Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

Caistor St Edmund – War Memorial (Charles Edward Back)

Charles Edward Back is one of the names listed on the war memorial in Caistor St Edmunds.

Charles Edward Back was a rifleman who died at the age of just 20 on 20 September 1917, having started his military career serving in France in 1915. He was born in Poringland, the son of John Back, and they both worked as herdsmen (or cowman as John was listed as in the 1911 census). In that 1911 census, Back was aged 14 and was working as a yard boy, and he lived with his sister, Mabel Anne Back who was aged 12 and was a schoolgirl.

Going back to the 1901 census, Charles and Mabel were listed, with John as the head of the household, along with Frederick Robert, who was aged 12 at that time (Charles was listed as being 4, Mabel as 2). Sadly, Frederick Robert also died in the First World War, dying in Thessaloniki in 1918.

Rolling back further to 1891, it was clear that this was a bigger family than I had at first thought. For the first time, John Back’s wife is listed, Elizabeth Jane Back, with John working as a gardener at that time. There are also more children on the census list, Fanny aged 13, George Harry aged 11, Maud aged 9, Emma aged 2, as well as a 2-year old Frederick Robert. As well as all of these, in the census before, Albert and Kate were listed.

So, something went wrong between 1891 and 1901, and it transpired that Elizabeth Jane Back died in 1895, at the age of just 46. So, I’m not sure who the mother of Charles Edward Back was, and although I can take a stab at that answer by looking at the 1901 census, guessing parentage doesn’t feel entirely appropriate.

Back to Charles and the First World War. Since he is buried at Tyne Cot, that means he would have likely been involved with the Battle of Passchendaele, with the date of his death suggesting he was involved with the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge meaning he was one of 20,255 people dying in that battle.

The above photo is taken on the day that Charles died, at the same location, although the photo shows a different regiment.

May 11, 2020
Caistor St Edmund – War Memorial

The war memorial in Caistor St Edmund is located near to the entrance of the Church of St. Edmund. It was unveiled in 1922 at a ceremony overseen by John Corbould Warren, with eight names listed on it, including Warren’s son. There were only 32 households in the village at that time, so this was an enormous loss to Caistor St Edmund.

Fortunately, the war memorial is well looked after and there’s an information board with some details about the eight men who died, as well as another one later added to the memorial who died in the Second World War. Given that, I’ll post individually about those who died, partly to help me understand something about what this village looked like just over 100 years ago.

Charles Edward Back.

Walter John Blake.

J. Derek Corrould Warren.

Walter Ellis.

George Franklin.

Arthur Fuller.

William Leech.

Roland La Fontaine Whittall.

Cederic Roland Minns.

May 11, 2020
Caistor St Edmund – St. Edmund’s Church (Exterior)

It’s good to be back walking longer distances, and today’s ten-mile round trip was to Caistor St. Edmund. It’s a complex village because of its long history, so there might be quite a few posts and repeat visits for me to work it out to my own satisfaction. And probably to no-one else’s…..

I’ll have to come back so that I can find out more about this church, as due to the virus, they’ve closed off the whole churchyard. The church itself is of interest as it’s next to the remains of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum and there is Roman brick used in the repair and construction of the structure.

There was a church on this site from around the ninth century, which the Anglo-Saxons placed near to Venta Icenorum and on top of the Pye Road, which was the Roman road from the fort all the way to Colchester.

There’s a helpful information board by the entrance, which makes dating the different elements of the church much easier. The main part of the nave was built in the late eleventh century, with the chancel added in the thirteenth century. The porch and tower were added in the fourteenth century and the tower was crenellated in the sixteenth century. There was a thatched roof until 1800, when it was replaced and the roof-line was also lowered a little at this time.

The church is dedicated to Edmund the Martyr, the King of East Anglia between 855 and 869. What a wonderful honour being the King of East Anglia would be today, but I digress. He was killed when the Vikings attacked the country, but I prefer the Anglo-Saxon named for these invaders, which was the “Great Heathen Army”. He is buried at Bury St. Edmunds, which I still think is one of the most gloriously accurate of all place names in the area.

May 11, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Wherry Road

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Wherry Road, named after the type of boat that carried cargo along the River Wensum, is a relatively new road which isn’t visible at all on the above map from 1900. It starts from the middle of where the Goods Station once stood, then goes down parallel to the river before following the route where it says “allotment gardens” and then stops where I’ve put the cursor, which is now Koblenz Avenue.

