Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

  • X29 First Bus Minor Debacle – It’s Not Ideal…..

    X29 First Bus Minor Debacle – It’s Not Ideal…..

    We were sailing home back to Norwich on the last bus from Fakenham and were just a few miles outside of the city in Lenwade when this happened. And I’ll start this story by saying that the drama adds something to the day and I wasn’t personally troubled, but I do get annoyed when public transport companies treat customers in such an off-hand way. Apologies for the mostly self-serving overly long moaning, but I’m quite edgy about getting any of their later services.

    To cut a long story short, the road was closed for quite substantial road works to Lenwade bridge. I was hoping that the construction work was to build a new Greggs, but it seems that they’re just repairing the current structure. Not as exciting, but clearly necessary. There was a debate for a few minutes between the engineers and the bus driver, which was polite, but fruitless. The engineers were not letting the bus through and so our double decker bus was a bit stuck.

    The driver contacted someone, I assume at First, and the passengers downstairs (we were upstairs, but could hear) were told that the Norfolk County Council authorised works had started early and that the signage was inadequate. I don’t need to further investigate this, I checked the county council web-site, and the road works are authorised. It is regrettable that any representative of First should be saying this, as what the engineers were saying was correct, that First bus should not have been there. There were quite some allegations made about those engineers and I hope that First get in touch with Norfolk County Council to withdraw them. But that’s all a bit serious and not really relevant to this already seemingly never-ending story.

    Anyway, these things happen and I’m very placid as delays on public transport are hardly new to me. Someone hadn’t realised that there were road works this weekend and that the bus shouldn’t have been there. There was also confusion from many other road users, so it’s clear also that the road signage here was perhaps really not ideal from the County Council and their representatives. However, bus companies should probably have a better understanding of this, but, mistakes happen.

    The view from the front of the bus of the drama, which is about as much excitement as I get until we can travel further afield.

    We sat upstairs for thirty minutes (the situation was moderately entertaining at that point) and could hear what was going on downstairs. I was surprised when I heard the bus driver say that the passengers upstairs were just sitting there as I wasn’t sure what he expected us to do. We were rather waiting for instructions from him, although perhaps he wanted us to be more pro-active somehow.

    Anyway, there was another bus driver behind, on what I assume was the First bus service back from Fakenham to Norwich which didn’t have passengers, as it had terminated service back in Fakenham. There was some discussion between First, their two drivers and an off-duty driver. They got one passenger to go in a private car driven by an off-duty driver, which didn’t seem a usual way of dealing with things, but that’s perhaps not entirely relevant here.

    We were then told that the only option for us was to get back on the bus, and the bus would go from the outskirts of Norwich back to Fakenham, through to Swaffham and then to Norwich. That was a bit of a ridiculous journey (which the driver admitted was “very long”) and clearly a bad call. I asked what happened if passengers needed the toilet and why was there no contribution towards a taxi. The bus driver told me that passengers could urinate at the back of a house now, in partial view of other properties, and she said there were no other options as legally there was no way a bus could stop anywhere else. She told me to contact First if I didn’t want to take that option.

    It’s not entirely clear how I was expected to contact First in the highly limited amount of time offered to me and I’m not entirely sure it’s really the customer’s role to do that. So, in this exciting story (I accept I need to get out more), we have a passenger being driven back in an off-duty driver’s car, we’ve got passengers told to urinate in a semi-public place and a total disregard for what the five passengers actually wanted. No-one was asked if we needed water, if we were on a deadline and the taxi option clearly wasn’t happening. I accept the water option is a bit of a side point, but any welfare related questions would have been useful just to ascertain the situation. Disability awareness is important and was ignored here, although the details aren’t really relevant here with regards to that.

    As can be seen in the photos, it got dark during this meander around Norfolk. To keep the passengers awake, the driver sounded his horn on average once per minute. I didn’t understand what that was about. The bus managed a decent speed during this tour of Norfolk, but it still really wasn’t an ideal situation. I did vaguely hope that the driver would pop into the McDonald’s in Swaffham, but that didn’t happen. I quite fancied some Chicken McNuggets, but recognised that wasn’t really a likely scenario. This is a far cry from when I was in the United States and a bus driver needed to get out to use the toilet and he came back with snacks for me for the inconvenience (no pun intended), but that’s a different story.

