I’ve written about Cow Tower before when I was wittering on about the parish of St. Helen’s. However, I’d heard that the gate that has for years prevented people entering the site has been removed, so I thought I’d check on that arrangement.
And the gate has indeed been opened, whether by vandalism or design, I don’t know.
This means for the first time, I’ve been able to see inside the whole structure. To repeat what I wrote before:
“The tower was built between 1398 and 1399, used to defend against foreign invasion and local troublemakers. The latter caused the city some problems during Kett’s Rebellion in 1549, and the structure was damaged during that time.
The stairs that go up to the higher parts of the tower, which is all inaccessible now since the floors have collapsed. Much was demolished during the late eighteenth century, including many city walls and towers, but this survived. This was perhaps as it came under the care of the Great Hospital, who had no real need to demolish it. The building was patched up in the nineteenth century, but this was done by sloppy civil engineers and they caused large cracks to appear by their use of modern cement.”
A former fireplace that I haven’t seen before.
And the interior arrangement. Annoyingly, my camera lens was obviously not impeccably clean as there’s a blur on some of the photos which is sub-optimal.
It’s a new season for Norwich bar billiards and time for the first league match for the Artichoke Hearts. Now I appear to be captain (which is either a mark of trust or a sign that standards have slipped, I’m fairly sure I know which it is), this meant that I had the honour of being involved with the draw for the evening. As I don’t get out much, this was all very exciting. The team we were playing was the Serengeti, who I used to play for, which added to the potential drama and I was inevitably going to be on my best behaviour. Many thanks to Roy, the Serengeti captain and one of the nicest people going, for all of this excitement.
And there’s the draw, six singles matches and three doubles. As the Serengeti had seven players, I randomly drew one to not play a singles game and that by chance was my friend Emma, but she was very calm about the matter. We only had five players and poor Terri found herself playing two singles games in a row and it was Luke that was drawn to play two doubles matches.
I thought I’d better have a beer to calm my nerves, this is the Best Laid Plans from Salopian Brewery, a fruity, fluffy and light beer.
It’s all happening now. Emma took charge in the role of being the official scribe which involved writing all the results up on the board, and she generally did this quite well. I think Emma sort of agreed that I was on my best behaviour throughout.
After four games, it was 2-2 and so this all felt quite stressful, so I went to get another beer. This is the Foamy Dome from Three Blind Mice Brewery, which had some orange punching through in terms of the flavour. There was then food and I managed to forget to photograph it, a slightly sub-optimal arrangement. Landlord Oscar marched across the room at this point and everyone was stunned into silence, we think he was trying to pick up some tactics for his team games.
Matters didn’t become less stressful for me, as we found ourselves 4-2 down with the three doubles matches still to play. Luke and Vaughan won their match, then Terri and I won in a very close game against Emma and Roy. That meant it was 4-4 with one game left and not only was it tense, it went down to the final ball. There’s Luke taking his shot and, to cut a long story short, it was all enough and we found ourselves 5-4 up. I pretended that it was all just a game and it didn’t matter, but I was already planning my next beer as I needed a celebration.
And here’s my reward for our team’s performance, a pint of Creme Bearlee and I must have been very stressed as I’ve realised that I didn’t put this on Untappd. And poor Vaughan and PJ in their first league game, I’m pleased that they seemed to enjoy it enough to come back again and not be put off.
The final result, 5-4 to the Artichoke Hearts. Anyway, the Serengeti are a fine team, the games were very close and they were unlucky not to come out ahead. But, that’s enough praise, we all had a lovely time and at least I know we won’t end the season on zero points. And I had an excuse to pop to the Weaver’s and the King’s Head afterwards to settle my nerves. The main thing is though there’s lots of great people involved, it’s a fun thing to do and if anyone is interested in coming along to watch, please do! The next match is at home to the Black Stars next week and they are known to be pretty formidable. I’m wondering if we could have a strategy of overdosing them on bar snacks, that might be our best plan here.
I was walking by the other side of the Anglia Square development yesterday and realised I could see the cathedral from Edward Street for the first time now the demolition is progressing. And the whole lot is now coming steadily down, so there might be posts every couple of days now to excite and delight my two readers.
This news article appeared in the Norwich Mercury 200 years ago this week, although it had evidently taken them some time to hear of the news.
“In August last, on board the Honourable Company’s ship, Vansittart, on his passage from Bombay to China, John Hammont Cooper, aged 17, youngest son of T. H. Cooper, Esq. late of North Walsham, most sincerely lamented by his family and friends.”