At some point in the mid-twentieth century, a road was placed alongside the river, which in turn was ripped up in around 1999 when work on the Riverside retail complex started. The main road was rerouted to the new Koblenz Avenue and Wherry Road was formed, a mainly pedestrian road.

Wherry Road from the railway station end, so I’m now standing on where the goods shed used to be. As an aside, back in the day, the goods shed was bigger than the main passenger terminal at Norwich railway station.

The mural above Frankie & Benny’s. As another entirely random aside, before the Covid-19 situation, I was pretty much deluged from various sources with ridiculous discounts of getting up to 60% off from this restaurant. I always felt sorry for people who just walked into the restaurant thinking they were going to get a decent meal, perhaps spending money that they didn’t have as a birthday treat, without realising that the owners were giving huge discounts to nearly every other diner. I’d be surprised if the chain survives in its current form, but that’s a matter for another day.

This photo was taken on a Bank Holiday Sunday, it’s not quite what the business owners down here must have been expecting. TGI Fridays on the right, I’m still missing their unlimited appetisers.

Las Iguanas on the left, JD Wetherspoons on the right.

Hollywood Bowl on the left, the Odeon ahead and Nando’s and Las Iguanas on the right. All deadly quiet….

I’m not sure how well these buildings were constructed, but I’m not sure that they have a long life ahead of them. Riverside has quite a pleasant vibe generally, and is usually busy on most evenings, with a large car park for those who like that sort of thing.

The entrance to Lady Julian Bridge.

The Queen of Iceni, which is a JD Wetherspoon outlet, named after Boudicca. There was a railway track which reached to pretty much exactly where the pub’s front door is now.

The rear of the Odeon cinema on the left, as the area now becomes residential.

Leading onto Albion Way to the left.

The Novi Sad Friendship Bridge, and a new housing development alongside it.

And looking towards the end of Wherry Road, with a leisure centre on the right and ahead is Carrow Road, Norwich City’s football ground. This is the area that was previously allotment gardens, so no doubt it was once quite serene and peaceful.

And, that’s Wherry Road, not the most of intriguing locations in terms of history as it’s all around twenty years old, even the two bridges are newly constructed within that time.

May 10, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Lady Julian Bridge

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Lady Julian Bridge, which is a pretty decent name for a river crossing, is a little difficult to place on an old map, such as the one above from 1900, as so much of the landscape has changed. It connects Old Barge Yard (which is still there today) on the left bank across to some railway building on the right bank, with a cursor I’ve carefully placed marking where it goes over the River Wensum.

The entrance from Riverside, with the bridge taking pedestrians and cyclists over the river. The bridge cost £2.5 million and during the construction phase, it was called the Old Barge Yard Bridge.

Looking back at the bridge, again from the Riverside side. The bridge is named after Lady Julian, an anchoress in a nearby church, which still sort of stands (it was rebuilt thanks to a bombing during the Second World War) who lived in the fourteenth century. She also wrote the first book by a woman which was written in English and she’s still in print, not a bad little effort.

The bridge was constructed in 2009 and it’s a swing bridge, as there is still a need for boat movements along this stretch of the river. There were over 200 entries submitted in 2008 as to what the bridge should be called, with around 40 of them suggesting a theme around Julian of Norwich. I remember submitting an entry of what I thought it should be called, but this ridiculously wasn’t chosen. I won’t say what it was…..

May 10, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Cathedral Street

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

Cathedral Street leads from Prince of Wales Road to St. Faith’s Road and Horse Fair. It hasn’t changed much since the 1880s map, just the building of some houses which cover the empty space at the top-left side of the street.

But, all of this development was relatively new at that time, as in this 1830s map it’s evident that Prince of Wales Road and Cathedral Street didn’t even exist. Prince of Wales Road was constructed to be a sweeping boulevard to the new railway station and Cathedral Street was laid out at the same time.

Looking down from the Prince of Wales Road end, towards one of the entrances to the Cathedral Close. The buildings on the left-hand side are numbers 4, 6 and 8 Cathedral Street and by the 1930s they had been merged and turned into a hotel. In 1939, the hotel owners were Frederick Bryant and his wife, Kate Bryant. They’re all still one unit and have been jointly converted into flats with a substantial rear building added onto them.