    And back in Norwich, two hours late…..

    This was a far from ideal situation (as I may have mentioned) and it was entirely caused by First’s management, this wasn’t the fault of the drivers. Travelling what seems nearly constantly on public transport, the situation on the rail network is brilliant. Passengers would be given water, provided with a taxi, toilet facilities arranged and checks usually made to ensure there were no vulnerable, disabled or confused individuals. It’s also very easy to contact rail companies, or is in my experience, and although things have gone a bit askew, they’re nearly always on top of problems.

    These solutions were all available to First, the taxi journey would have been fifteen minutes, the bus could have stopped in Fakenham if a customer did urgently need the toilet or water and First could have checked that passengers were OK. There’s all manner of logistical questions here, but there were toilet facilities in Fakenham that could have been used if a passenger really needed to. I also don’t believe that the Norwich to Fakenham bus wouldn’t be allowed to stop in Fakenham as it was technically off-route, this seemed like incorrect information from First.

    In an ideal world, it’d be nice to think that the bus driver would be empowered to try and get customers back on a taxi as the journey would have been 15 minutes. Perhaps it wouldn’t have worked if there was no availability, but it would have been nice for them to try. And of course, I did have Nathan on board with me, who used to work for a bus company and it didn’t entirely warm my heart to know that his company wouldn’t have dealt with the situation like this.

    That all brings me to a problem that has been ongoing with First, which is that passengers have no way of contacting them after 19:00. Twitter is turned off, there’s no obvious support line and it’s clear that the drivers were struggling to know what to do. In this situation, it wasn’t entirely problematic as passengers were safe as they were still on the bus, but it’s clear the drivers have been given no authorisation to deal with issues and passengers have no way of gaining help.

    Compared to the rail network, this is a poor customer facility that First are offering, which is slightly annoying as First operate some of those rail services. Problems must happen all the time, and if you follow the link to First’s phone number, they ask that customers call between 09:00 to 17:00 and ideally between 11:00 and 15:00. That’s dead handy if your bus hasn’t turned up in the evening. Terminating phone calls at 17:00 on Friday evening and starting them against at 09:00 on Monday morning wasn’t ideal and it’d be lovely if that someone centrally who could have sanctioned a taxi or offered to pay a contribution towards it. Even if a national customer service team could do nothing practical due to circumstances, even the offer of a small voucher for future bus travel would have been useful.

    Anyway, that’s my overly long post finished. I’ll add again that I wasn’t personally much inconvenienced as I wasn’t in a rush for anything, but it puts me off getting any later bus services on First. I suspect that if we’d just got a taxi ourselves then we’d have been back nearly on time and First might well have just refunded it or made a token gesture. And if they’d offered everyone say £5 each towards a taxi, I’d have been entirely happy and would have praised their customer service instead of boring everyone moaning about it.

    On that note, moan over…. And, no, I didn’t need to post this….. But, what I would like at least is just for the bus drivers to be empowered to maybe offer a £10 taxi fare each without further recourse to First in limited situations such as this.

  • King’s Lynn – South Gate

    King’s Lynn – South Gate

    I’ve been under this archway many times, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever walked down to have a closer look. King’s Lynn’s South Gate, which is Grade I listed, was first constructed in 1437 by Robert Hertanger as part of the town defences, although it also served as a useful way of tolling anything that came into Lynn. The structure is built in brick with a stone facade and the two pedestrian walkways weren’t knocked through until 1817 (the eastern chamber) and 1841 (the western chamber, which also saw the western staircase being removed). Since then, the two walkways have now been closed off and since 1899, traffic only now goes one way through the gate as another lane was added to the side.

    The South Gate is at the top-right of this map (click on the image to make it larger), marked number 11, and shows that there was a different road system at the time. At this time, there was no London Road (that was constructed between 1800 and 1804), and the main access point was down Southgate Street and Friars Street, which is now gated off to prevent modern day motorists using it as a rat run.

