Norwich – Ship (Two Julians)
This is a slightly different visit to those I usually write up, it’s a pub on King Street that unfortunately closed all the way back in 1969. It was known as the Ship, or the Ship Inn, and it is the building in the photo which is painted red. This means that I haven’t visited it, although Julian probably has in his younger days. Firstly, it’s useful to have a look at the photo that George Plunkett took of the pub in 1939 from a very similar position to mine. The main door of the pub is in the centre of the photo and the former cellar hatch is underneath the window just to the left of the door.
The building was a licensed premises from at least 1760 and it was acquired by Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs in the nineteenth century and their branded pub sign is visible in George’s photo. The company was then bought by Bullards and then that was in turn acquired by Watney Mann. After closing its doors on 26 May 1969, it was then purchased by Norwich City Council who in the following years turned it into two residential properties. The ownership by Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs was rather handy as their brewery, the Crown Brewery, was located nearby on the other side of the road, so the beer didn’t have far to go.
The brewery advertised in the Eastern Daily Press in September 1889 that a boozer was available (fortunately, the newspaper didn’t actually keep calling every pub that in the nineteenth century) opposite the Crown Brewery and this was taken on by James Catchpole and he ran it until he died in 1898 and his wife then carrying on operating it for another five years. There was a large auction in the pub in October 1889 which included 150 lots of “useful furniture” and if that wasn’t a sale on behalf of someone else, the recently deceased landlord Walter Blyth must have liked his chairs, tables and headboards.
Ship Yard is located behind the pub and I won’t give any prizes for those who work out how it got its name. This is the entrance to Big Ship Yard and there’s an entrance to what was Little Ship Yard on the right hand side of the pub.
Here’s a map from the 1880s which might make things a little clearer.
The rear of Ship Yard and the buildings down here were demolished around 1970 and rebuilt to provide more modern accommodation. George Plunkett took a photo down here in 1938 and I suspect it might be the only one surviving of this courtyard.
Quoting the great George Plunkett, he noted that “The yard to its south has at some time been partly built over, so that while formerly wide enough for the passage of carts it will now accommodate only pedestrians. The finely carved lintel above bears a design of foliage together with the rather contradictory inscription “Princes In”; it is believed that this was brought here at some time from the famous inn of that name, first mentioned in 1391, which once stood in St George Tombland parish on the north side of Princes St.” This feels a logical argument to me, meaning that this lintel could date back to the late medieval period or Tudor period with a bit of imagination.
That’s the former main door to the pub and I rather like that those timber surrounds to the door are original. The building dates back to around the seventeenth century and was constructed from flint rubble and topped with a pantile roof. The casement windows, the ones either side of the door, are thought to date to when the building was constructed, although the sash windows are later.
During the period after lockdown, Jonathan and I went on an expedition to look for all the parish boundary markers in Norwich. I need to return to the posts I’ve made about these and fix the broken images, but then Jonathan and I can start completing our project.
The loss of this pub is a huge shame and I don’t say that about absolutely everywhere, although Julian often has a crack at that line of argument. There are no pubs remaining on the stretch of King Street and imagine the heritage of this building if it was still a licensed premises, I suspect that it would be something of destination real ale venue given the history. The building was listed in 1954 and it was that which perhaps meant that the city council decided against demolishing it and instead repurposed it, so at least it has survived in some form.
