Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norwich

Streets of Norwich – Willow Lane

Part of my Streets of Norwich project…. [updated in October 2023]

Willow Lane connects St. Giles Street to Cow Hill, a looping road that is shaped by the St. Giles’s Church site. The lane takes its name from the willow trees which were once on the south side in the seventeenth century, with the Mayor of Norwich being responsible for checking them. Despite this being a relatively short road, there are nine listed buildings along it.

This is the St. Giles Street end of the road, the building on the right (which is 53 St. Giles Street) is the side of Ellis Second Hand Books and then the building behind is 1 Willow Lane, an early nineteenth-century residential property which was sold in 2019.

The next building along is a former Catholic church which was built in 1827 by JT Patience, which was then turned into a Catholic school. The building is now used by Rogers & Norton solicitors and George Plunkett has a photo of when the building was still used as a school.

Looking back towards St. Giles Street, the former church is on the left behind the fence.

What looks like a Georgian building on the left, the entrance to the former church site is now on the right of this photo.

The series of buildings on the left-hand side are early nineteenth-century residential buildings, which remain as houses. The white building on the right-hand side is number 9, also known as Willow Lane House, an eighteenth-century residential building that has been converted into offices.

The brick building on the right is 15 Willow Lane and is a seventeenth-century residential building that was extended in the nineteenth century. It was also the home of Francis Blomefield (1705-1752) who was a local historian who wrote the ‘History of Norfolk’. The building was used as a boarding house in 1939, so the register gives an interesting look at its occupants. There were:

Mary and Stanley Page (boarding house owner and husband was a hairdresser)

Barbara Dash (assistant in grocer’s shop)

Alice Nicholls (billiards room attendant)

Sarah Barber (private nurse)

Jacob Black (steel bender)

Mary Black (unpaid domestic duties, wife of Jacob)

Elizabeth Ledleve (boot and shoe branding).

There were also two other people on the register where the record remains closed, so it’s possible that they’re still alive.

Looking back the street from the Cow Hill end. The street feels very Georgian and unchanged, and there’s also the hidden property that was once the George Borrow museum, where the author lived between 1816 and 1824. However, this now has more in common with Cow Hill, so more on that in another post.

Norfolk Pubs also suggests that there might have been a licensed premises called the Cellar House located along the street in the early nineteenth century.

October 6, 2022
Wednesday – Greater Anglia Trip to London, Brewdog, Goose Island and Rain (Part 1)

I’m not going to be travelling as much next year, so make the most of this riveting content whilst you still can. Because next year, it’ll be limited to the Vulgar Dictionary, graves from the Rosary Cemetery and photos of chips from the market. For now, this is Norwich railway station in all its glory. They still haven’t found a replacement for West Cornwall Pasty which is unfortunate, nor has the M&S ever re-opened from its “temporary closure” in March 2020.

I always get everywhere early, on this occasion so early that the train hasn’t arrived yet at platform 2. The eagle eyed would have noted that if I had decided to depart from another platform, I could have gone to visit Cromer Carnival. I’ve also never noticed that some London trains have eight carriages and others have twelve carriages, but I can’t imagine that sort of information will excite or delight many people.

Wooo, it’s not the Stansted Express train, it actually has tables. The service was relatively busy, but there were always seats available during the journey. Not that I’m one for complaining, but these new Stadler trains do make for a bumpy journey, but I’ve noted that before when the man in the on board cafe was struggling to even pour a coffee.

London Liverpool Street was busier than when I arrived at 4am two weeks ago. I think I prefer it quieter. Note the new Greggs is open, and there’s another one just opened opposite the entrance to the station, they must be quite an opening drive. I can only imagine that it will be Pret who lose out here.

Then a quick visit to Brewdog Shoreditch to take advantage of my new Brewdog Plus subscription, more on which in another post. Like the Norwich outlet, they struggled a bit with the QR code, but it all worked out in the end. The beer is the last of the Donut Series that I hadn’t tried, this is the peanut butter cup with salted caramel glaze. The flavours were pleasant enough, but it was a bit thin and it needed a bit more salted caramel taste for my own personal preference.

