Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

Food from Every Stall on Norwich Market – Week 9 and Delight

This is the ninth week of our plan to eat at every food stall at Norwich market this year. There’s been a slight gap in proceedings since the last expedition was in late March, but maybe we can make up an extra one in May so that my two loyal readers don’t miss the updates too much.

This week’s expedition was to Delight which sells a variety of Turkish food.

The stall’s menu, with some Turkish specialities at the base.

I went for the chicken wrap meal deal which included fries and a rather lovely Dr. Pepper, the premium of all the soft drinks (with the exception of the even more premium Dr. Pepper and Cream Soda). Nathan went for the doner wrap, also correctly going for Dr. Pepper.

The Gözleme on display. At some stage when we’re finished going around the market, we might perhaps start again but having different things on stalls. That should make this task never-ending.

The chicken cooking away nicely at the back. The food was prepared efficiently and the service was polite, engaging and warm. The stall looked clean and tidy, with the surfaces being dry and not sticky. There was a friendly welcome and I know that’s commonplace from the Norwich market traders, but it’s always pleasant being here.

Nathan convinced me to sit outside in the open air and I’m pleased to note that we did manage to avoid attack from pigeons or seagulls, although I still think it’ll be like Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft soon when the birds become ever more aggressive.

The food was perfectly decent, the chicken was tender and moist, the portion size was generous and the salad added some texture. I had opted for a spicy sauce which gave some extra heat to the food and the Dr. Pepper complemented it marvellously. The chips were maybe slightly soggy, but they tasted good and I was full by the end of the meal. It came to £7 for the wrap, drink and fries, which I thought was reasonable, with Nathan’s slightly less decadent affair costing £6.50. I paid with cash today, but they do accept cards.

Nathan’s selection, which I’ll note here that he failed to finish as he had been gorging on handfuls of doughnuts in the morning. I didn’t say anything though as I didn’t feel that was my place to do so. I can say that he did approve of the food.

Overall, this is yet another stall that I’d very happily visit again. I liked the food, the service and the amount of food that I had for my lunch. All really rather lovely, the market continues to surprise and delight.

May 2, 2023
Sedgeford – St. Mary the Virgin Church

Richard and I were off for an evening meal nearby, so we decided to stop off at St. Mary’s Church in Sedgeford. Unfortunately, our evening arrival meant that the church was closed to visit inside, but it’s an intriguing building to look at externally.

As ever, there is plenty of conflicting information about the church’s history on-line, but I think I’ve got some sort of vague grasp on it now. The Saxon church was in a different place and when the settlement moved a new grander building was constructed here. The tower is complex, it might just be partly Saxon, but is likely Norman from around the late eleventh century although some historians date it another century after. The Tudors hacked the building about, adding the clerestory in the fifteenth century and also adding the sections around the tower. However, some historians suggest that the tower structure was all built at the same time, but I’m going to just link to the article by Stephen Hart rather than claim any additional knowledge here.

Until the Reformation, this was a Peculiar meaning that it was under the control of the Prior and Monks of Norwich Cathedral. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the building was falling down and that was seen as sub-optimal given that the congregation had to take their umbrellas into the church with them when it was raining. Fortunately, the Victorians made the necessary repairs, although this Grade I listed building has found itself at risk once again recently, with the medieval wall paintings inside needing urgent conservation.

The almost cavernous north porch which appears to be lacking the doors which once protected it from the elements.

This complex set-up has the round tower which has been encased by later additions (or not later additions, depending what you believe). Most of the round tower is intact within here, with the vestry to the left and another room to the right.

The south of the church, with another open porch. The church’s web-site notes that in the mid-nineteenth century this porch was used by smugglers to store their illicit goods.

Numerous add-ons, including a south transept which is embedded slightly into the chancel which feels just a little strange. There was a north transept at one point as well, but it has been taken down. Or, more likely, fallen down, likely sometime in the period after the Reformation or in the seventeenth century. George Plunkett has a photo from 1978 taken in a similar location.

The chancel was reconstructed in 1770, partly because some of it fell down in the middle of the eighteenth century. The odd placement of the priest’s door, visible in the previous photo, shows how truncated this new chancel is.

