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Tag: Norwich

  • Norwich – Bar Billiards Singles Tournament Round 3

    Norwich – Bar Billiards Singles Tournament Round 3

    It all came to a head on Saturday at 12:00 at the VR rooms in Norwich…. Oscar and I had both won two games, my first at the White Lion and then my second at the King’s Head. This surprised and delighted me since I’ve hardly played in four months, although, to be fair, I’m not sure I’m any better after playing more anyway as I play solely with muscle memory and pure delusion.

    It was my first time in the VR rooms, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here’s the table, which is on free play, but you just buy drinks from the bar instead. I very much liked the table, it was slower off the back than I expected which meant I fell short on a few shots, but it was a bit wider than the King’s Head table which I liked. The pegs are very delicate indeed though, they blow over easily.

    I don’t think that Oscar will mind me saying, but he turned up looking dead to the world as if from some zombie movie and I was secretly very pleased about that as I hoped he’d fall over or similar to distract himself from the game. However, at heart, I know that Oscar is a master at performing even when feeling terrible, so I wasn’t very confident.

    We had some VR action behind us, but in the excitement of our game, I mostly forgot about them as I was locked into my own tragedy. As an aside, we had no scorer, so we had to do the adding up ourselves which was challenging as Oscar kept scoring large breaks. The first two games were relatively close, but Oscar won them both, so that was the end of that for my amazing run in the competition. I also lost the third frame, but by more, but I had rather lost the killer instinct by then….. And, let’s face it, Oscar is a very good player.

    Anyway, that’s that now, I’ll just have to watch the other games to see who wins in this fine competition. And, maybe I might even get to reach the hallowed quarter finals next year. But I might need to practice more and also hope that I don’t meet Oscar in the 2027 competition.

    For anyone concerned about his well-being, I’m pleased to note that Oscar was in good shape again in the pub in the evening, but I ignored his comments about victory because it’s not about the winning, it’s about the taking part. Unless I win, then I upload videos and blog posts all over the place. And, I confess, if I’d won, half of Norwich wouldn’t be able to open a social media app without seeing a slow-motion montage of my genius.

    And, also, lovely people at the VR rooms, I hope to be able to play some games there in the future, a really nice set-up.

  • Norwich – Bar Billiards Video….

    Norwich – Bar Billiards Video….

    And thanks to Pete for videoing the conclusion of the final game of this match…..

  • Norwich – Bar Billiards Singles Tournament Round 2

    Norwich – Bar Billiards Singles Tournament Round 2

    After the first round a few weeks ago, it was time for the second round of the Norwich bar billiards cup singles last night, with Oscar playing his game before it was time for my second round game. After three games, which were very well refereed I thought, Oscar was triumphant but there was a lot of surprising and delighting going on.

    Then for my three games….. The first one went well for me, despite my struggling somewhat with this table as it’s narrower than the White Lion table. Quite a high scoring game, it’s positive to get the first game in.

    The second game went to the final ball part of the proceedings, played differently in Norwich to some other areas. This one involves going off the side cushion into the 200 hole and I promptly missed it…. I didn’t get a second chance, so that was 1-1 on frames.

    I slid behind by quite a margin on the third game and it looked all a bit forlorn. To cut a long story short, some fortune and a decision to play the second final ball concluding game quickly meant that I managed to win the final frame.

    It was a really close game, so many thanks to Rufus, although it was all a bit tense for my liking, especially when there were about 12 people watching. I know that it’s not exactly the San Siro stadium with its 80,000 seats, but it felt a bit like that at times.

    My third round game is against Oscar at the VR rooms….. Whatever happens now, I’ve got further than I expected. The results will go on https://www.norwichbarbilliards.co.uk/Singles at some point.

  • Norwich – Bar Billiards Singles Tournament

    Norwich – Bar Billiards Singles Tournament

    Today was the excitement of the first round of the Norwich Bar Billiards singles tournament. For anyone interested, the results will be at https://www.norwichbarbilliards.co.uk/Singles. Oscar calmed my nerves with some sensible beer selections and managed to miss all my great shots, but I didn’t say anything.

    Thanks to Oli and Emma for their scoring assistance. This is an unusual cluster of balls all where I didn’t want them…. And I’m still surprised I went for a very difficult 200 shot, which went in, at a critical point in the game. As I said to Zak, I’m crediting him with teaching me how to be brave. I don’t think I’ll be being brave again for a while, I’ll go back to my 10s.

    OK, I didn’t expect a 3-0 win, but I’ll take it….. My aim is to score 1,000 in each game and I was surprised and delighted to achieve that. Thanks to Katie for a great game and I am sort of looking forwards to the second round in late February.

  • Norwich – 1848 Map

    Norwich – 1848 Map

    This is the 1848 map of Norwich that was produced by Jarrold and here’s a link to a 1781 map of the city.

  • Norwich – Norwich Castle Museum (Cromer by James Stark)

    Norwich – Norwich Castle Museum (Cromer by James Stark)

    This is an artwork by James Stark (1794-1859) which is in the collections of Norwich Castle Museum. It was purchased for the museum in 1975 with grants from the Art Fund, Watney Mann (I don’t specifically know why the brewery contributed to this) and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

    Stark was a Norwich School landscape painter, best known for his big and usually windswept skies along with his slightly melancholy countryside scenes. He trained in Norwich, showed at the Royal Academy, and later taught drawing, including a spell as a master at Queen’s College, Cambridge.

    In terms of this rather serene artwork, in the bottom-left of his painting there are some fishermen going about their business in what would have been a very different town. With no bus or train services at this point, this would have likely felt a rather remote destination.