It would be wrong to be in the Shoreditch area and not pop into Goose Island. As usual, everything was in order, and although Daniel the manager was there, this bar seems to run efficiently all the time. I mention that as it can’t be easy to run a venue in this part of the city with an often fraught atmosphere outside, but with calm inside. Nicely done as ever. This is the Cold IPA (I had to Google what that beer style was, apparently it’s an IPA fermented at lower temperatures) and it was rather decadent, quite a touch of grapefruit flavour in there. I expect Nathan would have known that without looking it up, he knows a lot of irrelevant stuff.

I’ve complained that it’s too hot for weeks, and then at the very moment I need to go to the nearby restaurant, it pours down in Biblical terms.

Well, how lovely. I can’t really complain, I’m happy with rain as it makes things much cooler.

I’m standing under a railway bridge here trying to wait out the rain, whilst admiring the street art.

On the Zeppelin walk that Des led a few weeks ago, he mentioned that this area had Shakespeare connections, something that I hadn’t been aware of before. And, since late 2019, there’s been a statue of him (Shakespeare I mean, not Des, although I’m sure his time will come), marking the nearby Curtain Theatre.

And for anyone interested, here’s a bit more about the uncovering of the Curtain Theatre. The theatre had opened in 1577, remaining in use until at least 1624 and one of the discoveries was that it rectangular shaped and not round. The stage was 14 metres long and despite it clearly being well attended, it’s not entirely cleared why it closed. I’m impressed that so many bits of it survived, including remnants of ceramic boxes where admission fees were placed before being taken to the office to be opened, a forerunner of the phrase ‘box office’.

Anyway, with that I meandered across, whilst quite soggy, to Sagardi, but more of that in the next instalment.

August 20, 2022
Norwich – Namaste Village

I was pleased to be in Norwich for the Hike Norfolk monthly meal, where twelve of us went to the Rose before coming to the vegetarian Namaste Village restaurant. We had gone for a monthly meal here before and the standards were high, and it’s good to visit a location where there is plenty of choice for vegetarians (indeed, on this case, the entire menu).

It’s a large venue in a glorious setting, the former Methodist Church Hall which was constructed in 1887. Given that it was a Saturday night, I was surprised just how quiet it was, there wouldn’t have been a need to book in advance.

The poppadom dips were average and lacking in any particular taste, and the portion size provided for four people was insufficient. It seemed an odd thing to scrimp and save on, particularly when contrasting it with the hugely impressive Lowestoft Tandoori where I visited last week.

They had though made an effort to get some local beer in, the King Wazoo from Redwell Brewing (where Namaste also do the catering from time to time). That’s Gordon visible at the rear of the photo, I suspect being quite demanding. As for the menu, I must admit I’m not entirely keen on vegetarian restaurants having dishes such as “lamb rogan josh” or “prawn koliwada”, as there will be some diners who just drop in randomly without realising it’s a vegetarian restaurant, and for who those have English as a second language, there’s a possibility of being misled. Indeed, some of the restaurant’s reviews complain about the quality of the meat, so I assume they’ve not realised what they’ve ordered.

The vegetable labbabdar, which was nicely presented and the peshwari naan was slightly crispy, which is as I prefer it. One element I liked is that they don’t fiddle with the spice levels between dishes, if someone orders a meal that is meant to be served spicy, that’s what it will be. Having written that, there wasn’t much spice in the labbabdar, although it was marked with medium heat on the menu’s symbol guide. There was a depth of taste to it though, with the vegetables in the curry retaining some bite.

It was all convivial in terms of the atmosphere, with the staff at the restaurant being cheerful and pro-active, although the prices were pushing towards the more expensive end of the scale. The quality seemed reasonable, but unexceptional, but for those who are looking for vegetarian or vegan Indian food in Norwich, it’s one of the better options available at the moment. I’m puzzled why the restaurant wasn’t busier, but it’s an odd time for hospitality venues at the moment, a few landlords in Norwich have mentioned that the pub trade is all over the place, often quiet when it should be busy and vice versa. Anyway, it was all a lovely evening, with the staff never rushing us, with the reviews online generally very favourable, so they’re getting a lot right.

