Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Brandon – Brandon Railway Station (Again)

    Brandon – Brandon Railway Station (Again)

    A couple of years ago I posted about Brandon railway station, a pretty and quaint station which is a little similar in style to nearby Thetford railway station. Thetford is partially closed up, but Brandon is entirely closed up and the station buildings are falling down. And now there is a plan to demolish them entirely, which has seemingly been passed by the local council.

    Much as Greater Anglia annoy me occasionally, I’ve still been very impressed generally about their responsibility towards their railway infrastructure. But, it looks to me that there’s been a slight failure of communication here from Greater Anglia, who have presented nearly nothing about what they’re doing to mitigate the historic loss if the station buildings are demolished.

    I post on this blog quite a lot about the dreadful mistakes made in the past, indeed, just yesterday I whittled on about the demolition of a street in Norwich which was turned into a beautiful car park. And here, in Brandon, that’s what Greater Anglia wants to build. A car park that apparently needs the demolition of the station buildings, even though building a car park wouldn’t require their demolition so that all seems something of a misnomer. Perhaps the building is too far gone, but there’s no talk about saving any interiors, about keeping any part of the structure, about keeping the facade or indeed anything.

    There’s a news release from Greater Anglia which really seeks to shift the blame onto the Railway Heritage Trust, which strikes me as clever, but unfortunate. The news release seems clumsy to me as well, I’m really not sure that many people reading it are that engaged about improving drainage on the site that could be achieved by demolishing some buildings of not inconsiderable heritage.

    Personally, I think the demolition is something that will be regretted in years, rather than decades, but Greater Anglia does perhaps owe it to the public to actually state what they’re doing to preserve what heritage they can, rather than applaud their exciting new car park. Their logic about how it has been falling down for years with nothing being done also perhaps says more about Greater Anglia’s corporate responsibility rather than anything else. They’re spending a million pounds on this project and I’m struggling to see how they can manage to save absolutely none of the heritage in any shape or form with that level of funding.

    To those heritage groups fighting for the railway station, good luck….

  • Streets of Norwich – Nunns Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Nunns Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    I like how the council have placed several of these tablets on the pavement along St. Augustine’s Street, noting where a number of yards are located.

    The yard is now closed off and its named after the Nunn family who ran a number of businesses in this locality in the early nineteenth century. Looking at some old census records for this yard, it’s notable just how many people lived in each household. In one house, the head of which was Charles Coxford, there were seven people in a small property (and some along this street had twice that number), including three lodgers.

  • London – British Museum (Bishopgate Bridge by John Thirtle)

    London – British Museum (Bishopgate Bridge by John Thirtle)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    This drawing was made by John Thirtle, likely at the very end of the eighteenth century or the early part of the nineteenth century. The museum purchased the drawing from Andrew Wyld in 1977, a dealer in fine art. Like nearly everything I seem to look up, this artwork isn’t on public display and they don’t seem to have used it in any exhibitions or the like. It’s a pen and grey ink drawing with a grey wash, showing Bishopgate Bridge. Thirtle is buried in the Rosary Cemetery, a reminder to myself that I should go and have another investigation there as I haven’t visited in a while.

    I think this photo was taken from around the same place as the above drawing was made, I was slightly hampered by three things. One were bushes, one was a big tree and the other was a blasted fence where I wanted to stand to take the photo. I didn’t fancy having any little incidents by climbing over that small fence and falling into the River Wensum, so this is the best that I could safely get.

  • Streets of Norwich – Winecoopers Arms Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Winecoopers Arms Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    This yard is located off of St. Augustine’s Street, visible on the above 1880s map next to the pub from where it takes its name, the Winecoopers’ Arms. The pub traded between the 1830s and 1936, although nearly managed to get itself shut down in 1905 when the police didn’t like that the pub’s back yard opened into the yard where people lived. I suspect some residents would have preferred that for convenience, but, perhaps not all.

    The pub frontage hasn’t changed enormously, it’s the bit sticking out with glass, with George Plunkett having taken a photo of what it looked like in 1938.

    Now a modern building on the site of the yard’s entrance.

    Although the old style street name survives, with four households being registered here when the 1939 Register was completed.

  • Streets of Norwich – Rose Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Rose Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Rose Yard is located off of St. Augustine’s Street and back in the 1880s, it was more than just a yard and was instead a sizeable street which led onto Edward Street.

    There’s a chunk of lost heritage here, the site is now pretty much just a car park, but George Plunkett has a photo of what it used to look like. It’s a real loss of an area which should still be housing, with the properties being demolished after the Second World War and then the site was just flogged off in bits.

    The building on the right was once the Rose Inn and there had been an inn on the site since the fourteenth century, with space for 100 horses being advertised in the nineteenth century. The window visible on the right is the original nineteenth century pub frontage and the pub carried on trading until 1981. With over 500 years of trading history, it’s sad to see the building in this state, it’d make a fine site for a pub….