This feels like a Victorian repair given how neat and tidy it is compared to the rest of the church.

Looking at the Victorian restoration gives some insight as to what is happening with the interior.

Richard noticed the irregular way in which this gravestone has eroded away, I can’t imagine this has that long left.

A memorial by the gate which commemorates the 20 people who lost their lives to a typhus outbreak in 1852.

There’s a separate war memorial in the village to those who died in the First World War, but this tablet mentions the names of the seven men who died in the Second World War. There’s more information on these men at the base of http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/Sedgeford.html.

Robert Ladbrooke’s drawing of the church from the middle of the nineteenth century.

Anyway, a rather lovely church, this is one I’d like to return to and look inside.

April 29, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – Two Julians

After the success, or at least what we considered a success, of our day out in Great Yarmouth and then North Walsham, Julian and I decided to go next to the geographical heart of Norfolk with cost effective housing options as my friend Richard often says.

Dereham has 13 pubs within walking distance of the town centre, although on this I’ve decided to use Julian’s definition of “walking distance” rather than mine, as I consider anything within ten miles to be walkable. One of these is more of a bar, so we’ve discounted that as it would require a late night visit to Dereham and that sounds rather too exotic for us.

One of the pubs today was the Cock, which has won numerous awards recently, although Archant seem to take great joy in referring to it, and other pubs, as “boozers”. They’re nothing of the sort, venues such as the Cock are welcoming, inclusive and forward thinking pubs that deserve more respect. But, that’s my little complaint of the day over. Well, for the moment anyway, it’s still very early.

The journey was on First bus, who didn’t disappoint with the services being on time, clean and comfortable. We luxuriated at the upstairs table seat on the way out, before sitting like excited kids at the front of the top deck for the way back. To be fair, I was more of an excited kid, as Julian used to drive buses in London and I suspect the novelty might have slightly worn off for him. Although maybe not, but I digress once again. Unlike North Walsham, there was no international transportation hub, just a bus stop in a marketplace which has more cars than you could shake a stick at.

Once again we discovered some charming pubs, with some of them making huge efforts to be an important part of the local community, but they are all in their own ways doing a marvellous job by just being there and offering a friendly welcome. They’re far better, in my humble opinion, remaining open as pubs than being converted into another holiday home, a supermarket or a McDonald’s or something.

So, without further ado, these are the pubs we visited on our first trip to the town.

Cherry Tree

George Hotel

Red Lion

Romany Rye

King’s Head

The Cock

[Here’s the post about our second day.]

April 22, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – The Cock

Julian and I had left The Cock to the end of our first visit to Dereham pubs because it’s an award winning CAMRA pub and our hopes were high. First opened in the late eighteenth century, it has been a Bullards, then Watney Mann, then Chef & Brewer, then Brent Walker, then Pubmaster before a few years of closure and usage as a restaurant. Now free trade, the current owners took over in early 2020 and the pub has an excellent reputation. The Cock won the CAMRA District pub of the year and only lost out on the wider branch pub award to the marvellous White Lion in Norwich. Julian, accidentally I’d add, wore his White Lion branded hat when entering the pub, I’m not sure if they noticed.

There were four real ales on, which was the widest choice of the day other than the JD Wetherspoon operated Romany Rye.

I’m always delighted to see any Titanic beer, and I’m looking forwards to a small group of us going to visit their brewery in a few weeks, but the whole selection here is creative and there are some breweries that I rarely see. I’m much more likely to go to a pub which changes its beer options on a regular basis and looking back on Untappd, the Cock has offered some really decent options.

I took the photos during a quiet period, as the pub was generally quite busy throughout our visit. The service at the bar was warm and friendly with the whole atmosphere feeling inviting and informal. It seemed a rather suitable place to linger.

The front of the pub is cosy, with this section at the back feeling more open and suitable for those who want to dine whilst they’re here. The owners also operate some rooms with a self-catering apartment at the rear of the venue, as well as some other options a short walk away.

I started with the Steerage from Titanic Brewery, a well kept clean and hoppy bitter. As a random aside, I would have thought they would be able to get some half pint beer festival glasses from CAMRA rather than using those from Timothy Taylor, but I didn’t let that ruin my day.

