Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

  • Mulbarton – Name Origin

    Mulbarton – Name Origin

    Harking back to our second training walk, we headed towards Mulbarton and the village’s only remaining medieval building is the church. The Concise Oxford Dictionary comments on the origins of the village name:

    Mulbarton, Norfolk. Molkebertuna in Saxon period, Molkebertestuna in Domesday Book, Mulkebertun in 1250. Comes from Meolc-beretun, meaning outlying dairy farm.

    According to the same dictionary, the ‘eo’ often became ‘o’ or ‘u’ because they sounded similar. The ‘molke’ section is milk, similar to the current Dutch word and derived from the German ‘milch’.

  • Norwich – Coast to Coast

    Norwich – Coast to Coast

    Sad to hear that Coast to Coast, located to the left of TGI Fridays in the above photo, is closing permanently in Norwich. They bemused me, they were becoming popular locally and their reviews were positive. But they were for months deluging out offers whereby anyone who had a Tastecard, Gourmet Society card or voucher could get 50% off of food. If you were a diner who went in without those cards, you were getting charged twice the amount of everyone else and I’m not sure how that could ever end well.

    They can run their restaurant how they wanted, but why they devalued their product so much never quite made sense to me. Anyway, I hope the space is used for a large Greggs, constantly good value without gimmicks.

  • Thorpe (Norwich) – St. Andrew’s Hospital Graveyard and Polish Community Memorial

    Thorpe (Norwich) – St. Andrew’s Hospital Graveyard and Polish Community Memorial

    Although now hidden away in the middle of Broadland Business Park near Thorpe, this cemetery was once in a quiet and remote area near to St. Andrew’s Hospital. The hospital itself was opened in 1814, when known as Norfolk County Asylum, and it remained in use as a mental health hospital until 1998.

    This area was used as a graveyard from 1859 until 1966, replacing another site that had been used for burials between 1814 and 1859. This original site had been a little erratic, with burials inside the confines of the main hospital buildings and all of the burial records from that time have been lost.

    The trees give the area some solitude and there’s paving which winds to the memorial stone in the centre of the site.

    The memorial, which is also in remembrance of the Polish Community, many of who came to the building during the Second World War when it was used as a military hospital. There are three Poles buried here, who are remembered with memorial stones. There was once a small memorial chapel on this site, although it has long since been demolished.

    The text on the memorial, with over 1,400 people thought to have been buried here when it was a mental health institution. Tragically, the hospital board made a disgraceful decision in 1968, against advice, to flog off for scrap all of the metal discs which marked where the burials were located, including the three Poles. There are burial records and a map, so anyone could work out approximately where each burial is located, but unfortunately, nothing is now marked.

  • Group Walking is Back…..

    Group Walking is Back…..

    At least for me, yesterday was the chance to go on a small group walk for the first time since March. All socially distanced, just a small group of under the maximum allowed and all professionally-led (since I wasn’t leading it).

    An intriguing tree…..

    The walk went around Thorpe marshes at first, which is where most of the photos below are from. I’ve neglected walking this area as I had forgotten about it, which isn’t much of an excuse, but it was peaceful and I’m not sure many people are aware of the walking options around there.

    There’s a photo of a deer drinking on the other side of the river, which I hoped was a Chinese water deer given there are lots around there, which were introduced from China in the nineteenth century. I’ve been told it’s a Muntjac though, but nonetheless, it still looked sweet and innocent.

    Anyway, the photos…..

       

  • Norwich – Name Origin

    Norwich – Name Origin

    Since I’ve been merrily writing about the name origins of numerous villages around Norfolk, it perhaps makes sense to mention the county’s major city. No, not Dereham, it’s Norwich.

    The Concise Oxford Dictionary comments on the origins:

    Norwich, Norfolk. Norowic in 930, Noruic in Domesday Book. North Town.

    This is one of the book’s shorter definitions and Norvic is still used today, not least by the Bishop of Norwich who signs off with this title. The explanation, as the book says, is simple, it just means North Town, so that makes this blog post nice and easy….. The Saxon ‘wich’ meaning settlement or town is relatively frequently seen, including at Ipswich, Harwich, Greenwich and so on.

  • Saxlingham – St. Mary’s Church

    Saxlingham – St. Mary’s Church

    I’m going to lump the Saxlinghams together for the purposes of this blog, but this ruined church is in Saxlingham Thorpe.

    St. Mary’s was first built in around the tenth century, although the tower dates from the fifteenth century and was one of the last parts to be added. The tower, which once had two bells, retains most of its original height and like the rest of the church is constructed using flint with brick dressing.

    Looking towards the end of the church at the chancel, which was extended in the late medieval ages and it’s still evident where the building was extended by the change of stonework.

    Repairs to the church stopped in 1684 and it soon started to fall down. Some interiors and structural elements were taken to the nearby St. Mary’s Church in Saxlingham Nethergate. Now surrounded by trees, there was a medieval village around here, but people moved away for agricultural needs and it was that population movement that led to the church falling out of use.

  • Streets of Norwich – Drays Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Drays Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    I include this yard mostly for completeness than for any historical interest, as it’s a new yard with a limited amount of heritage. Located off of King Street, it’s located roughly in between the two PH symbols on the above map, on the King Street Old Brewery side of the map.

    As for why its called Drays Yard (the word dray is a beer delivery, or more precisely the cart the beer was carried on) I’m not sure, but I imagine it’s linked to the former nearby King Street Brewery site.

    There are mostly new residential plots in the yard.

  • Streets of Norwich – Scott’s Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Scott’s Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Scott’s Yard is located off of Ber Street, connecting into Jolly Butchers Yard. It too once had a pub at its entrance, the Old Friends, which opened in the 1860s and was closed down in 1908 as part of the national plan to pay compensation to the owners of licensed properties (and it mostly went to the owners, not much went to the licencees themselves) in a bid to reduce the number of pubs.

    The yard was formerly primarily residential, but became more commercial during the late twentieth-century. This has since changed since planning permission was given in 2016 to demolish a warehouse and to build five residential dwellings.

  • Trowse – Name Origin

    Trowse – Name Origin

    Since a few of our walks have cut through Trowse, not least this one, here’s something about the origins of the village name.

    The Concise Oxford Dictionary comments on the origins:

    Trowse Newton, Norfolk. Treus Newtona in Domesday Book, Trous in 1254 and Trowes cum Newtone in 1316. Comes from Scandinavian tre-hus, or wooden house.

    The village is more formally known as Trowse with Newton and back in the tenth century, it was the case that Newton was the more important manner, and Trowse the attached settlement. There are some differing views about this, some people feel that it is ‘tree-house’ because the properties were once built in a wet area and needed to be raised.

    The argument on Wikipedia is that it’s named after a gate that could be lifted up and down, and they make some link to the word trousers. Personally, I think that sounds not inconsiderably fanciful. I’m with the settlement being named after the wooden houses that were located here in the tenth century, nothing to do with houses being built on stilts or with things being lifted up and down.

  • Pulham Market Railway Station For Sale

    Pulham Market Railway Station For Sale

    This would be a quite marvellous place to live, the former railway station of Pulham Market. Of course, it’d be even better if it had remained in use rather than being closed down to passengers in 1953, but at least it has been preserved. The 4-bedroom property is for sale with a suggested house price of £465,000, although it all looks spacious and there’s still a long platform at the rear. There’s also a bonus that the old red phone box and the signalling equipment put up by the platforms are all included in the sale.

    The property details are on the Rightmove web-site.