August 7, 2022
Norwich – Poor Pedestrian/Cycling Planning from Council on Prince of Wales Road

Just as one of my random complaints….. I’ve noticed two near collisions between pedestrians and cars here in recent weeks. The proposals for this piece of work were sent out for consultation in 2018, and Norwich Cycling Campaign noted in their official reply that:

“The footways are busy and there should be an unambiguous differentiation between the footway and the cycle track.”

This seems like a comment that shouldn’t even need to be made, but the council merrily ignored it, as least in part. Clicking on the photo above makes it larger, and it shows that they’ve added a cycle lane on the junction between Rose Lane and Prince of Wales Road. This is very sensible, but I rarely see any cyclists use it, and what appears to be about 90% of pedestrians crossing in this area here use it. That’s not ideal, the pedestrian crossing is off to the left of the photo. Because pedestrians think this is a crossing for them, they’re reliant on a cyclist showing caution and not ploughing straight into them.

There’s a three-way problem here, namely that it’s an unsafe place for pedestrians to cross because it’s a road where cars often speed, it’s increasing the likelihood of a collision between a cyclist and a pedestrian, whilst also putting off cyclists for using a track which was built for them. The cost of this project, which also involved the council putting a cycle track which ran into a tree (which the council initially said was fine), cost £2.6 million. I imagine they’ll have to rip it all up again within a few years…..

Anyway, complaint over and I hope that there are no serious accidents here (or indeed any accidents at all), as the council must be more than aware of the limitations of their little project.

August 7, 2022
Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Averill Woollsey and Benjamin Woollsey)

Another in my random series of posts about gravestones in Rosary Cemetery in Norwich.

Two things caught my eye about this gravestone at Rosary Cemetery, firstly, it’s very clean and secondly, the dates of death are very close. I assumed that it had been cleaned recently and so there might be a story on-line, but if there is, I can’t find it.

The grave is that of Averill Woollsey (nee Mitchell) who was born in 1775 and she died at the age of 69 on 15 April 1844. Benjamin Woollsey, the son of Benjamin Woollsey and Susanna Wells, was born on 13 December 1786 and baptised in St. Nicholas Church in North Walsham on 31 December 1786. The couple were married at St. Nicholas Church (now the Minster) in Great Yarmouth on 6 December 1812 and they moved to Norwich at some point to live on Magdalen Street.

Benjamin died on 16 April 1844, just one day after his wife, so unless he died very quickly of a broken heart, I assume that there was an illness or accident. However, there’s nothing in the media about it, just a notice that Robert Burcham, who was Benjamin’s business partner in running a corn and seed merchant, would continue the business alone.

This appeared in the local newspaper on 27 April 1844, the quick sale of all of the property which the couple owned. I can’t establish exactly which property he lived at on Magdalen Street, it would have added some colour to the thought of Benjamin’s stuff being carted out of it on Friday 2 May 1844. This remains another blog post without much of an answer, just a story without resolution of why they died so close together, and who has arranged for their gravestone to be cleaned and restored.

July 31, 2022
Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (James Foreman)

Another in my series of posts about the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich.

This is one of the photos of graves that I took at random in the Rosary Cemetery and I’ve failed to establish much about it. This goes into the category of hoping someone sends me something useful to add to this page, which does happen occasionally.

In short, it’s the grave of James Foreman, who was born in 1792 and died on 6 February 1860 at the age of 68, with his wife, Mary Ann Foreman who died on 19 December 1858 at the age of 59. They had four children, including Walter, Randal, Byron and Mary. There’s only two mentions of James that I can find in the press, which is when his daughter got married to Richard Middleton at Surlingham Church in late 1855 and when she died in 1870.

James was a miller at Surlingham Mill, now demolished, but I think it stood around here on the appropriately named Mill Street. Which got me thinking, as he lived in Magdalen Street in 1841 when he was a miller, and that’s quite a trek to get to work, about a 4 mile walk each way. Cycles were rare before 1850, so I have no idea whether millers stayed where they were in the mill or commuted to work as it were. I’m suspecting the latter, as the family entirely disappeared for the 1851 census, so they must have been holed up somewhere odd where they were missed. Given his daughter got married at Surlingham church, I’m going with the idea they lived locally and didn’t fill in the census. It’s either that or the family moved to Newmarket, where some of the 1851 census is missing, but that sounds unlikely. I also can’t work out exactly where on Magdalen Street the family lived in 1841 and the enumerator seems to have been slightly drunk when traversing his way across the city.