This has been, for at least twenty years, a Chinese restaurant, but it was previously the Duke of Connaught public house. The pub opened in the 1860s and it closed in around the 1970s, when it was converted into a restaurant.

The properties at 4, 6 and 8 Cathedral Street mentioned above are on the left-hand side of this photo, then there’s a dentist at 10 Cathedral Street and an archway leading to the rear of the properties.

Looking back towards Prince of Wales Road.

May 10, 2020
Streets of Norwich – St. Faith’s Lane (Horse Fair to Prince of Wales Road)

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

St. Faith’s Lane is a long road (and has historically been much longer), so this is just the section from Horse Fair to Prince of Wales Road. In the above 1880s map, there isn’t really much on this section, an orchard and a few buildings on the left-hand side and just a couple of buildings on the right-hand side, which is now Stuart Gardens.

These houses overlook Horse Fair and were built somewhere around the turn of the twentieth century. The house with the black door is 32 St. Faith’s Lane and in 1939 it was lived in by:

Percy Smith (born in 1891, worked as a traffic foreman for the omnibus company)

Mary Smith (born in 1896, a housewife)

Philip Smith (born in 1923, a trade apprentice at Laurence & Scott)

The Regent Theatre sign is still visible on the substantial building on the right-hand side. The black doors on the right of the photo are numbers 22 and 24 St. Faith’s Lane. Having a little look at the 1939 register, these were lived in by the Thurston and Lake families respectively.

John Lake, listed as the head of the household at number 24 St. Faith’s Lane (the black door to the furthest right of the photo) worked as a cinema electrician, which was handy if it was the cinema behind that he worked in. He was also an ARP warden, but the register marked him as an untrained warden, so I assume he had just signed up to help the war effort.

This is the rear of what was the Regent Theatre, which became the ABC cinema (there’s an interesting video of that at http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/213377) and later Mercy nightclub, which then closed. But more on this when I get to the Prince of Wales Road post, which this building fronts on to.

More of the former Regent Theatre on the right and the entrance to Stuart Gardens is visible on the left. Ahead is Prince of Wales Road and in older maps, St. Faith’s Road went much further, but the next stretch is now known as Eastbourne Place.

May 10, 2020
Norwich – Horse Fair

I’ve never paid much attention to Horse Fair (or Horsefair) which is located along St. Faith’s Lane. It’s visible in the above map from the 1880s in two separate chunks, but somewhere around the 1950s this was shrunk down in size to what remains today.

And this is what remains, a squashed oval shape (I’m sure there’s a better mathematical word for that) of greenery.

People can go inside it if they want some grass, although I’d suggest that there are better nearby locations.

The entrance has cut iron railings, I assume taken for the war effort.

Norwich School now occupies the offices that overlook the area, suitably named Horsefair House.

The nearby plaque is getting hard to read now, but it says:

“The site of the Horse Fairs during the reign of King Edward I (1272-1307) and King Edward II (1307-1327). It was moved to the Castle Ditches by order of King Henry VII in 1500.”

And, as something else I found out about later, there’s also a bridge under the road by Horse Fair.

May 10, 2020
Streets of Norwich – Stuart Gardens

Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

The location of Stuart Gardens was in 1880 a load of trees in the gardens behind St. Faith’s House. That property has long since been demolished (there is still a building with that name, but it’s on Mountergate), although at least a few trees remain because of the James Stuart Gardens that can be accessed from Recorder Road.

Not a great deal to note here, although the residents are unfortunate that this back street is right near to the central beating heart of Prince of Wales Road and its nightlife (which is limited as of May 2020, but I’m sure it’ll return). So, it doesn’t take much imagination to know what has been recorded around this street.

The street is named after James Stuart, who I had mentioned on my Recorder Road post, a rather fitting name given its location. It’s just a small cul-de-sac, which is reached from St. Faith’s Lane.

May 10, 2020
Norwich – Metal Relief Sculpture of St. Benedict

Located at the end of Wellington Lane where it meets St. Benedict’s Street is this metal sculpture of St. Benedict, which I had mistaken for a modern installation. It transpires that the metal relief sculpture itself is from a branch of the National Provincial Bank on St. Benedict’s Street which opened on 27 October 1957. It was installed in this format in 2012 and there’s more information at http://www.racns.co.uk/sculptures.asp?action=getsurvey&id=147.

On the reverse is the name of the road that it is next to, Grapes Hill.

May 9, 2020