    I managed to stand in the middle of the road (well, sort of, most drivers notice that there is a big gateway in the way, so tend to focus their minds here) to get this photo of the gate, which I thought was rather brave of me. The room above the gate was used by the gatekeeper from the early seventeenth century, and likely before, and was long used as a private residence. There were plans to build a drawbridge in front of the gate early on during the Civil War, but this was never constructed. King’s Lynn was besieged in 1643, but the gate remained undamaged during the period of trouble which the town had. The role of gatekeeper was abolished in 1741, with the tolls having already been removed in 1721. The wooden gates were removed in 1795 when the threat of attack seemed remote.

    The west side of the gate and this fifteenth century structure was located on the same site as an earlier medieval gate, with the footings of that remaining today. Although the design makes it look like there was a portcullis, there isn’t sufficient space inside for one to have been present. George Plunkett took a photo of the gate in 1935, when pedestrians still walked through the side tunnels.

    A sign on the gate and this isn’t entirely accurate, as it’s older and there were just some renovations to the structure in 1520.

    The east side of the gate. A new roof was added in 1966, but that didn’t last long as an archeological survey of the site in 1982 decided that the older medieval roof should be restored and some of the western stairway was put back.


    A photo of the gate from 1891. The gate is accessible to the public during the summer months (or at least it is in normal times….) and hopefully I’ll get to go and see inside at some stage.

  • Long Stratton – St. Michael’s Church (Cyril Edmund August Cheney)

    Long Stratton – St. Michael’s Church (Cyril Edmund August Cheney)

    This is the grave of Cyril Edmund August Cheney, one of the two men buried in this churchyard who died of their injuries during the First World War.

    Cyril was born in 1899, the only son of Edmund Cheney and Rosa Eva Cheney. Edmund worked as a farmer and they had three children, Olive Flossie Mabel (born in 1898), Cyril and Alma Beatrice (born in 1900). All of the three children were born in Denton, but they moved at around that time to Stratton St. Michael (now part of Long Stratton) and that’s where they are listed on the 1901 and 1911 censuses.

    Cyril joined the Royal Horse Artillery in June 1917 (the above photo was likely taken at a similar time), and the RHA is shown on his grave, which is a nicely sculpted stone. He was given service number 61367 and served in the U Battery of the RHA, something akin to a regiment.

    Cyril was wounded in France on 3 October 1918 and was taken to Rouen Hospital before then being brought back to the UK for treatment to his injuries. He was sent to the 4th London General Hospital at Denmark Hill (now known as King’s College Hospital), but he died on 26 October 1918, at the age of 20. His probate was completed in February 1919, with his entire wealth of £185 17s being transferred to his father, Edmund.

    Cyril’s parents are buried next to him on the same plot, with their stone noting that Edmund died on 11 April 1928 at the age of 62, whilst Eva died on 4 October 1955, at the age of 80. Following Edmund’s death, Eva had moved in with her daughter Olive, who had married the farmer James Brighton, and they all lived at Lime Kiln Farm in Newton Flotman. Olive remained living in Newton Flotman until her death in 1991, over 70 years after the death of her younger brother.

  • Long Stratton – Edge’s Lane

    Long Stratton – Edge’s Lane

    This is one of my more niche posts (although, to be honest, I’m not sure that any are particularly mainstream or useful), but I was interested walking along Edge’s Lane as the road clearly went a bit askew. It transpires that the end section into Long Stratton has been rerouted, with the old road now being used as a footpath.

    As an aside, I was walking down where that footpath is on the right-hand side of the above map and there was a dog trying desperately with all his might to take his owner over the field to explore. I stopped to chat for a short while (not for long, being British I can’t be doing social for that long) and she said her dog adored the field and she was taking him back that way later, but he didn’t seem at all convinced. I admired the dog’s persistence though, I get like that when stopped from going into a pub. Anyway, I digress.

    This felt a little odd, but was once the road into Long Stratton.

    A small section is still in use so that homeowners can park their cars, but it doesn’t go anywhere else (other than the road that gets the cars in, obviously).