  • Streets of Norwich – Nichols Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Nichols Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    This yard is located by the ‘T’ of Street and it used to lead into Barnes’s Yard, although that has now been closed off.

    The frontage of the yard, which is closed off from St. Augustine’s Street.

    As for why its called Nichols Yard, no-one seems quite sure….

  • Streets of Norwich – Hindes Yard

    Streets of Norwich – Hindes Yard

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Hindes Yard is located off of St. Augustine’s Street, just above where it says ‘free trade tavern’ on the above map from the 1880s.

    It’s one of many yards along this street, many of which have survived in some form, although some of them are closed off. The name of the yard likely comes from the early part of the nineteenth century, after the local Hinde family who ran a nearby manufacturing business.

    Back in 1939, there were three households in the yard, with six people living across the properties.

  • Streets of Norwich – Bakers Road

    Streets of Norwich – Bakers Road

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Baker’s Road, also known as Baker Road, connects Oak Street and St. Augustine Street, and it’s one that has changed substantially over the last century.

    This is Baker’s Road from the St. Augustine’s Street end, looking very different to 50 years ago as all of the terraced houses on the left hand-side were pulled down in July 1973.

    The pulling down of the houses meant that previously hidden sections of the city wall were uncovered, which were previously in the backyards of the properties along here (and visible in the above map).

    Looking back towards St. Augustine Street.

    Not much remains of this section down towards Oak Street, but the council are looking at the potential of making clear that the wall used to be wider than this suggests.

    The house painted white is number 31, which in 1939 was lived in by 6 people, all from the Hardy family. There was Amos Hardy, a pedlar, and his wife, along with five children, including Benjamin, Joyce, Eric and Douglas. Benjamin’s job was marked as “of national importance”, working as a coil spring operator.

    A green area where the houses stood, with the street being named after the number of bakeries that were once here.

  • London – British Museum (Great Yarmouth Fisher Girl by John Sell Cotman)

    London – British Museum (Great Yarmouth Fisher Girl by John Sell Cotman)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    A watercolour of a fishwife in Great Yarmouth by John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) which was acquired by the British Museum in 1902 from James Reeve. They don’t know when it was painted, but Cotman lived in Great Yarmouth between 1812 and 1823, so it was probably then. There’s something quite intriguing about this one-eyed lady, standing in front of a lottery sign, with her key at her waist and her fish on her head. I’m not sure that I can think of another painting which is more evocative of Great Yarmouth at that time. I’m equally unsure what that says about Great Yarmouth or me, but there we go….

  • Streets of Norwich – Recorder Road

    Streets of Norwich – Recorder Road

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    Recorder Road is a relatively new street in Norwich, winding its way through what was until the early twentieth century a distillery and vinegar works. It is L-shaped and connects Horsefair to Prince of Wales Road.

    As the road is relatively new, there’s not a great of historic interest along here, with this being the road from the Prince of Wales Road end.

    The Greek Orthodox Church, which was built for the Christian Scientists in 1934 and was designed by Herbert G Ibberson to seat 300 people. I’ve never thought it was particularly exciting architecturally, but it is a listed building as it’s apparently notable for its Arts and Crafts style of design

    There’s a walkway which connects through to the River Wensum riverside footpath.

    This is where it gets more exciting, when we approach Horsefair, and it’s Stuart Court. These are almshouses which were constructed in 1914 and are listed buildings noted for their Dutch-style design.

    The plaque reads “these housen were built in the year 1915 in memory of James Stuart, Privy Councillor born at Balgonie, Scotland, 1843. Sometime a citizen of Norwich died at Carrow Abbey 1913”. I’m going to post about that word ‘housen’ in another post, it should be used more…..

    A media report at the time noted that “these cottages are two-storied and designed on the flat principle, since owing to the preciousness of land it is impossible to build this class of dwelling economically on any other plan. Each storey, therefore, forms a complete and entirely private home, planned on thoroughly hygienic lines and fitted up in a way which is too rarely met with houses designed for persons of such small means. A wash-house is provided, for instance, containing a tip-up bath, a copper with a patent steam extractor, and many other useful features; while every building is supplied with gas pipes, and in each wash-house space has been left for a gas cooker, tenants being allowed to install a slot meter or not as they wish”.

    Once again, I’ve managed to pay no attention to this despite walking by it hundreds of times.

    This plaque is inside the entranceway to the gardens constructed in 1922, with the gardens also being named after James Stuart. This is the third listed building on Recorder Road, impressive since everything on it is twentieth century (or this century I suppose). The gardens and the gateway were designed by Edward Boardman, who died in 1910, showing how long this took to be finished.

    Some rather nice gardens, very peaceful.

    One mystery I haven’t been able to answer, I don’t know why it’s called Recorder Road. I’m sure it’s obvious, but it’s gone over my head.