This has led me to spend some of my evening wondering how exactly people moved about the place in the 1840s (I probably need to get out more), although Brundall railway station opened in 1844 and he could have caught that from Norwich and got the ferry across the river Yare. The railways must have been such an empowering moment for those who needed to get about the county and I like to think that James caught them every now and then to get to Surlingham. Quite why I find that reassuring, I have no idea.

July 29, 2022
Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Victor Lambert Anscombe)

Back to my much neglected little series about burials at the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich. During lockdown I looked up quite a few CWGC graves and also found some errors in the official record, which they kindly always corrected for me, which I accept was quite an odd little hobby.

This is the war grave of Private Victor Lambert Anscombe. There’s a photo of Victor at https://norfolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&BRN=721081&FMT=IMG. Norfolk County Council stomp their feet very loudly about not allowing use of these images directly on third party sites, which I think is a shame, particularly when it’s someone who died in the First World War whose image deserves to be shared widely.

Victor was born in Wicklewood, near Wymondham, in 1899. Victor’s father was Frederick Anscombe who had been born in 1871 and worked as a shopkeeper, but he had died a few years before the outbreak of the First World War. Victor’s mother was Emma Sophia Anscombe, nee Tuttle, and he also had a little brother, Alan Frederick Anscombe, who was born in 1902.

At the 1901 census, the family had lived at Rattle Row in Wymondham, but by 1911 and following the death of Frederick, they had moved to Damgate Street in Wymondham. They lived there with Emma’s parents, Frederick J and Sophia Tuttle. Just before the advent of the First World War, they had moved to 37, St Julian Street in Norwich. Sadly, this street was destroyed during some badly planned slum clearance, although the line of the street is similar to that of Rouen Road today. I’ve moaned about this damage in another blog post. There’s something additionally sad when so little trace of the life of a young person remains, with the old properties in Rattle Row having also been pulled down, although the street remains.

Victor went along to the Drill Hall (I think the Chapel Field one, rather than the Bethel Street one, a gothic style building constructed in the Victorian period which incorporated part of the city wall but which was demolished to build the ring road in 1963) in Norwich on 8 July 1915 to sign up and he was given service number 185075. His records have survived, so avoided the fate of many others which were destroyed during an air raid fire during the Second World War, showing that he was 5’3″ tall, he had a 33 inch waist and green eyes. He was working at a cycle engineer at the time of his signing up and he joined the 4th Norfolk Regiment. He was then moved to the Machine Gun Corps, B Training Battalion, although it’s not clear to me where he served after that. Victor was injured on 18 October 1918, moved to the military hospital at Cannock Chase, where he died of pneumonia on 2 November 1918.

When Victor was away, his mother married James Gasson (born in 1886) in the second quarter of 1917, who worked as a carpenter. Victor’s estate went to probate and it was valued at £127 19s. The years after Victor’s death must have been difficult for his mother, as she had already lost her first husband, her son in the war and then her other son, Alan, died in 1951. Emma died on 28 December 1967.

The memorial on Victor’s grave reads “may the grace of God surround him”.

July 28, 2022
Monday and Tuesday : A Post About One Train Journey

Am I really going to post just about one train journey? Well, yes, I think I will….. After enjoying a healthy lunch of chips, battered sausage and curry sauce on Monday (and being very productive, which is why I’ve caught up on this blog amongst many other things) my Tuesday evening was all about getting the train from Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway. This blog has killer content, it really does, I can imagine the hordes of people wanting to read about such an exciting rail journey. Who needs stories about Amtrak journeys across the United States when you can read about a train journey from Norwich to Luton? Anyway.

The gleaming Norwich railway station at just before 21:00 on Tuesday evening. And to give context, my flight was on Wednesday lunchtime from Luton Airport and it’s an annoying airport to get to in the morning if not driving. There are no cheap rail tickets on Wednesday mornings as it’s part of the peak travel time, so going late the previous evening is really the only way.