    Where Edge’s Lane used to join the main road, with the white stop sign still being visible, even though the road has been closed off for well over a decade.

  • Long Stratton – St. Michael’s Church

    Long Stratton – St. Michael’s Church

    Long Stratton was once formed of two villages, the parish of St. Michael’s in the north and St. Mary’s in the south. The church here is mostly from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, likely replacing an earlier building located on the same site. The heritage of the church, which was originally known as St. Michael’s and All Saints, is though recognised as it’s Grade I listed.

    There was also another nearby church (and very nearby, it’s about a two minute walk away), St. Peter’s, but this was demolished in 1520 after it fell into disuse. The parish of St. Peter had merged with St. Michael under the reign of King Henry VIII and its location is visible in the above photo. Quite why there were ever two churches so close, I’m not entirely sure.

    The tower is contemporary with the rest of the church, but is a relatively short affair. There was once more of a village that surrounded the church, but much of this has been lost and the manor house was demolished in the late sixteenth century.

    The chancel end of the church, with this section being built in 1487, under the supervision of the rector John Cowall.

    There’s quite a chunky buttress at the chancel end of the church.

    Despite the tower being quite low, the church still doesn’t feel entirely out of proportion. I do wonder though if there were ever plans to build higher than this.

    Unfortunately, I’ve had a run of bad luck in getting into the churches run by the Long Stratton and Pilgrim Team Ministry, and it seems so have some others. The situation isn’t ideal and hopefully the buildings will be opened up again when this current health crisis goes away.

    A few churches seem to allow this in their graveyards and personally I’m not entirely convinced that it’s appropriate so near to graves. Anyway, it’s a lovely little church in what feels quite a remote countryside location, although in reality it’s just a short walk into the town of Long Stratton.

  • Long Stratton – Oh My Cod!

    Long Stratton – Oh My Cod!

    I haven’t been to the metropolis of Long Stratton in a fair while, so my morning meander today was to see some churches in that area for a change. And, also, to visit another chip shop as I haven’t been to one this week. It’s quite a zestful chip shop name, but they had a web-site and I got a positive vibe from them. The shop is also open for long hours, I suspect the owners here must be pretty hard working.

    My first impressions were very positive as they accept cards, including Amex, and the welcome was wholesome and I felt it was genuine. The staff member was friendly, although slightly befuddled by the complexity of the order made by the customer after me, but all went well. All was clean and felt safe, with the food options being quite wide, including fish, pizza, chicken, burgers and pies. I wonder whether a chip shop can really achieve quality in all those areas, but at least it gives plenty of choice.

    I opted for the medium chips and a deep fried battered Mars bar, which came to a very reasonable price of £3.20. The quality here was good, the Mars bar was prepared without any undue delay and that was the high quality gooey mess that I expected, very decadent. The chips were also of a decent quality, and I’ve decided that if I need to put ketchup on then they aren’t top notch. These chips remained sauce free, so all was well there.

    This is another one of my favourite chip shops, although having written that I’ve only been once, but I’d go again. I liked the service, this was the sort of staff member who I think would remember customers if they returned a few times, he was that sort of engaging person. Keenly priced, they accept cards and the quality is high. All rather lovely.

  • Norwich – Brewery Tap

    Norwich – Brewery Tap

    This is another pub that I’ve visited many times, but never made the effort to write about, but since it’s in the Good Beer Guide and I’m trying to visit every pub in it (I accept that’s a forlorn task), now seems an appropriate time. It’s part of the Fat Cat estate in Norwich, but it’s got a more modern and contemporary feel to the whole arrangement.

    There was a small queue when we arrived, but it was efficiently managed and the staff were fully in control of the situation. We had to wait whilst Nathan waved at all his friends in the pub beer garden. Perhaps this is how the late Duke of Edinburgh felt when the Queen was waving to her admirers whilst he stood behind waiting to get in for the food and drink. Anyway, after that faffing about, we were seated and it transpired we were seated underneath a heater. I liked this a lot.

