White Swan. More on those, and others no longer trading, in other posts….

  • Thetford – Thetford Railway Station (1845)

    This illustration in the Illustrated London News is of Thetford railway station, just after it had opened in 1845. There must have been a lot of excitement about the increasing possibilities of rail travel which were opening up, a golden age…..

  • Thetford – Thetford Railway Station

    Thetford railway station is an attractive flint-faced building which opened to passengers in July 1845. It expanded throughout the late nineteenth century due to the increasing volumes of passengers and it remained a junction station until in 1953 when the line from Thetford to Bury St. Edmunds closed.

    The listed building register notes just how important the building is in terms of its heritage:

    “There are numerous stations throughout the country that retain three building types but only approximately forty in which a group of four or more types survive. Thetford retains nine, including the loading gauge which would once have been a familiar feature in all country stations but is now an increasingly rare element. Very few stations have survived with this number of buildings, and Thetford thus provides an almost complete picture of an early station that continued to evolve throughout the second half of the C19”.

    The main station building isn’t currently in great shape, and most of it isn’t used, but there is an on-going restoration work to protect the fabric of the structure. There are longer term plans to open the former station building back up, which would give a better first impression than its current boarded up state.

    Looking down onto the tracks in the direction of Norwich railway station. The track curves off to the left at the end of this photo, with the old line to Bury St. Edmunds once going off the right. It was unfortunate that the line between the two towns closed, as it might have been viable to connect the towns via a circular route, as it’s not as easy as it perhaps should be to connect from Thetford to Bury St. Edmunds by public transport.

  • Thetford – 27 White Hart Street (King’s Head Inn)

    The King’s Head Inn on White Hart Street has been trading since the eighteenth century, although the frontage was modified in 1878. The building to the right of the former entrance to the stabling area has also long since become a separate property.

    The pub is currently closed and CAMRA still report it as being operated by Heineken, although it’s possible that they’ve sold it off. I certainly hope that Heineken aren’t currently involved with the pub, since in recent years some of the outbuildings have collapsed and the police discovered a substantial cannabis factory operating within the closed pub.

    The 1939 register which covers the pub, showing that there were six people living at the property. The details of one are redacted, but the others are Bertram Morley, John Fletcher, Audrey Grave, Rebecca Grave and Sidney Grave. It’s the latter who is listed as the victualler, or landlord, and he remained at the pub until 1950.

    There is currently a planning permission application for this building, with a proposal to turn the top floors into three flats. Fortunately, there are plans to keep the pub element on the ground floor trading, a plan which I hope comes to pass.

  • Thetford – 18 White Hart Street

    This property on White Hart Street would have been next to a functioning theatre when it was built in the early part of the nineteenth century. Other than knowing it has two storeys I’ve managed to find out nearly nothing about this property, other than it was used by a solicitors for some time. It doesn’t appear on numerous census returns, so perhaps it was just used as offices.

  • Thetford – 14 White Hart Street

    Looking at the listed buildings register it appears that the majority of properties along White Hart Street are listed, with many having long and complex histories.

    Number 14 is now in use as a nursery, but the building itself dates back in part to at least the eighteenth century. It was in use as a theatre and shop until 1833 and the building is still known as Theatre House. After it fell out of use as a theatre it was converted into two houses and a shop, before being converted into offices during the late twentieth century.

    The left half of the property has retained its eighteenth century shopfront and the display window is original, with its four rows of four panes. Unfortunately, some recent work at the property has discovered that the theatre element at the rear of the structure is no longer present, as it was demolished in 1833.

    A history of the town published in the Norfolk News in 1896 gives the name of the theatre, which was thoughtfully called the Thetford Theatre. The authors of the article claim that it was at its height of popularity in 1830 and was “in old times visited by good companies of actors”. A book of the time mentions that the popularity of the theatre diminished in 1833 when the assizes moved to Norwich. I’m not quite sure that I understand the link there, as would a court really generate that much trade for a theatre?

    The theatre did get a fair bit of publicity when in 1808 one of the audience decided it would be a marvellous idea to throw a stone from the gallery. This hit a gentleman in the pit and caused some pain, but efforts made by Mr. Fisher, the theatre manager, to find the culprit were unsuccessful.

    In 1939 the shop here was a fishmongers and fruit shop, operated by Alfred Barnett, who was also one of the town’s ARP wardens.

  • Thetford – Oddfellows Hall

    The Odd Fellows were craftsmen who didn’t fit into the usual trades, so they weren’t part of a guild. Well, that’s probably how they were formed, some historians seem to argue a bit with that and much is lost to history unfortunately.

    The hall in Thetford was constructed in 1891 and more recently from 1985 until 2017 it was used as a snooker hall. The building was used for theatrical purposes from shortly after its opening and was being used as a cinema by the First World War.

    Oswald Mosley spoke at the hall on Saturday 7 September 1935 in a meeting organised by the South West Norfolk Fascist Constituency Association, with tickets being free of charge.

    The building is currently being sold for £350,000, which seems a little on the low side, and hopefully it won’t be turned into housing. There is perhaps a better use for the building than that, something which ensures that the public can still gain access to this interesting structure.