As the pub atmosphere was comfortable and inviting, we decided to stay for a second, opting for the Megoatron from Top Rope Brewing. I hadn’t heard of Top Rope before, but the owners met at Brewdog Liverpool and decided after a few pints it would be a good idea to open a brewery. That certainly seems an optimal decision to me. Also well kept and at the appropriate temperature, this was an oaty and smooth stout, suitable to prepare me for a walk back to the bus stop in the Dereham rain.

I very much liked this menu, something creative which is easy to prepare and sounded rather decent.

There’s plenty of theming based around the pub’s name.

I thought that this was a nice touch, it’s useful for the locals to be prepared in advance if they’re travelling to somewhere like Watton.

There’s a sense of fun to the pub and it also feels like a venue where the owners are keen to put events on to surprise and delight the local community.

Here are some of the current planned events, there are games evenings, a pub quiz, a rum festival and plenty more. If I lived in Dereham, I think that I’d become a regular here.

I like the tagline of “like pubs used to be”, although any community which had a pub this well run would have been very fortunate. It feels like it’s at the heart of the community, it’s got a strong offering and a relaxed atmosphere. We felt welcome, we would have willing stayed for longer if it wasn’t for the need to catch a bus and this venue very much seems to be on the up. This really is one of those pubs which surprises and delights, a worthy winner of numerous CAMRA awards despite being open for just a few years under the current management.

April 22, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – King’s Head Hotel

This was the fifth pub that Julian and I visited on our little adventure to Dereham, the King’s Head Hotel which is still operating as an accommodation venue and bar. It’s been operating since the late eighteenth century and for a while was a Chef & Brewer managed pub.

When entering, this is the first room that’s visible and it’s a slightly odd sight. I’m sure it’s just the breakfast room for hotel guests but it really wasn’t clear to me whether this was a venue that was open to drinkers in the day.

It did feel a little like walking into the dock at a court room, although I imagine that this is just to ensure that guests don’t linger in the licensed area after closing. Actually, just for clarification, I’ve never appeared at the dock in a court room, I’m just imagining what it must be like. I was questioned by magistrates back in 2004 when I got my alcohol licence for the first time, but that was a rather more friendly affair and I was assisted with the formidable, and much missed, licensing officer for Ipswich who was Bob Coleman.

I wasn’t tempted. Maybe if it was 25p per pint.

There was no real ale available, so I went once again for half a pint of John Smiths. I’ve got to be honest here, this is depressing in terms of pub management, there’s no craft beer, there’s no real ale and there was a feeling of terminal decline here. I can’t dress that up in a more positive way unfortunately. The staff member was polite and service was efficient, but there was never really any engagement beyond the minimum needed here.

The John Smiths tasted fine, albeit it in the wrongly branded glass.

There’s a pool room out the back.

I don’t think it would be unfair for me to say that there needs to be a refurbishment and modernisation.

We sat by the fire door, not realising that it would be constantly opened and propped open so that smokers could partake in their hobby outside. This was sub optimal, but humorous, there’s perhaps a little more thought needed on how to make this work for all customers.

The pub is generally poorly reviewed and had the lowest rating of any of the six venues that we visited during the day. There’s an element of sadness about this as the pub should be a licence to print money with its hotel room, extensive gardens and large premises. It seems from reviews that the pub has come under new management in the last year and I hope that a renovation of the premises is being planned. I don’t quite follow why someone who is coming in new isn’t offering a better range of drinks, as a venue should be offering real ale as a basic, even if they don’t want to dip their toe into the wonderful world of craft beer.

A recent review suggests that the problems are more substantial:

“When we checked into our rooms we were given breakfast sheets so we could inform the kitchen what we wanted. However, when we came down to breakfast we were informed there was only enough bacon for two of our party because it had not been defrosted! We were shocked to say the least. As for the rest of the breakfast, the mushrooms were rubbery, the tomatoes were not cooked, the beans were cold and the sausages were inedible.”

