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Category: Norwich

Streets of Norwich – Church Alley

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Church Alley is a small street, or well, alley, which is located off Redwell Street and is behind St. Michael-at-Plea Church.

On the left is Boardman House, which I have some internal photos of somewhere as I toured this on a Heritage Open Days weekend a couple of years ago. On the far left, not really visible in the photo, is the rear of the United Reform Church. On the right is St. Michael-at-Plea Church and it’s possible in theory to walk down this alley and through another courtyard, coming out on Tombland (I resisted on this occasion given the Coronavirus situation).

The road goes between the old Sunday School (now Boardman House) and the church, with the boot and shoe manufactory now demolished. On a side note, the word manufactory used to be a common word for a factory, but it’s pretty archaic now.

April 28, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Chalk Hill Road

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Chalk Hill Road is located roughly between the S and V of Wensum, going from the river and meeting Rosary Road in this 1830 map.

By the 1880s, the street still didn’t exist, it is located just on the bend of Rosary Road, behind Aspland House.

The street today, which was built at the end of the nineteenth century, looking towards the Wensum River.

Looking back to 1939, the register of the street revealed:

1 – Vacant

2 – Bullock household

3 – Anderson household

4 – Morter household

5 – Vacant

6 – Vacant

7 – Vacant

8 – Nutt household

9 – Ducker household

10 – Holdstock household

11 – Sadler household

12 – Nickalls household

13 – Lynes household

14 – England household

15 – Wilson household

16 – Woodrow household

17 – Sexton household

18 – Hannant household

19 – Knowles household

20 – Westland household

21 – Fisher household

22 – Frostick household

23 – Rudd household

24 – Wright household

25 – Bridgens household

26 – Vacant

27 – Jermy household

28 – Norton household

29 – Reeve household

30 – Cooper household

31 – Rumball household

32 – Hill household

33 – Howes household

34 – White household

35 – Benison household

36 – Amers household

37 – Coombs household

April 28, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Clement Court

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

There’s not much history left in Clement Court, but it does still exist behind the locked gates and the street name by its entrance remains.

One of the most important pieces of history here is that Francis Burges published the first English provincial newspaper on 6 September 1701, the Norwich Post. The newspaper was published between 1701 and 1713, although unfortunately the earliest surviving copy is from 1707.

This map from the 1880s shows that there was a Plymouth Brethren meeting room in the court, which could seat 260 people. The buildings around the court were mostly destroyed in 1957 when the Norfolk News Company extended their premises.

April 28, 2020
Streets of Norwich – King Street (upper end between Rose Lane and Prince of Wales Road)

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

King Street is one of the longer streets in the city centre, with this section running between Prince of Wales Road and Rose Lane.

This is how the street looked like in the 1880s.

The building on the left is, I think, the former Royal Oak public house, in operation between the 1850s and closed in 1921.

The building which has what looks like a black frontage (behind the blue sign) was the Cock pub which was a licensed premises between the mid-eighteenth century and 1975 when it finally closed. It’s located at 32 King Street and the frontage is an original pub frontage from the nineteenth century.

What is now the Last Pub Standing, which is a reference to it being the last public house on King Street, but was formerly known as Kings, Bar Rio, Tusk and the Nags Head. The building, which is at 27-29 King Street, was formerly two residential properties from the seventeenth century.

The building on the left is the side of Hardwick House, which was built as a bank, before becoming the city’s main Post Office.

The stretch of King Street was once the main road through, but this section has now been mostly pedestrianised.

April 26, 2020
Streets of Norwich – The Nest

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

This is quite an easy street in terms of the history of the buildings on it, as they were all built over the last couple of years.

It’s located off of Rosary Road, which is a much older street, with The Nest being located around where it says ‘Lime Kilns’ on the above map from 1830.

By 1885, the current location of The Nest is pretty much where the buildings were located under the Brick Works site.

The street takes its name from The Nest, which was Norwich City’s football ground between 1908 and 1935. Although the street isn’t on the site of the former ground, it is relatively near.

April 26, 2020
Streets of Norwich – School Lane

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

School Yard is located off of Bedford Street, just to the left and above of the letter B of Bedford in the above map from 1885.

This map from the 1830s suggests that this street was then known as the Hole in Wall Lane, with 27 representing the Girls Charity School. It’s from this that I assume the street takes its current name.

This leads through to St. Andrew’s Street, although I’m not sure that there is a right of way down there.

The building on the right is a former granary, but its frontage is on Bedford Street.

The sign with white writing on a black background denotes that this is the boundary of St. Andrew’s parish.