In situations like this, I find it intriguing what a young man from the North Walsham area would have been doing travelling from Bombay to China at this time.
The Vansittart was a merchant ship owned by the British East India Company and at the time, although for not much longer, they had a monopoly in terms of their UK trade with India and China. The ship had launched in 1813 and John Hammont Cooper went on its seventh voyage.
The ship left Downs (a shipping area of the North Sea) on 9 January 1825, bound for the Cape, Bombay, and China. The ship reached the Cape on 13 March, and Bombay on 31 May. It left Bombay on 11 August, and arrived at Whampoa, Hong Kong, on 1 October 1825. That was the section of the journey that Cooper didn’t complete.
John Hammont Cooper had been born on 24 December 1807 and was baptised on the following day which was quite festive. He was the son of Thomas Hammont Cooper and Mary Vernon. The family don’t appear to have been hugely wealthy, although they did own some land in North Walsham.
Thomas Hammont Cooper was a Captain-Lieutenant in the Norfolk Militia Western Regiment, a rank now abolished and this was more of a Dad’s Army type set-up in case the French invaded North Norfolk. However, Thomas wrote two books on infantry and military work, so he must have had some military knowledge.
One thing I’ve never much thought about, as this doesn’t impact on my daily life, is how many people would be on one of these ships. It seems that they might have a crew of 100 people and would take 50 or so passengers, although the numbers varied widely. Unfortunately, the crew and passenger lists aren’t available for this journey, so it’s not clear to me whether Cooper was a passenger on some commercial trade, whether he was crew or whether he was some sort of military presence on board.
But, either way, this must have been some considerable adventure…..
Just a random article in the 5 October 1905 about the then landlord of the Artichoke pub in Norwich.
“At the same Court, Frederick Sinclair, the Artichoke, Magdalen Gate, Norwich, was summoned for working a mare in an unfit state.—Inspector Adams said the mare was very lame and not fit to be driven. The animal was suffering from sprained tendons.—Defendant admitted that the mare was not in a fit state to be driven when the Inspector stopped him, but he contended that he (defendant) saw the lameness as soon as the Inspector, and was then about to turn round. He sent the animal home by train.—After further evidence, the Chairman said the Magistrates believed there was a doubt about the case, and defendant would have the benefit of it. The case was therefore dismissed.”
So many questions….. I’m disappointed that it’s not clear in the newspaper article where this mare was discovered. Just popping it on a train home seems like something off a faff and it’s certainly not a service offered by Greater Anglia at the moment. There’s sometimes not enough space for bikes, let alone mares with sprained tendons.
And which railway station? Maybe the now closed Norwich City railway station which would have been the nearest to the pub. And I can imagine that Frederick Sinclair would have been most annoyed by the intrusion into his day, especially as the case was dismissed when he went to court.
– as I became intrigued by this case, I looked into it more and it transpired that Sinclair wasn’t with the mare when it was stopped and he claimed that it hadn’t been in pain when he had last seen it. And the mare had reached Great Yarmouth, so that resolves which train it was….
Having been away for a little while, quite a lot has changed at Anglia Square now. The cinema has entirely gone and the buildings are coming down at quite a pace. It’s surprising just how challenging it already is to work out what was where, but it’s clear that there will soon be very little left. There is though far more water being sprayed over the rubble than before, perhaps to counter the complaints about all the dust everywhere.
This wasn’t a rail journey of any great note, but sometimes the mundane still needs to be recorded. After a rather lovely few days at Beer Con, I departed early on Easter Monday morning from Norwich railway station. It was quiet, people were focused on their Easter eggs.
There’s the Greater Anglia train to Ely at the back of the platform.
This service was only going as far as Ely due to engineering works that prevented it from reaching the promised land that is Cambridge. That meant that most sensible people were going to London directly arriving into London Liverpool Street, but that was more expensive and so I wasn’t. Although there were points failure and sadly a suicide on that line, so it might likely have been a slower option anyway. It did at least mean a quiet and peaceful train service, as this line can get rather busy.
And arriving safely into the beautiful city of Ely.
Then the exciting bus replacement service from Ely to Cambridge. I was the last person to board this before they thought it had better get going and everyone else behind crowded onto what looked like a nicer bus. This one was far too hot, I’m surprised passengers didn’t get heat stroke, but the driver was quite chirpy although it might have been delirium caused by the heat.