And another recent review:

“On arrival to see a board stating no chef, so no food, when you have booked breakfast was concening. Going into the bar mid afternoon, to be warmly greeted by the same lady who had twiced promised to confirm by email, VERY loud music and drunk people at the bar. We actually left as fast as we could! Managed to find another very nice place thank goodness! Looking back at the reviews it seems that things went downhill fast about 18 months ago with new management?”

And one more in the sea of negativity:

“Please, Do not stay at this so called hotel. I would not let my dogs stay there, just look at the mattress and pillows. It could be a great business, how ever the owners have no idea…It is in need of complete overhaul.”

Back to the positives, which is that the atmosphere was comfortable and welcoming. It’s not a threatening venue and the prices were middle of the road (and bargain basement if you like Amstel), so there’s nothing offensive happening here. There was no evidence of a food menu, but there is a sign outside saying that lunch and evening meals are served on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. That’s an odd arrangement and I was disappointed that there were no visible menus. The pub does have a web-site, but it’s out of date and I’m not sure whether the menu listed there is current. The social media pages also appear to have been abandoned which isn’t ideal.

I understand that there’s a slight element of negativity in this post, and I try to avoid that as the hospitality industry needs all of the support that it can get. But, this venue is a wonderful opportunity to make a tidy sum and I’m little surprised that they’re not seeking to take advantage of that, not that that’s anything to do with me…. As it stands, I’m not sure what it is offering to the people of Dereham that they can’t get anywhere else, which probably isn’t helped as they’ve nearby to the award winning Cock pub nearby. That’s as positive as I can unfortunately muster, although there was a genuine farewell offered and that is always a friendly thing to do. I wish them well though, it’s a fantastic building with its grounds and it’s a marvellous thing at all that it’s open rather than being converted into something else.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – Romany Rye

Fourth in the day’s Dereham adventure that Julian and I were partaking in was the JD Wetherspoon operated Romany Rye, a pub that I’ve visited many times before. I’ve always found it a reliable and well-run pub, it’s a 2011 conversion of a pub and hotel dating from the 1960s when it was known as the Phoenix. It remains a hotel today and I’ve stayed here before, the rooms are well appointed and I remember them being comfortable and reasonably priced.

In terms of the pub name, I’ve just pinched the text from JD Wetherspoon’s web-site:

“One of the most imaginative prose writers of the 19th century, George Borrow was born on the outskirts of East Dereham in 1803, the son of an army captain, who bewitched a local girl while recruiting in the town. Educated at Norwich Grammar School, Borrow later took to the road. He could speak 20 languages, with his travels providing material for his best books The Bible in Spain, Lavengro and Romany Rye. Borrow eventually retired to the Norfolk Broads, where he died alone in 1881.”

There was incidentally a pub of the same name on Colman Road in Norwich, but then Enterprise Inns purchased it, ruined it and it’s lost now.

Julian made himself comfortable in the pub’s rather decadent furniture.

There were eight different real ales available, I’m fairly sure that this is the widest choice available in the town. The service was polite, prompt and efficient with the pub being comfortable, inviting and organised. As would be expected from the chain, the prices were firmly towards the lower end of the scale.

And today’s entry in the blurred photo of the day award…. Anyway, this is the Summa That from Branscombe Vale Brewery, a well kept but slightly dull affair. We also got a coffee each and I went, unusually, for a caffeine option as we both needed a little energy burst following our lunches. It’s hard work this pub visiting, I’m not sure that everyone realises that.

I’m not sure whether or not Stephen Fry has popped into the Romany Rye, but he is a local man.

The pub is well reviewed for a Wetherspoons, so they’re clearly doing a lot right. I had a little virtual meander through the reviews to see what interested me.

“Went there for a meal and the 3oz American style burger and the 6oz American style burger. Absolutely delicious. My Friend had the chicken meal with the chicken bites and mini wings. Tasted off and later this evening was sick everywhere! Defiantly chicken as it was in the sick! Disappointed.”

This absolutely isn’t how food hygiene works and I have to give JD Wetherspoon credit for being one of the best rated chains in the national food scoring schemes that are operated by local councils.

“Would come more often if I could bring my dog along to sit inside, but opp for more dog friendly pubs.”