April 24, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Old Post Office Yard

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Looking into Old Post Office Yard, which is accessible from Bedford Street. Bedfords Bar now takes up much of this little arrangement, they’ve also got a fourteenth century undercroft in their building, which is all to the right once going through the arch. This building was saved in the 1980s and George Plunkett’s archive has a photo of what it once looked like.

The building on the left-hand side of the arch was once the Nelson Tavern, with Bedfords Bar being on the other side to this. There was a Bedford Arms, but that was further down Bedford Street. The Norfolk Pubs web-site mentions that the Nelson Tavern was in operation from the mid-nineteenth century until it was closed down in 1918, during the period when the Government wanted to cut down on the number of licensed premises. It was also known, quite ridiculously perhaps, as the Pink Dominoes in 1881 (that’s almost a gastropub name from today) and as Klondyke towards the end of its existence as a pub. History often comes full circle though and it’s now a licensed premises once again, known as Frank’s Bar.

The Post Office connection is better described from St. Andrew’s Street (which is what the court backs on to), so more on that another time.

April 24, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Opie Street

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Norwich in the 1880s, with Opie Street not having change much since then. It connects Castle Meadow to London Street. The name of the street did have to be changed, as the legacy of the medieval period was that it was called Gropekuntelane, for reasons of prostitution, so it was changed in the 1860s to be named after Amelia Opie. Opie was a local woman who was a Quaker, a writer and she also involved herself in politics, particularly in the anti-slavery movement.

The street had also been called Devil’s Alley.

On the wall just to the left of the hairdressers on the right-hand side of the photo is a stone plaque dating from around the 1930s marking where a sedan chair stood for hire in the early nineteenth century.

The street is a little steep (especially for Norfolk) and at one point there were steps along part of its route up to Castle Meadow.

A post-box from the reign of King Edward VII. One thing I didn’t know until today, and it’s one thing that I didn’t really need to know, is that the Post Office don’t need planning permission to put a new post-box up. So they can shove them where they like, which must be an exciting possibility.

What is now Trailfinders was once The Queen public house.

In the 1939 register, Louis Marchesi was living at number 6 Opie Street, a man who founded the Round Table movement in 1927. There’s also a pub named after him opposite the Erpingham Gate, fortunately reverted back recently after it was briefly renamed to Take 5.

April 24, 2020
Norwich – St John the Baptist’s Church, Timberhill (James Tillott)

Further to my post about St. John the Baptist’s Church at Timberhill, this is one of the graves which is located within the building.

I liked this tombstone, it’s so very eighteenth century and it’s in a reasonable state of repair. The tomb holds the graves of James Tillott (1715-1763) and his wife, Elizabeth Tillott (1714-1783), with James apparently being “a good husband, a humane master and a sincere friend”. The church’s records for both of these burials have survived, so it’s known that James was buried on Tuesday 28 June 1763 and Elizabeth was buried on Monday 16 June 1783, both three days after they died.

Tallow chandlers usually made and sold candles out of animal fat that were used in homes, whilst wax chandlers usually made and sold candles out of beeswax that were used in churches and grander residential properties.

April 21, 2020
Norwich – St John the Baptist’s Church, Timberhill

This church is the main Anglican church of the Catholic tradition in Norwich and the building dates to the eleventh century. It was perhaps constructed shortly after the building of Norwich Castle, which had forced some urban replanning.

The tower fell down in 1784, which wasn’t ideal, but a shortened version was added in 1877. The church had been through some troubled times before the tower fell down, being stripped of its icons in the sixteenth century and then not being looked after structually. They also flogged off the church bells to help pay for the repair of the building, which I suppose makes sense given they didn’t have a tower to put them in.

There are two different design styles, between the nave and the two aisles.

Until 1828, the church had a thatched roof, which must have made for quite a sight. The more modern roof is a little less exciting, but the building is now at least in a good state of repair. Those little windows on the roof were also added in the nineteenth century, I’m not sure I like them, it reminds me of a house conversion.

One of the few churches in Norwich which has replaced its railings, which were removed during the Second World War.

The font, which dates to the eighteenth century, primarily as the one before got a bit broken when the tower collapsed. The rather large font cover is more modern, designed by John Howard and installed here in 1929.

I bet this was the Victorians, so often careless with their placement of new church furniture. Although, interestingly, Father Ram, the controversial vicar in the late nineteenth century was determined to restore the building to how it looked in the medieval period, which included removing the George box pews.

This stained glass window is from 1910, painted by Martin Travers.

Looking towards the altar. I hadn’t expected to go in this church when I walked by a few years ago, hence why I only had my phone and that at the time didn’t exactly produce quality photos. I’ll go back after this virus is over to take better ones.

The rood beam with its three figures, introduced by Father Ram, with some opposition to his High Church reforms. Unfortunately, the historic rood screen was removed at the same time.

April 21, 2020