    I mentioned yesterday that the Artichoke has pretty much the best selection of beer in Norwich, but the Brewery Tap really isn’t far behind. The highlights of the beer options for me were the Extra Brownie Pints from Brew York and the Raspberry Gose from Yonder Brewing. But, the selection of beers was well balanced and there were some exciting little numbers in the “coming up” section of the on-line menu. Ordering was via staff coming to the table, and that all worked pretty efficiently, with the beer knowledge being excellent. The pub deserves to be full with such beer, staff friendliness and staff knowledge, which it was throughout most of the night.

    Nathan spent much of the evening pressing the little button to turn the heater on, partly due to pressure from me and partly due to pressure from another table. That heater did though make things much easier throughout the evening, as inevitably it got quite chilly when it got dark and heading towards closing time.

    The food menus. I’ve never eaten food here before (other than crisps, although I think I’ve eaten crisps at just about every pub in Norwich), but food seemed to be going to a lot of tables, so it felt almost impolite not to join in (or that was my excuse on this occasion).

    Dr. Pepper is one of the best soft drinks going as far as I’m concerned, so the pulled pork soaked in that nectar from the Gods seemed a decent choice. And, it worked beautifully, the portion size was filling and the pulled pork was tender and had a rich taste. The chips themselves weren’t overly exciting, they were just, well, chips, but the topping more than made up for that. Some of the food prices, such as the burgers, are a little punchy, but it was served hot and tasted fine. The food was served until 21:00 and the staff helpfully went around telling customers when the last orders were, an opportunity we took advantage of.

    Another rather lovely visit and I like the thought that has gone into the food, the service and the beer selection. Incidentally, I note that CAMRA say “you’ll find a working set of traffic lights, which indicate whether the bar is open or not”, which I’ve never noticed before, but I’ll look out for when customers are allowed to visit the bar and actually sit inside.

  • King’s Lynn – Globe Hotel

    King’s Lynn – Globe Hotel

    Well, this is nice, some normality has resumed as ‘my office’ has returned to a pub beer garden. I’d rather be inside a pub if I’m being honest, but this is a perfectly decent compromise whilst the weather isn’t too bad. And it’s nearly May when pubs can fully open up again, or at least, they can hopefully fully open up again.

    The Globe Hotel is the JD Wetherspoons in King’s Lynn and it’s the only pub that I’m aware of at the moment in the town that’s open with a spacious beer garden. I don’t normally head this far down the beer garden, but there’s a pleasant view of the River Great Ouse for those sitting in this area.

    The view from the other direction and the pub has a very long beer garden and I was surprised that it wasn’t a little busier in the pub. I had rather expected there to be a staff member on the door managing the number of customers, but the beer garden can hold so many people that there was no queueing required.

    My drink arrived promptly and I was very sensible in just opting for a soft drink. A concern then occurred to me, which was that it was bloody freezing with the wind coming in off from the river. Also, a herd of seagulls were decimating the area and swooping down on tables, managing to smash two glasses during the process of lifting food from tables which were no longer occupied. This meant I slightly regretted ordering food, since I was in the middle of  Force 9 gale and was in danger of a pterodactyl attacking me. A staff member mentioned that customers have had steaks taken before, which doesn’t sound an ideal situation if I’m being honest.

    When my food arrived, the staff member helpfully carried it over to a quieter, and much warmer, part of the beer garden after I commented about my poor choice of table selection. The seagulls didn’t bother this section of the beer garden and it was also something of a sun trap, away from the hurricane area nearer to the river. It’s just a Wetherspoons burger meal, so I needn’t dwell on that for too long, but it was all fine and entirely met my expectations. Keenly priced, at the appropriate temperature and a reliable option.

    Service was all very efficient, the pub garden was kept clean (mostly due to the staff, although the seagulls were helping with food removal) and life feels just that bit more normal again. Long may this normality continue……

  • Norwich – Artichoke Pub

    Norwich – Artichoke Pub

    The Artichoke is the pub that I visit most in Norwich, although I’ve never made the effort to write a post about it on here. Since pubs have re-opened now, or at the least the outside of them have, I thought I’d go to my favourite Norwich licensed premises, and it’s where I stayed nearly the entire day. Thanks to Brian, Gordon, Nathan, Megan and James for keeping me company during the day…….