Just to balance this, I would come in less often if the pub resembled a doggery. I don’t think that’s actually a word, but I like it, so it’s staying.

“Shocked that even though they don’t close till 1 they stop letting in before 12:45! Any other spoons will let you in to buy a drink until the closing time at the bar! Poor service and too interested in getting out early than serving customers!”

I might incur the wrath of Julian by writing this, but this doesn’t seem an unreasonable policy to me. I’ve had many early mornings of clearing customers out of a pub and if you serve someone at 00:45 and then tell them to drink straight up and go then the customer is unlikely to be surprised and delighted. Well, surprised maybe actually, but definitely not delighted.

“3 teens were kicked out on Sunday for not carrying ID to prove that they were 16. Which 16 year olds carries ID!? They had already payed for their food so the staff poorly wrapped up their food in tin foil and shoved it in a pizza box then made to get out. They were then left out in the cold to eat their food in the freezing cold even though they had payed full price to eat in. The staff could have just warned the children to bring ID next time, it’s not like they were ordering alcohol.”

There are about ten reviews like this and this is indeed JD Wetherspoon policy. But, it doesn’t feel right, if the pub has served the customers and charged them money, this situation is clearly sub-optimal. There’s something rather nice about a group of mates going politely to a pub and getting themselves a meal without alcohol.

“Told couldn’t come down from our room till 7am bit stupid.”

I don’t understand this, the hotel rooms have 24 hour access. Unless the guest wanted to sit in the pub area before 07:00….. JD Wetherspoon don’t have a social media presence, which I personally think is a mistake, so they never respond to reviews like this and I’d quite like to know what actually happened here. I accept that I probably need to get out more, but I like listening to a bit of drama.

“Landlord if he don’t like the look of you send staff over to ask you too leave will not give a reason”

This is the sort of thing I want to know more about….

Anyway, I’ve got distracted reading reviews again, but this was in my mind a well managed chain pub. There was a wide choice of ales, they were well kept and the prices were low. The pub is comfortable, there’s wi-fi and plenty of power points, with the surroundings being clean and comfortable. Tim Martin might come in for criticism, but even though I don’t agree with his politics, I’d suggest that he knows how to run pubs.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – Red Lion

The third pub on our Dereham day out was the Red Lion located just off the market place and operated by Craft Union, part of Stonegate. It’s another pub with a long heritage and has been trading here since the 1770s. A minor quirk that slightly intrigues me is that the street by the marketplace is named Red Lion Street after the pub, but recently the official address of the pub has been changed to Quebec Street.

The pub doesn’t serve real ale, so I opted for John Smiths which was served just a little too cold, it almost needed time to defrost and the taste was nearly entirely lost. However, the prices were very low and the service was efficient and helpful.

At some point a thoughtful renovation has taken place here and an interesting map placed onto the wall, something which Stonegate do a fair amount when they’re trying to brighten up pubs. Unfortunately, I’m not sure this is how the designers intended this to look.

As for the pub, it seems to be aiming for the cheap beer market and that’s certainly going to be a challenging strategy. There was loud music playing, lots of shouting, plenty of drunkenness and that’s not bad going for an early Thursday afternoon. It’s obviously not for me to criticise that as variety in pubs is the spice of life, but now that I’m over 30 I’m not sure that I’m in that demographic. Well, not until the late evening anyway.

It is what it is, it’s loud and vibrant, but not unfriendly, I can imagine that there’s plenty of interesting stories that come out of here and it was certainly pulling the customers in so that can’t be bad.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – George Hotel

The George Hotel was second on the list of pubs in Dereham that Julian and I were visiting, a large venue which is also a restaurant and hotel. The hotel element comprises of six bedrooms, a couple apparently with vintage four poster beds, currently priced at between £79 to £89 per night.

There’s plenty of history about the George at the Norfolk Pubs web-site, but this intrigued me:

“The bowling green was reputed to be over 300 years old, one of the oldest in England – when tarmac surface laid over it during 1986 (?), to allow car parking.”

This sounds sub-optimal to me.

