From the Norwich Mercury 200 years ago this week was this article which interested me due to the link to Swanton Abbott.
“On Wednesday se’nnight, as Edward Woodhouse, of Swanton Abbots, (during the last 27 years head farming man to Wm. Blake, Esq.) was driving his team to Oxnead, his fore horse being alarmed by a miller’s cart, passing at the time, loaded with sacks and covered with a cloth, turned suddenly round, when the unfortunate man was knocked down, and the wheel passing over him, he was so dreadfully injured, as to survive only till the following Friday.”
It’s an interesting old spelling of the village and a rather sad story. Edward Woodhouse died of his injuries on 27 October 1826 and was aged 56. He had been baptised at St. Michael’s Church in Swanton Abbott on 23 December 1770, the son of Edward Woodhouse and Susannah Woodhouse. He was buried at the same church on 1 November 1826 and his grave is still in situ in the graveyard.
And, as I frequently mention to try and get it back into popular usage (which might be slightly aspirational), the word ‘Se’nnight’ is an old expression meaning seven nights, or a week.
I was planning to write about a rail journey from Radom to Warsaw, but I can get very distracted and I was intrigued by this. This rather lovely view of Norwich is an etching with hand-colouring by Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827), published in 1799 and now held by the British Library.
Bishop Bridge is particularly interesting here, as its medieval gatehouse had been demolished in 1791, eight years before the print was published. The gatehouse formed part of the city’s defences, controlling entry across the river, but its weight was damaging the bridge. I’m pleased that the bridge didn’t ultimately fall down as I walk across it most days and I rather like the heritage that it has.
It all feels very peaceful, although there appears to be a fair amount of artistic licence going on here. I’m not entirely confident that Norwich Castle used to look like that, although I wasn’t around in 1799 and even my friend Richard probably doesn’t recall that period. I’ll still ask him, although he tends to be vague about anything before the railways.
The reality is that Norwich wasn’t a quaint little backwater at this time, it was a busy city with plenty of crime and an awful lot of poverty. The artist has made Norwich look wonderfully peaceful, presumably by leaving most of Norwich out.
Anyway, my documenting my rail journey to Warsaw will resume shortly, subject to no further developments in eighteenth-century Norwich.
There’s not much left at Anglia Square now with the demolition of Sovereign House just about complete. I assume that the rubble will be removed over the next few weeks and then attention turns to what will replace it.
I’m still an advocate of restoring the original street alignment, even if it’s a pedestrianised route, so that Botolph Street makes a return.
A map of a very different Norwich. And I’ll take this opportunity to quote George Plunkett with respect to just one of the many beautiful buildings lost, namely the former King’s Arms at 38 Botolph Street. This historic pub was demolished in 1967 for the bloody awful Anglia Square.
“A much older building lost in the Anglia Square development was the King’s Arms public house at No 38, at the eastern corner of Calvert St. On its gable end in large iron characters were the letters “I” and “C” and the date “1646”, now preserved in one of the Norwich museums. Built of brick with a narrow stringcourse marking the first floor level, the house had pantiles at the front, with old English plain tiles covering the roof of the Calvert St wing.”
Norwich Beer Festival was back in the Halls this year and I was determined to volunteer every shift that we were open to the public, primarily so that I didn’t miss any gossip. Here’s the festival during the final stage of the set-up on the Monday morning, with volunteers having also been at St. Andrew’s Hall the previous day to begin the set-up.
The merchandise stand with some of the older Norwich Beer Festival glasses. I do have glasses from the last fifteen years of my volunteering at the festival, but I don’t collect the older ones as they take up so much space. There’s a fine line between preserving local history and being unable to open a kitchen cupboard.
The black sheeting protects the floors of St. Andrew’s. And, some history might be useful here as St Andrew’s Hall and Blackfriars Hall in Norwich were originally parts of the same Dominican friary church, with St Andrew’s occupying the nave and Blackfriars the chancel. The Dominicans, known as the Black Friars because of their black cloaks, took over the site in 1307, although much of the surviving church dates from rebuilding between about 1440 and 1470 following a devastating fire in 1413. After the friary was dissolved in 1538, the city purchased the buildings in 1540, preserving them for civic use rather than allowing their demolition. That showed considered forward planning by the city authorities and has made it easier for the Norwich Beer Festival. And the friars would have liked it, they used to have a brew house by the river.
Blackfriars Hall, so the former chancel of the church.
Very grand.
Setting up the World Beer Bar.
The seating along the former cloister wall all laid out and I liked the new carpet that has been installed.
There’s Roy, who is the main man in glasses, although his respected judgement extends across the whole festival, striding purposefully across the glasses stage.
Getting ready to open.