    Anyway, the background to this pub is that it was quite generic in its offerings in previous years and perhaps in danger of being closed down permanently and for it to become another casualty of the pub trade. It was taken over by an independent operator, Kevin Tweedy of the Golden Triangle Brewery, and the pub has been transformed over the last few years into a venue that is busy, well managed and has an excellent beer range.

    Ordering at the moment is via either the Artichoke app or by asking a staff member directly, with payment being by card only with no cash accepted. The app perhaps needs some work as there were some technical issues with it, but if nothing else it was a useful way of seeing the beer list. The pub wasn’t as busy as I thought it’d be during the day, although it was often nearly at capacity, but never quite reached it for very long. The weather was tolerable throughout the day, but got rather colder later on and my feet started to feel just a little chilly. What did remain for the day though was the welcoming atmosphere, this is a very non-threatening location.

    The beer selection in the Artichoke is what I’d consider to be the best in Norwich, not reliant on a few generic and dull options, but instead offering an ever changing selection of beers. The outstanding ones from my visit yesterday were:

    Big Idjit from Dugges Bryggeri

    Trium Faba from Three Hills Brewing

    Must Kuld Chilli & Chocolate from Pohjala

    Yuzu Juniper G&T Raw from Three Hills Brewing

    As an assortment of beers to have available, I think that’s pretty impressive. The staff here are very knowledgeable about the beers, some of the best drinks knowledge that I’ve seen in a pub. That’s some enthusiasm and good training there, with the staff being able to make suitable recommendations when someone just asks for a lager. As for downsides, I’m not sure that there really are any, not least anything which is sufficiently annoying to comment on. Perhaps the only minor problem at the moment is that the beer garden seems to allow smoking throughout the entire area, which isn’t ideal at all for non-smokers. But, it’s not long until the inside of pubs can open again.

    These photos are from pre-lockdown, a reminder of what it was like to sit inside pubs.

    These are a random selection of the cask and keg lists that the pub has had over recent years, but there’s also a long list of cans and bottles in addition to this. Food isn’t always offered in the pub, beyond Pipers Crisps (although these are very moreish) and nuts, but on some weeknights and on Sunday afternoons there is the XO Kitchen which offers a range of small plate options.

    Anyway, as a pub, I very much recommend the Artichoke and I think it’s lifted the entire area. And, it’s also listed in the Good Beer Guide.

  • Norwich History by Parish : St. Michael at Thorn 1/2

    Norwich History by Parish : St. Michael at Thorn 1/2

    And a new little project that Jonathan and I are undertaking because this lockdown went on for longer than we had anticipated, so we had time to do this. It’s a bit niche (our project I mean, not the lockdown), I’ll accept that, but there we go. Effectively, it’s walking around Norwich, ancient parish by ancient parish and seeing what is there now compared to a map from the 1880s (and the 1920s). There’s a PDF of these boundaries to provide some extra background to this whole project.

    This week’s meander was around the parish of St. Michael at Thorn and this is one that has been badly hit by a combination of war damage and what I would consider to be quite incompetent city planning. The church was damaged during the Second World War, but it could have been replaced or the tower saved. Instead, the site was tarmaced over and turned into a car park. Housing and pubs on the other side of Thorn Lane were torn down in the 1960s and replaced with a small number of commercial units, but mostly more car parks. There are relatively few old buildings surviving on either side of Ber Street and the entire area between Surrey Road (sometimes now all referred to as Surrey Street) and Ber Street has been flattened to build car parks. All of the yards were removed and no parish boundary markers remain today that we could find.

    Such is the devastation caused by the demolition, not one single listed building seems to remain in this parish. However, there is some good news, there is another part of St. Michael at Thorn parish which is near to the castle, separated by St. John Baptist Timberhill parish, so that’s where we will visit next week.

    The centre of this parish is (or was) St. Michael at Thorn parish church, located on Thorn Lane. Or, as some local wit has amended it to here, Thorne Lane. The church was originally known as St. Michael on the Hill, but also as St. Michael Spinas, which is the Latin word for thorns. So, they’ve named a church as it had a load of thorn bushes in the churchyard, which were also still there in nineteenth century accounts.