This section of the Greater Anglia train always feels to me like part of a haunted house experience, or, at least when walking through it when the train is in motion. I also like the sign “through access only” as if there’s much else a passenger can do in there.

As it notes on the display, this is a service to Cambridge, which was the first part of the journey. I had partly hoped for a delay in the service so that I could claim Delay Repay, but as a spoiler, every part of the journey which involved three trains was on time to the minute.

Cambridge at 22:30, it’s not the busiest railway station at that time, but I like the slight eeriness that exists because of that.

There’s my service, the 22:44 to London King’s Cross. I did have a slight concern about power at this point, or I should specify I only mean mine, I was less concerned about the train’s general power requirements. I had charged every one of my devices at home and on the Greater Anglia train to Cambridge, but I knew that there were limited charging facilities on the final of the three trains and also at Luton Airport. And I knew I would be at Luton Airport for hours and hours.

The Great Northern train from King’s Lynn to London King’s Cross, which had about two people to each carriage.

The carriage had power points, which was a relief.

There’s a joke there about how hard northerners are, but readers can work out their own punchline.

The beautiful King’s Cross railway station. It’s nicer at night when there aren’t people faffing about everywhere.

It’s about a 40 second walk from King’s Cross to St. Pancras, so a delay to my journey here was unlikely.

The impressive station building of St. Pancras.

The final of the three trains, the East Midlands Railway service to Luton Airport Parkway.

No power points…. The guard on this train must have announced six times that passengers mustn’t put their feet on the seats and she then swept through the train warning miscreants who hadn’t paid attention to what she had said. I can see her point, it’s a problem which seems to be getting worse, passengers had their feet on seats on the previous two journeys, but there were no guards saying not to. I must say that the guard did get her way, I couldn’t see anyone breaking her rules. The train arrived in at 00:38, and as mentioned earlier, that was exactly when it was meant to, so no delay at any point for me. Given that I booked this train some weeks ago, and did wonder whether it would be caught up in strike action, arriving at 00:38 felt like a slight miracle.

One thing that isn’t made clear to passengers who get off at Luton Airport Parkway is that they can just walk the 15 minutes or so to the airport. I accept a lot of people won’t want to, especially if they have bags, but it’s very hard to find a way of the railway station at the rear to be able to walk there. There’s a big new development at the station, so it all might be getting easier, but at the moment, they try and get people to pay for the bus to take them to the airport. I got that once, but it’s not necessary for anyone who is happy to walk a relatively short distance. Anyone wanting to walk, just look out for the signs to Kimpton Road.

And here we are fifteen minutes later, the delights of Luton Airport. This will never be my favourite airport, but sometimes needs must….. That’s the story of that, no dramas, all very efficient and everything was clean and organised en route. As a side issue, if I won £150 million on the lottery (which is unlikely as I don’t end the lottery) I suppose that I would have just got the first train from Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway in the morning, but there’s something slightly more magical about travel that isn’t always easy and risk-free. Not that I say this journey was a piece of magical delight, but I do remember these pieces of travel so I must have some attachment to them.

July 7, 2022
Thursday : The Tiny Rebel Tap Takeover at the Brewery Tap in Norwich

As I had surprised and delighted my friends by coming back to Norwich a little early due to a rail strike, it seemed a wise idea to get some of them together to be entertained by the Tiny Rebel Tap Takeover at the Brewery Tap in Norwich. There were ten beers, which I’m pleased to say that I had a third each of, along with some cans, but I didn’t get chance to try those as they ran out nearly immediately which is a slight shame.

Not the most decadently poured, but these are the four cask beers. The staff here were friendly and helpful, they certainly know their beer and it’s one of my favourite pubs. I don’t go to it that often, but I’m always pleased when I do make it here.

There were a lot of crisps and chips acquired, which complemented the beers beautifully. It was rather lovely to see Bev, Steve, Gordon, Brian and James, especially good to see Steve who has just returned from his huge Camino adventure in Spain. He’s been very brave and he’s clearly lost some weight during the whole trip.

I must admit, I had to work out in my mind which beer was which…. I forgot how similar in colour these three were when I got them back to the table.