There were two real ales on, the Pedigree from Marston’s Brewery and the Ghost Ship from Adnams. It’s not always entirely clear at some locations, but those just wanting a drink are welcome here and the bar area is open throughout the day.

I went for the Pedigree and it tasted as I expected, seemed well kept and was at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.

We didn’t have any plans on where to eat for our day trip out, but the menu here looked reasonable and the dining area was also busy, which seemed a positive sign. The pricing also wasn’t unreasonable in this current climate of rapid food and drink price inflation.

The menu promised a large bowl of whitebait and I was suspicious of that as I have a different definition of “large bowl” to some restaurants. However, this really was excellent for £10 and I struggled to get through all of the whitebait, which was a larger portion than this photo suggests as there was more buried at the bottom. The whitebait was evenly coated so I didn’t have to stare into the eyes of the fish, the salad was dressed and the ciabatta was soft. I was suitably impressed by this whole arrangement, with Julian also commenting positively about his pan fried calves’ liver, which was too decadent a dish for me.

The dining area was pleasant, clean and comfortable. There was table service offered and the staff member was personable, welcoming and engaging, with service always being attentive and not intrusive.

These were too technical for me, fortunately Julian was able to work out how I was able to get salt and pepper. This sort of engineering knowledge is what I usually rely on my friend Liam to provide.

This is an overflow part of the pub and this was formerly a shop, note the Victorian bowed shopfront window at the rear.

The venue has plenty of character internally and there are also some live music events taking place here.

As for the reviews, they’re fairly positive, but this is one of the most ridiculous that I’ve read and I can imagine the George’s annoyance at this:

“Can’t say much good about it, ordered two lemonades and lime for ladies and were brought over in pint glass, ladies don’t drink like that, not even the offer of half pint.”

I thought these attitudes had been dumped in the 1970s, I’m bemused to see such piffle still being propagated. The owner responded suggesting that it might have been an idea to order a half if that’s what they wanted.

As an aside, not only is the venue listed, but so is the milestone at the front.

Anyway, I very much liked the character of this venue and also the friendly welcome. The service was informal, there were a couple of beer options and I left having eaten too much, so that seems a result to me.

April 21, 2023
Dereham Pub Day – Cherry Tree

The first pub on our Dereham Pub Day was the Cherry Tree, one of the oldest hospitality venues in the town which has been trading since the late eighteenth century. There were fears that a closure in January 2011 might become permanent, but it was reopened in December 2012 and has remained open since serving the denizens of Dereham.

The pub was once at the entrance to Dereham’s pig market, which is today the main car park for the town. Norfolk Record Office has the diaries of John Fenn which he wrote between 1786 and 1794, which apparently mentions multiple incidents of trouble at the Cherry Tree pub. I’ll add that to my long list of things to request at the Record Office as I’m intrigued what trouble was going on in the parish back then, I suspect it’s not dissimilar to the trouble the police currently deal with in the area. Also whilst I’m writing about the Record Office, this is an interesting article about the marriage of one of their landlords, Mahershalalhashbaz Tuck.

There’s also a story from the ever fascinating Norfolk Pubs web-site, noting:

“On July 31st 1856, Mr. Burke, who was staying at the Half Moon, had visited the Cherry Tree and sat drinking with the girls until midnight. The two girls took him across fields to a stack where they lay down and he fell asleep. When he awoke the girls were gone and he could not account for his money. Several witnesses proved that he had spent freely in the public house and the girls were acquitted.”

The pub recently posted this photo on their Facebook page, the pub is on the right. The full version of this photo, where you can see the actual pub, is at https://norfolk.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&BRN=712043.

Half a pint of Hobgoblin Gold from Wychwood and this was adequate, although not perhaps at its best. There were two beers on, this and the Coronation Ale from Greene King which has the sort of scoring on Untappd which is what I expect from the brewery. I like that the brewer’s signature has been placed on the pump clip, I suppose that they want someone to take responsibility and that’s a clever way of doing it.

For reasons that I don’t think I want to investigate, Julian was excited at the branding from Fosters and took out one of the brewery’s bar mats from his pocket. I think he gifted it to the pub to add to their marketing and I’m hoping he was more impressed by the wording on the bar mat than the beer itself.