    This is the corner of Rouen Road and Thorn Lane, the edge of the parish. Only this frontage is located within the parish, but this was all Paradise Place which was an area of much denser housing. It retains the same name today, but there’s more greenery and this is some of the limited amount of new property that has been constructed in this parish over recent decades.

    Thorn Lane used to carry on to the left and go down to King Street through the old brewery, but post-war redevelopments have seen that link removed. There’s a photo from around 1910 of Kahler and Sons bakers, which was pretty much in the centre of my photo above.

    This map from 100 years ago is hard for anyone today to be able to place into the current landscape, but the top section (on the left) of Thorn Lane is still there, and King Street is still there on the right of the map. Rouen Road ploughs through the middle of the map today, roughly where the ‘A’ in Thorn Lane is located on the map.

    This is today the entrance to the EDP’s car park, but it was once where Bacon’s Square was located, named after Nicholas Bacon’s house which was located nearby. Just to the right of this, George Plunkett took a photo in 1937 (whilst standing on Thorn Street) of what was then Middle Square.

    A rather faded sign which notes the church that was once here.

    This is a planning mistake, and quite a sizeable one in my view. George Plunkett shows what was here in the 1930s, which was St. Michael at Thorn church from which this parish takes its name.

    There was likely a church here from the late Saxon period, but it was rebuilt in the medieval period and a steeple added in 1430 following another major rebuilding effort.

    There was another substantial renovation which took place in the Victorian period, with this plan dating from 1870. It could be argued that this didn’t go entirely to plan, as the tower fell down on 3 November 1886 which wasn’t at all ideal, especially as it took some of the nave with it. The cost of this restoration, which restored the tower to its previous appearance with the exception of the pinnacles and a parapet, cost £500 and the church struggled to raise this. I have some sadness here to think of how much people struggled to raise this money for their church, which they viewed as important and wanted to be successful. They did well though, the damage was repaired within one year of the tower collapse and the service at its reopening was very well attended.

    The nave and chancel of the church was destroyed during air raids during the Second World War, but the tower survived. There was talk of rebuilding the church in 1948 and costings were drawn up, but this was at a time when there were enough churches in Norwich and there wasn’t enough support for its reconstruction. Just down the road, St. Julian’s Church had also been damaged and it was decided that only one church needed saving. Indeed, the door from St. Michael’s was used as part of that reconstruction, so at least something remains. The Church of England had the power though to do more here, they were quick to demand locals pay money that they didn’t have to repair the church in times of need not that many decades before, but they abandoned it with perhaps undue haste. Anyway, George Swain took a photo of the doorway in 1952, just before it was moved.

    As for the reuse of this site, I think it was idiocy to turn this entire area into a car park. It could have been turned into a play park as happened at St. Paul’s church in the city, something that was a useful amenity to the local population. It was decided to save the towers at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Heigham and St Benedict’s Church on the street of the same name, so that could have been done here.

    Located over the road from the church, likely where the residential home is now located on the corner, was a grand house. Blomefield notes:

    “The house over against the church with a large garden, of 3 or 4 acres thereto belonging was anciently John Corbet’s; then Edward Southwell’s, after that Alderman Tho. Grene’s; after that Sir Nicholas Bacon’s city house; and during the time Bishop Reynold’s was repairing the palace, he dwelt there; it was a grand house, but is now converted into small tenements.”

    Located next to the church, and bordering onto the parish of St. John the Baptist, was the Windmill pub and then two doors down from that was the Exhibition Tavern. The Windmill pub had traded as a licensed premises from at least 1760, but the building was damaged during the Second World War and the City Corporation compulsorily purchased it in 1958. They then demolished it in 1970, but George Plunkett has a photo of Windmill Alley which he took from the churchyard in 1937 and that shows the rear of the pub. The Exhibition Tavern traded from the 1860s, but was closed in the early twentieth century when it was decided nationally to reduce the number of licensed premises.

    For anyone who doubts the number of pubs in Victorian Norwich, this is what existed around St. Michael’s church in the 1870s, the PHs being public houses and the Tavs being Taverns. All I can say is what a time to be alive…..