The cider bar, which is something that I didn’t have time to explore in the end as I struggled to work my way through the beers without needing another distraction.
The food options at the festival.
I wear the radio for the glasses team so that I look important. Roy is naturally important and that’s clear to everyone, whereas I need a little visual boost for customers. I only had to speak into it once during the week, as I was primarily listening for when the volunteer roles were put out. I couldn’t work out how to change channels, but fortunately Matt was able to help. He seems to be able to fix anything whereas my contribution to the technical team remains identifying that something isn’t working and putting a broken label on it.
Speaking of which, here he is, pouring me a Newcastle Brown Ale slushie.
Very nice.
Ian used to be the chair of Norwich CAMRA and he is one of those people who is now designated as a wise man on matters. And then there’s Ivan. Ivan is an institution, he’s everywhere at the beer festival and he’s actually bloody good at what he does. I hope he doesn’t read this as he’ll get a big head, but I’d note that he’s one of those people who just makes things better.
For ten minutes I was given a stewarding role whilst there was an incident elsewhere and I spent this talking to the wonderful Ellie from Ampersand whilst needing to steward absolutely no-one.
Volunteering at the beer festival is, in my view, a really wonderful idea for numerous reasons and that includes the food provided to volunteers, here’s the rather agreeable chicken and chips.
And standing next to my favourite beer festival person is my second favourite beer festival person, namely Sue. She’s not subtle and she wouldn’t claim to be, but she’s Head of Logistics and that included bringing me sausage rolls which is why she’s my second favourite. I’d add that Jen also brought me chicken bakes, but my scoring system is based on many factors and Jen was very high on the list nearly all week. I’d add that the rankings are independently assessed by me and are therefore beyond reasonable challenge.
Ivan and I helped the beer festival by trying lots of their beers to ensure that they were in tip top form. Ivan frequently went over to the bars to offer advice, which I’m sure they were delighted to receive.
This might be the pinnacle of my beer festival career and a role I retire into. Unless Roy decides to take over the entire festival or something and then I’ll follow as his chief adviser.
Note the comment written on in pen, that’s how Sue kept her number two spot.
A beer ice cream, this one used a mint flavoured beer to create a decadent little dessert. I thought it important to establish that I’d had a proper dessert rather than just spending the week drinking beer.
Oscar couldn’t make Monday as his wife wanted a decadent birthday trip out and not an afternoon at a beer festival, so he came along later on in the week. I wouldn’t say that he was drunk, but he had to get driven home the 400 metres to his pub.
Ivan, who somehow has a manager badge, said that it was the rules that boxes should be stacked as high as possible. Roy and I didn’t get involved obviously as we’re very health and safety conscious.
The volunteer meal of the week, the KFC style chicken with chips.
Ivan was very helpful at getting the radio from upstairs every morning and also treating the senior glasses management team.
Jen taking photos in her social media role.
Thanks Jen!
Thanks Sue!
A photo of the hall from the main stage.
Beer comes in many colours.
The volunteer meal of beef shin pie and chips, very lovely.
Ivan was exhausted by the end of the week, not helped by his popping to the pub until the early hours of the morning. This had better not impact on his bar billiards performance this week.
And then it was all over, with loading of the vans beginning as soon as the last customer was out on the Friday. It’s a well-oiled machine, this beer festival.
There’s a staff party with the remaining beer on Saturday night and Craig, the festival organiser, allocated me three of the eighty or so pizzas that were ordered. He’s very good is that Craig.
Spicy Mexican pizza, absolutely delicious. Paula, aware that her league table position had dropped, helpfully kept my glass full.
Chris saying a few words before handing over to Craig.
And Craig, the festival organiser, saying a few words. He’s good he is, and I’m not saying that because of the pizzas and also the crisps he brought me in the week. There’s so much work behind the scenes that he, and of course others, do, and Craig always remains calm and gets on with it.
The volunteers delivered a brilliant festival and I had a great week around such wonderful people. It was also marvellous to see some friends from school, from Lidgate, from the Record Office, from other CAMRA areas, from the LDWA, from Ramblers and lots more besides. It was all really rather lovely.
And, finally, all the beers that I rated at 4.2 or higher on Untappd at the festival.
Bierbrouwerij de Koningshoeven – Three Rules of Authentic Trappist – 4.4
Pastore – Apricot Casa – 4.2
Humber Doucy – Sweet Shade – 4.2
Which means that I can confirm my top three beers were:
Funky Fluid – Major Krush – 4.6
Funky Fluid – Gelato XTREME Black Forest – 4.6
Tartarus – Whisky Barrel Aged Jersey Devil – 4.5
I appreciate that I could have saved everyone some time by simply submitting Poland as my answer, so here’s the list with no Polish beers:
Tartarus – Whisky Barrel Aged Jersey Devil – 4.5
Fengate – Black Lion Rauchbier – 4.4
Bierbrouwerij de Konigshoeven – Three Rules of Authentic Trappist – 4.4
But, a beer festival is more than just about beer, it’s about meeting existing friends and making new ones, and enjoying so many people having a great experience. Oh and it’s about the food. It was great to back in the Halls and here’s to next year, cheers!