After a quick visit to the new Tesco opposite Cambridge railway station, I meandered to the platform with around thirty minutes before my train. For reasons I’ve never quite understood, Thameslink trains seem to sometimes depart one minute before the scheduled departure time, which caused an argument as one passenger ran to the train to try and board before being shouted to stand back as it was about to depart. I was restricted by what train I could get with an advance ticket, so I had less need to rush.
I thought I would embark on my meal deal at this point and very unusually I didn’t go for the prawn mayo option as I felt that this was a chicken day. I should probably get out more….
The Thameslink train thundering into the station.
The Thameslink service, which left one minute before the departure time, remained relatively quiet, although as there are twelve carriages it’s not exactly limited for space. And, as part of my survey of global trends, I noted that a passenger had his feet on the seats. Not that I go on about this….
Farringdon station where I was changing for another Thameslink train to take me to Luton Airport Parkway. I’m not sure why the route took me through London St. Pancras to get to Farringdon, then went back that way, so I went to a station further south than I needed. There were some young football fans shouting something about “we are the blues, we are the blue army, who are we?” as if they’d forgotten. They were ignored by everyone, which I felt was positive.
And onto the next Thameslink train which was heading to Bedford. This was relatively quiet and everything was on time, so I arrived into the delights of Luton Airport Parkway station which is slightly less annoying when leaving it than arriving into it.
And the walk to Luton Airport, which is around twenty minutes as I refuse to pay for the shuttle as it’s too expensive. The ticket price for Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway was £22 and as it was on time, annoyingly, there was no Delay Repay…. The ticket didn’t work at the Cambridge or Luton Airport Parkway station barriers, but there were gateline staff to let me through. So, one Greater Anglia train, one Greater Anglia bus replacement and two Thameslink trains….
For the three of my loyal readers who haven’t already been breathless with excitement following my previous brief write-ups, here is the definitive post-mortem of the 2026 Beer Con weekend.
Some overall comments, as numerous people have asked me how it all went. This was a really well planned event, the attention to detail was high and although the ticket prices were over £15 each, there was a wide selection of beer, numerous interesting speakers (not that I quite got to hear them speak as I got distracted by the beer) and other entertainment.
I didn’t hear of anyone who was unhappy with the event, but what was notable to me was the positive and upbeat atmosphere across the three days. The only point that might need addressing is the number of toilets, but that’s a far more minor problem than needing to address the beer quality or selection.
Everything felt safe, secure and the volunteers and staff were always friendly and helpful. I’ve mentioned Bailey and Leanne as I remembered their names (and because they didn’t annoy me, although no-one actually did to be fair…), but it was a delight to volunteer here. Volunteers were looked after with beer, food and free tickets to the event, so it was all suitably rewarding.
I very much liked being able to speak to some brewers and it was good to see some familiar publicans and breweries from outside the area on the trade day. Polly’s made a big impression on many people for all the right reasons and the enthusiasm from Ampersand and Pastore all added positively to the event.
I don’t know how the event worked for the organisers in terms of the finances, but I hope that they want to put another one on. It’s a combination of a trade event and a beer festival which all combined to be a celebration of brewing and liquid education. The reaction from the trade customers seemed to be one of respect for the organisation, which I know isn’t always the case for beer festivals that can sometimes feel a little too commercial.
It was also handy that it was near to the White Lion, although it was clumsy of me to get muddled up every night when I accidentally walked the short distance to it, but Oscar is always pleased to see me. Well, something like that.
I was lucky to work with lovely volunteers, most of whom I already knew, and apologies to those I likely slightly bored with my witterings about beer. I tried not to talk about Polish beer too much, even though it’s hard not to talk about some of the best beer in the world. Anyway, let’s not go down that line again.
Perhaps most importantly, I made a mistake in naming my beer of the festival in an earlier post. After a rigorous check of my Untappd account, it was the 4.6 rated Cosmos [Banana, Mango and Coconut] from Rivington Brewing Co. This was a creamy pastry sour with lots of fruit and really quite decadent. This means I’ll forgive Rivington for not sending me replacement cans that they were going to after a couple rather blew up….. A quite remarkable beer and I hadn’t been aware that they made pastry sours.
Anyway, if the event takes place again next year, and I haven’t been fired, I’d be very willing to help again. All very lovely and an enjoyable Easter weekend.
And back for the third and final day of Beer Con 2026, the sun was sort of shining and I was ready for my two final volunteering shifts.