    I don’t know why there’s a Christmas tree stuck on the side of this building in April, but this is located opposite the end of Thorn Lane.

    A sculpture which was installed here in 1999, which I’ve never entirely understood. Given that, I’ll just quote what Norwich City Council say about it:

    “The railings combine forms which reflect the tree-trunks and leaves with mechanically inspired springs and zigzag forms. They were created both for and with the residents of Brooke Place responsible for modelling the roundels in clay which were then cast in bronze and fixed to the railings.”

    Brooke Place stands today in the vicinity of where Brooke Yard was once located, although none of the streetlines match up.

    This is Brooke Place today, with the access road to it (on the John Lewis side) once being the route of Berry’s Court.

    Some street art of St. Julian of Norwich.

    This is Surrey Grove, a route that has been here for a few hundred years, although it was once a tree lined route on either side. It’s all a bit less salubrious today.

    The parish reaches Surrey Street, but on the left hand-side of Surrey Grove the only building that is part of the parish is now called the Surrey Kitchen & Bar, or what I still consider to be the Surrey Tavern. This has been a pub since at least the 1850s, and despite some regular brief periods of closure over the last couple of decades, it is continuing to trade.

    This ugly building (I think it’s ugly anyway….) is Norfolk Tower and is one of the tallest in Norwich, being the home of BBC Radio Norfolk between 1980 and 2003, when the corporation decided it needed some of the most prestigious office space in Norwich in the new Forum. The parish incorporated some of this building, but then cut back in, so it didn’t go far down Surrey Road (or Surrey Street for those who prefer that).

    Behind Norfolk Tower is another car park, but this was once where a large baptist church built in 1854 with seats for 1,400 people was located. George Plunkett took a photo of the building in 1979, but it was demolished in 1986. Some of the church might just have projected into the building on the left-hand side, although that’s another car park, this time for John Lewis.

    A closed footpath behind John Lewis, although I’m not sure where it normally leads to, unless it’s into the shop. I didn’t investigate given the signage.

    The wall here by the car park was pretty much the oldest thing remaining in this area since the council have allowed everything else to be demolished.

    This was once Glasswells Furniture Store, which opened in 1984. The building was later used as a temporary lending library following the disastrous fire which destroyed Norwich central library in August 1994.

    The path which runs behind the properties facing onto Ber Street, connecting Horns Lane with Thorn Lane. Incidentally, there used to be a Twitters Court located just by here, that would have been a popular location today if it had survived. Although I suppose people would have kept pinching the street sign, so perhaps it’s best not to be there any more.

    Just to the right, there was a Victorian urinal, handy given how many pubs were in this vicinity. And just by where that sign is today, that would have been the entrance to the Rose Tavern, which was open from the 1850s to around 1910.

    Around ten metres further down the road, this is where the Bartholomew Tavern would have stood, a pub that was open from the 1850s until the 1960s. Here’s a photo of it from the 1930s, with the entrance to Bartholomew Street being about where that tree is in the above photo. There’s an interesting dip in the road in that 1930s photo, I hadn’t noticed that before in any images.

    I like it when councils keep street lines when redeveloping an area, it anchors the area to the past even if the buildings are nearly all changed. And, I’ve never paid much attention to Garden Street, but after some checking on a dual map, it’s in exactly the same place as it once was when there was housing in the area. Indeed, the area in front of this sign was once a corner pub, the Carpenters’ Arms. This means that there were three pubs within literally throwing distance.

    There’s more information about the Carpenters’ Arms, including a photo, at Norfolk Pubs. The pub closed in 1963, so that the council could build a lovely new car park. One thing you can’t criticise Norwich City Council for is their determination to ensure there is always somewhere for people to park their car in Norwich.

    This is Garden Street today and I can see that an effort has been made to bring some light commercial zoning into the area. But, this was perfectly good housing and I think it should have remained for that usage. Instead, it’s mostly now all car park.

    That’s another parish done, and there’s surprisingly little history still remaining here, much less than I had expected for an area so close to the city centre. Next week, the other part of the parish which I hope is more history and less car park.