There are better photos online of Sovereign House being demolished, but here are a few I managed whilst walking past yesterday. Being away in Poland has meant that I’ve missed some of the more exciting parts, and the building is now coming down quickly. I hadn’t realised that being away would require quite so much catching up on the destruction of Norwich.
Safely at Luton Airport, I had the excitement of staying up overnight whilst waiting for my early morning flight to Lublin. A cheap filter coffee at Pret was in order, which also allowed me to keep my devices fully charged. I do wonder, as an aside, whether this Pret might need to be more proactive about people who aren’t customers occupying several tables and preventing paying customers from finding a seat. Arriving early means I don’t have a problem here, but I notice that some potential customers do.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever noticed before how early security opens at Luton Airport, as I saw numerous passengers going through at 02:00 which is much earlier than somewhere like London Stansted. I decided to go through at 02:30 to help keep me awake and it was suitably quiet and peaceful.
The security process was efficient and the staff were kind and helpful as usual. No shops were open airside at this time, but there was plenty of seating.
A couple of hours after I took this photo, the terminal was packed and there were hardly any seats available.
Mine was the fourth flight of the day out of the airport.
Big Smoke is meant to open at 04:00, but this well-run venue seems to routinely open shortly after 03:00. They’re the first main food outlet that passengers see, so this seems a sensible call if they can get their staff members through security this early. I arrived at 03:30 and received a friendly welcome.
I get an £18 credit to spend at Big Smoke with my lounge pass and this cost exactly £18. A latte alongside avocado, eggs and sweet pickle on sourdough toast. This is actually really decent, there’s a depth of flavour and taste to the food, with the coffee having the required caffeine in it. I’m not in the market to spend £18 on breakfast, as I’m not decadent, but for those who are, this isn’t a bad option.
I thought that I’d pop into the lounge as well to get more coffee. And I managed to get another little breakfast.
Very nice. I’m not sure it would be worth paying £30 for access to this lounge, but my lounge pass means that I don’t need to be burdened with that decision.
I thought that it would be a little busier than this, but everything was clean and they had remembered to polish the cutlery this time. It’s normally caked in dry food which is entirely sub-optimal.
The gate was called a little early and so I meandered over there. The boarding process was clear and well managed, with the staff members ignoring the numerous passengers who seemed to be pushing their luck with large bags. It was a busy flight and there weren’t many free seats left on the aircraft.
Boarding the aircraft, which was G-WUKT that had taken me to Bratislava in June 2025. The seating gods had given me an aisle seat near the front which I was pleased with as it meant I could disembark quickly and I wanted to make a connecting train. The passenger in the middle seat asked me to switch with her boyfriend who was sitting around fifteen rows back. Although I am endlessly helpful, I refused this request as this seems to be happening on over half of flights now. The passenger was shortly afterwards moved by someone else as it transpired that she was in the wrong seat herself, so I was pleased that there wouldn’t be any awkward moments.
We had a wait at Luton Airport due to a lack of slots, but the pilot said he planned to push back anyway and see what happened. It transpired that we had just a short delay before we took off and all was well. The crew were professional and helpful, although they didn’t have much to do as the majority of the passengers were more interested in sleeping than buying food and drink.
I was delighted that by efficient speed walking I was able to be the second person at the border desk which sped things up. I’ve mentioned before that on Wizz Air, it feels that most of the passengers aren’t British in the way they often are with Ryanair. That meant I was through the border quickly and faster than many Poles who were using the electronic passport gates, with the member of border control deciding not to ask me what I was doing in Poland.
It was my first time back in Lublin in nine years and as we had arrived without any significant delay, it meant that I could catch one of the few train services of the day that departed the airport. My flight cost £8.99 and, once again, Wizz Air delighted me with their service.
My next little bit of travel has begun and there’s Liam driving off into the distance after dropping me off at the delights of Luton Airport’s long-stay car park. We saw the shuttle bus arrive and I assumed that it would pick me up promptly. I didn’t realise that it would first undertake a leisurely tour of the car park, taking nine minutes to reach the bus stop.
I didn’t think that it would be wise to stand by the fence taking too many photos, but I realised that the long-stay car park was next to the airside area of the airport. I could see numerous Wizz Air aircraft and the aircraft for my 05:55 flight might well have been among them.