I won’t go through each of the ten beers, as I can’t imagine anyone is in the slightest bit interested in that level of detail. My favourite beers were the Wood Aged Belgian Birthday Cake, but that sounds delightful anyway as a concept. The Mixed Berry Double Froozie Sour was right up my street and the Thai PA had a taste of Asian food to it, another intriguing way to add flavour to a beer I suppose. I was less impressed with Baby Cakes, which had a confused taste profile, whilst the Peloton Pale was also quite drab. But, I have no complaints about the overall selection, some very different beers from Tiny Rebel and they like to be experimental. The brewery is quite near where Dave Morgan, the Welsh Walking Wizard, lives, so another great thing to come out of Wales!

I tend not to eat crisps very often unless beer is involved, another fun fact for everyone….

After I got rid of my first wave of friends, I popped to the White Lion to meet Julian, whose birthday the following week I’ll miss as I’m away so I wanted to make an effort to meet up.

The King’s Head and more crisps. Julian is a drinking professional, he can go for hours on real ale, whereas I’m rather more moderate with my volume of alcohol consumed. I don’t think I’ll ever be as professional as him.

I can be led astray, but I was being very sensible, as the night progressed rather late, I stuck to water, I know my limits…. There was much gossip and chat, just what pubs are for.

Anyway, it was great to see some friends in Norwich, rather lovely to be back and also I very much like tap takeovers, so that was a decadent treat at the Brewery Tap.

July 6, 2022
Friday : Lucy’s Chips and the Artichoke in Norwich

I didn’t need to make this post, as it’s just more of the same from my not very exciting to write about day. My day involved a lot of sitting about in various places with my laptop (which was very productive fortunately), but I had a desire to upload this beautiful photo from Lucy’s at Norwich market. Large butcher’s sausage, chips, curry sauce and a heap of scraps. There surely can’t have been a better time to be alive.

After beating Liam 5-0 at pool in the evening, I decided it’s a game that we must play more of. I like winning things like this, as it proves to me that the game was a sensible one to play. To celebrate my whitewash, it was another trip to the Artichoke pub so that I could be reassured that it was still there. This beer is the Blackberry Grisette from Jester King Brewery and I have to be honest and note that I didn’t have a clue what a Grisette was. Well, as this is clearly an educational as well as informative blog, I’ve pinched this text from Wikipedia:

“A grisette is a variety of beer originating from the mining regions along the border of France and Belgium. It is a close relative of other farmhouse ales of the region including saisons and bières de garde, though unlike those beers, which were prevalent among agricultural workers, grisettes were consumed primarily by miners. The name, which means “little grey one”, may come from the name of the local grey-colored stone or from the grey frocks worn by the women who served the beer in local pubs. It is a low-alcohol beer that is light in body, with a noticeable tartness similar to other farmhouse ales and in some ways to the gose beers of Germany. As of 2016, only one Belgian brewery was still making the style in the traditional manner, though the American craft brewing industry has started producing several varieties, often working from historically researched recipes.”

This one was 5.3% ABV and is from the American craft brewing industry, it’s from Austin in Texas. Liam ordered a beer that he liked the pump clip of and I privately noted that he still hasn’t got Untappd. I didn’t say anything.

This is the Keith coffee stout from Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow and I have no idea why they’ve named their beer Keith. It’s an unusual name for a beer, but it was suitably decadent, chocolately and rich, a nice way to savour my pool triumph. But I won’t keep going on about that.

Liam, who doesn’t seem to be able to keep out of pubs so that he can order random beers, demanded that we went to the King’s Head for a few hours, and so I went along with this. Charlie was on top serving form again, he’s good at this bar thing. I went for the Scoundrel from Tydd Steam Brewery, partly because I had gone through most of the other beers the previous night, which was a well-kept session bitter from Cambridgeshire.

I hadn’t intended to be back in Norwich for a few days (the rail strike caused the change of plan), but with the delights of chips, winning at pool and craft beer, I’m glad I was. I’d add that this is all research as well, it’s not just for my enjoyment, but the LDWA NEC are coming to Norwich for the weekend in a couple of weeks and I’ve got to check my favourite venues are OK. Stuart is a martyr to decadent beer, I can’t have him let down.

July 6, 2022