The welcome was friendly and immediate with a feel that this is a community pub which seems non judgemental, it was a suitably inviting venue. There are no negative reviews on Google, I have to congratulate any pub which has managed not to annoy anyone over the last ten years. They don’t serve food, but they show sports and there are a number of community events which take place here, not least the weekly live music. Too often pubs don’t sell their distinct offering very well, but there’s an external sign at the Cherry Tree which mentions that they’re the town’s “number 1 live music venue” which seems like clear and useful marketing to me.

The reviews of the venue often mention “this is a proper drinking pub” and that seems to be a fair description.

April 21, 2023
King’s Lynn – NORAH event at King’s Lynn Town Hall

Despite all my expeditions to King’s Lynn recently, I’ve never made it to the historic Town Hall. Fortunately, a NorAH event was taking place and a trustee I thought it would made an ideal opportunity to have a look around the building.

The building is too complex to give a comprehensive history here, but there’s more information at their official web-site. But I’ll do my best at a potted history of the building in this post, with this grand room being the Assembly Room. These became popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generally used by the more wealthy to take part in events such as balls, concerts, dances and all manner of other decadent events. The room has been decorated as it would have looked in the Georgian period and when they did some analysis of the walls they discovered six very different paint schemes which had been used over the years.

At the rear end of the Assembly Room, and constructed at the same time in 1768, is what is now known as the Card Room. This was used as a quieter and more intimate space which was frequently used by card playing following in the traditions of King George III and King George IV. Today the venue is used for weddings and other formal events, so the traditions of being a meeting place for those in the town continues.

At the other end of the Assembly Room is what I consider to be the centrepiece of the building, the Stone Hall. This was built in 1422 and was originally a merchant guildhall (the Merchant Guild Hall of the Holy Trinity), replacing an earlier building that had caught fire in 1421. The floor is made from Ketton stone (which is from Rutland and is used extensively in a number of colleges at Cambridge University) and was added in 1716, with marks on the floor from when they put in the judge’s bench, defendant’s dock and the jury stalls. The whole design of this room and its long heritage does remind me of similar halls in countries such as Poland, they have no shortage of buildings such as this there, usually by the city’s main market square.

The large tracery window at the end of the Stone Hall has numerous inscriptions that glaziers and plumbers (lead workers) have scratched into the glass over the years, likely annoying generations of custodians of the building.

A close-up of some of the handiwork. There is a guide on the window which shows where the inscriptions are and details of what they say.

A side door from the Stone Hall leads through to the former courtroom which was built in 1767 to serve as the Borough’s council chamber. In 1830 the room was repurposed to become the Petty Sessions, or Magistrate’s Court, and it remained in use until 1982. Modernisation is inevitable and the facilities were dated for the modern age, but there is an element of sadness when traditions come to an end. There’s plenty of centralisation in public services today, a lot of the power and civic functions of King’s Lynn have ebbed away over the years.

The retiring room which was added in 1895 to link the Georgian town hall with the new municipal wing.

The porch where visitors enter the building. It’s an odd design with a fair amount of wasted space, I’m not sure whether they’ve repurposed this area over the years.

Onto the documents that were on display, this is a survey of the lands in Terrington St Clement and Terrington St John.

These documents can often be hard to make out where the handwriting isn’t clear, but the book on the left (which is the one in the previous photo) had a scribe who was clearly proud of their handiwork. The documents and maps on display were all purchased for Norfolk Record Office at public auction following donations made by NorAH and the Audrey Muriel Stratford Trust.

I do like knowing what’s behind a door like this.

And thanks to Luke and his guided tour, I was able to find out. These are the bottom of those stairs, where the prisoners would trudge up to the court and then back down again after having found out their sentence.

All told, a rather lovely evening and it’s positive to see documents being acquired that can be read and accessed for free by anyone who visits the King’s Lynn Borough Archives. It was also a highlight of course to see this historic building and to get a tour of it, I’m very pleased that no-one has ever turned it into a restaurant, hotel or bar in the way that some of these venues are repurposed. Also, for anyone interested, here are details of the NorAH Supporter’s Scheme.

April 20, 2023