Safely on board as the only passenger in the shuttle bus. I can’t imagine why people aren’t heading to the airport at midnight…. Maybe it’s because people like my friend Richard pay for decadent hotels rather than spending the night appreciating airport infrastructure. They’re definitely missing out.
It was my first time being dropped off at the long-stay car park and I was pleased to be at the terminal just a few minutes after departing. I now have a few hours in Pret before meandering through the security area ready for my flight. How lovely.
These photos are perhaps a little meaningless with the context from others in the series, but Gildengate House has been taken down with some speed since my last post of a few days ago. It’s just Sovereign House, the building in the background, that’s left now.
It still seems slightly strange to walk by the Anglia Square demolition site and see Gildengate House be taken apart bit by bit each day. There was a time in the 1990s that this was used to store the city archives after the central library caught fire, before they were moved to their current site at Norfolk County Hall. Anyway, some more photos……
Now that I’ve finally launched the monthly Indian meal around Norfolk and Lowestoft, several years after first considering it, we began proceedings at Roti in Norwich. There is a democratic process to the location of future meals, but I chose Roti as I had never been, I had heard positive things and it was centrally located. Richard kindly drove me to the venue, which has car parking behind the building.
SUMMARY OF EVENING:
Number of people : 7
Richard sneezing incident : Yes
Drama : Yes
Number of people late : 1
There was a friendly welcome from the staff and we were immediately seated at a suitable table for our group size. I decided that I wouldn’t query the spelling of lager and instead just merrily ordered a Cobra. I waver between beer and mango lassi at these things, but beer felt appropriate on this one. We were puzzled why Gordon got a different menu which had more decadent design and didn’t have a drinks page, but we assumed that’s because they realised he was wealthy as I had mentioned that. It’s a good test of how they deal with VIPs. Six members of the group were suitably early. Jonathan arrived late, although naturally we didn’t say anything.
The restaurant was quite sparsely decorated, which suited me as I don’t particularly like excessive decadence and bling, although Richard is a big fan of both. There were relatively few other customers, but perhaps that is usual on a Thursday evening. The building was originally the New Inn which dates to the 1860s, but was rebuilt in the 1960s. It closed in 2001 until it was converted to Choices video rental a couple of years later, becoming Roti Indian restaurant in around 2010.
It was decided, primarily by me, that we would have two poppadoms each and I was pleased that the chutney tray was of a generous size. I was being very brave as I was next to Richard and he likes to play with his food by throwing it about. Luckily, there were only minor incidents involving the venue’s clean tablecloth.
The tray included a crisp onion salad, a sweet chutney, a sweet chilli sauce and a mint sauce. The sauces offered a useful mixture of sweetness, freshness and gentle heat, with the cooling mint sauce proving my favourite. The chutney added some welcome texture, while the onion salad provided a sharper and crunchier contrast. I’m never sure why restaurants serve such vibrantly coloured accompaniments alongside white tablecloths, but I admire their optimism.
I’m focusing on writing about the venue rather than the people, but Gordon likes attention and so here he is reading the menu intently.
I went for the Chicken Tikka Palak with lemon rice and peshwari naan. The portions were generous, especially given the prices charged, and everything arrived suitably hot. The food looked well presented and I thought that the curry itself looked particularly appetising.
The chicken in the palak was tender and the spinach added some healthy goodness to the arrangement. The green chillies provided a noticeable but manageable heat without overwhelming the other flavours. The lemon rice had a distinct citrus character which lifted the richer curry, rather than merely offering the vague suggestion that a lemon might once have been stored nearby. The peshwari naan was soft, generously filled and pleasantly sweet, although I would have preferred a little more crispness around its edges.
There was a little confusion about one dish and that certainly added to the excitement when Steve realised he had the wrong one. I was focused on my meal though, so I didn’t get involved.
A particularly welcome touch was the complimentary drink offered at the end of the meal. It’s probably meant to be mainly spirits, but they were broad in their offering and so I had another beer. Gordon got himself another Tiger and so I kindly shared some of that. He was fine with that policy after he discovered I’d done it. Richard went for a whisky and I will note here that he didn’t opt for Bell’s this time and I make that clear because I got muddled up once and said that he was a big fan of it, whereas it appears it’s only an occasional treat.
Probably not helped by us, but the payment process was efficient as they had printed out a bill with everything itemised on it, which makes payment easier. The staff were friendly, engaging and helpful, so this is certainly a venue which I’d return to. I felt that the prices were very reasonable, the quality of the food was high and the surroundings were clean and comfortable.
To add to the excitement, we then voted on the location of November’s meal. I can reveal that we are going to Shapla Tandoori in Wymondham. Richard and I have since realised that we have been there before, but I think I can manage the considerable hardship of a repeat visit.