I was back on the cask and cider bar, being pleased to be put with the wonderful Chris who is one of those responsible for the Curiosity Bar at Norwich Beer Festival. I’m an advocate of increasing their budget, but organiser Craig will just comment that I only like beer that doesn’t taste of beer again….
We were near the band, and I’d better add that they weren’t unpopular, I took this photo whilst they were doing their warm-ups or whatever the musical term is. Fortunately, the music wasn’t too loud as I’m now over 20 and I didn’t like too much frivolity.
For the second session, I was initially at the Beak and Weekend Project, both fine breweries. At the start of proceedings many of the brewers were here themselves, but they weren’t all here on the Saturday night.
The view from behind the counter soon after opening. I like serving keg, although I didn’t do it for long… Incidentally, there’s plenty to this whole Beer Con event, there were talks taking place, entertainment and other things to surprise and delight visitors.
And that was because I was given the exciting promotion (well, I think that it was a promotion) of being on the Old Man Joe’s bar, which had a selection of cask ales, soft drinks and is the area where the snacks were. What could possibly go wrong?
Fair play to the organisers Boom Tower, there’s a real attention to detail in setting up this little traditional pub area. Setting this whole arrangement up across the two floors must have taken some time, but the organisers really thought about adding character to everything.
I popped down to check that Roy and Jen weren’t arguing, but they were focused on chatting to their VIP customer. Note Roy and Jen felt it better to be at the end of their counter section to avoid any disputes.
Roy had created badges so that I was there in spirit 🙂 Looking forwards to the 2026 Norwich Beer Festival!
Roy came to see me anyway to help test some of the cask beers and to check how well I was managing.
After getting muddled up and going to the White Lion and Artichoke again after the end of Beer Con, I discovered that the Black Stars were in the Artichoke practising for our game in a few weeks. Here’s Gabriel, the hero of the practice last week, showing Dave some of his shots.
And then I got muddled up once again and went to the King’s Head.
For those who haven’t had the excitement of reading about day one at Beer Con, do that first. I started off with visiting Lucy and the CAMRA stand upstairs at the event, filling in a survey about beer festivals which gave me the chance to spin the wheel to get a prize. I won a glass. As Roy and I, being the glasses & tokens ‘management’ team from Norwich Beer Festival, were both there we didn’t think that was very exciting so Lucy kindly let me have a cellarmanship book which Ivan had written.
I was volunteering on the first and third day of Beer Con, but they gave me multiple free tickets and lots of beer for the second day where I attended as a visitor in the evening. There was always a positive and inviting atmosphere at the event, being busy but never overly crowded.
Back downstairs, Julian was at the priority seating. This was not so much the decadent private seating for VIPs that Richard would book, but for those who needed a little sit down. Whilst I’m commenting on this photo, I have to note that’s one of the best beers of the festival, the BA Brownie Empress Tonkoko from Brew York, a sweet, punchy, chocolately and decadent little number.
Whilst I’m here I should mention the very delicious Tropical Sundae from Yonder which had a decent mouthfeel, was creamy and fruity. Oh, and the Sticky Toffee Puddin’ which was sweet with a nice toffee flavour, verging on decadent.
And, the best beer of the festival for me was the BA Interceptor Fiji Rum from Emperor’s Brewery. This was smooth, chocolatey, maple flavoured and not too boozy for its 14.3% ABV. The brewery is from Leicestershire and the only other beer I’ve had from them in the past is Too Much Moon Pie, a smooth and decadent stout, which I had the Artichoke last year. But, I will look out for them in the future.
I gave Gordon one of my tickets as I’m friendly like that. Ivan was floating about for a while as well, but he had a Friday Five event to go and manage, something which I will actually go on at some point in the near future;
Julian looking excited to see my selection of Beyond the Firmament from Electric Bear Brewing, which was hazy, hoppy, slightly dank and rather decent. And that’s the exceptional Roy as well. Jen went off dancing, which we all thought was far too vibrant and animated for us so we ignored it and pretended that we didn’t know about it.
And also a delight to see Ben and Chris from Pastore and they had two delicious sours, the Roulade – Blueberry Lemon and the Doom II. The former was my favourite, gently tart and lots of lemon, but the Doom II was also very agreeable, tart, fruity and certainly wild…
After a very enjoyable evening at Beer Con I thought it might be sensible to go home at a sensible time, but then I got muddled up again and went to the White Lion. After a quick bit of interfering with their team’s bar billiards arrangements, it felt only polite to meander to the Artichoke as well.