    Stark painted this in the mid-1830s, at a time when Cromer was starting to evolve as something of a summer tourist destination for those in Norwich and environs. The railways didn’t arrive here until the 1870s, so the town would remain relatively unchanged for some decades.

    Of course, I feel the need for AI to join the party and this is what it believes the scene would look like today if painted in a similar style. I rather like this. The addition of Cromer pier, constructed in 1901, is an accurate one even if some other elements aren’t exactly perfect here.

  • Norwich – Norwich Castle Museum (Fuller’s House by Henry Ninham)

    Norwich – Norwich Castle Museum (Fuller’s House by Henry Ninham)

    This artwork is in the collections of Norwich Castle museum and was painted by Henry Ninham (1796-1874). The artwork was painted in the 1840s and was donated to the museum as part of the 1946 Russell James Colman bequest. Ninham nearly exclusively painted Norwich scenes and was enormously useful at recording the history of the city in the period just before photography.

    The building in the painting is Fuller’s House, also known as Fuller’s Hole, which was a residential property owned by Alderman Fuller, who it is frequently mentioned was the Mayor of Norwich, but I can’t find any evidence of that in the lists.

    Unfortunately, this building was pulled down amongst nearly everything else in the area as part of slum clearance in the 1930s. I’m not sure that the area is much better today in terms of architectural merit, it’s the St. Martin’s Close area of the city. If this would have somehow survived, as Elm Hill only just managed to do, it would have been full of character although the splitting of Oak Street in two by the flyover has rather broken this part of the city away.

    I’ve felt the need to get AI to bring it to life a little, I think it adds a slightly interesting perspective to matters.

  • Norwich – It’s Snowing so Gas Hill Closes

    Norwich – It’s Snowing so Gas Hill Closes

    There are some people who don’t realise how hilly Norwich is, Norfolk isn’t the flat county that some expect. And this is Gas Hill Mountain, clearly impassable on its upper slopes and the road has been closed following a car accident. I mean, who would have realised that this might have been dangerous to cars…..

    Incidentally, this is one of the very few streets in Norwich where the pavement has been gritted and not the road, rather than the other way around. Not that I’ve been moaning about this.

    Gas Hill was named after the gas holder that was located half-way up, but that was demolished a couple of years ago. But, this is just one of the things that we have to bear in this mountain community in which we live, although I’m in the foothills rather than near to the summit.

  • Norwich – Norwich Castle Museum (Lots of Old Keys)

    Norwich – Norwich Castle Museum (Lots of Old Keys)

    Maybe a heap of old medieval keys in a museum isn’t at first sight very interesting, but there are certainly some stories hidden away here, even if it’s not clear exactly what they are. As a summary of the keys:

    22 : From St. Martin at Palace in Norwich (dated between 1000 and 1200)

    23 : Found at Castle Acre Castle (dated between 1100 and 1500). This is an iron barrel padlock key that entered the museum collections in 1984.

    24 : Found at Snettisham (dated between 1200 and 1300). This is a copper alloy key that entered the museum collections in 1907.

    25 : Found at Hardingham (dated between 1200 and 1500). This is a copper alloy key that entered the museum collections in 1999.

    26 : Found in Old Buckenham (dated between 1200 and 1500). This is a copper alloy key that entered the museum collections in 1966.

    27 : Found on Botolph Street (dated between 1200 and 1400). It is perhaps a little sub-optimal that this street has gone, I moan periodically that the street line of this could be restored with a little thought with the new Anglia Square replacement development.

    28 – 30 : Found in Caistor St Edmund (dated between 1200 and 1500)

    The museum appears to have put nearly all of their medieval keys on display, so perhaps it’s a little random, but at some point in history these keys would have guarded treasures and resources. There’s a fair amount of engineering that has gone on with some of these and some of them have a fair amount of styling to them.

    I’m not sure that much more is known about any of them, but I rather like the snapshot of history they provide even if their stories have been lost to time. And every treasure once had a keeper….

  • Norwich – Norwich Cathedral (Thomas Tawell Memorial)

    Norwich – Norwich Cathedral (Thomas Tawell Memorial)

    This is certainly a rather lovely place to have a memorial tablet and it commemorates the life of Thomas Tawell (1763-1820). Tawell was born in Wymondham in 1763 and he was born into a wealthy family, although his father died when he was just ten. He went to work for his uncle, a Norwich ironmonger, and Thomas managed to build up quite a wealth for himself.

    Perhaps now best known for his generosity, his turn toward charity was rooted in his own experience with sight loss. While he was a successful merchant buying and selling his iron, he became blind, a condition that lasted for several years before he partially recovered his sight. This ordeal inspired him to help those who did not have the means to support themselves in a similar situation.

    In January 1805, Tawell spoke at a public meeting at the Norwich Guildhall to propose an institution for the blind. To ensure the project moved forward, he took direct action by purchasing a large house and three and a half acres of land in Magdalen Street for the cause. He also donated 1,000 guineas, which is estimated to be worth approximately £86,000 in modern terms. He was particularly adamant that the institution should not just educate the young but also care for the elderly, a requirement he made a central part of the charity’s rules.

    The building on Magdalen Street was known as the Asylum and School for the Indigent Blind (I didn’t know what ‘indigent’ meant, but it’s someone who is poor and/or needy). That building has since been demolished, but the organisation lives on, later called the Norfolk and Norwich Association for the Blind and, since 2020, now the more snappy ‘Vision Norfolk’.

    The text reads:

    “To the Memory of THOMAS TAWELL, Esquire, late an INHABITANT of the Precinct of this Cathedral who died the fourth of June 1820, Aged 57 Years.

    In the Year 1805, He purchased a spacious dwelling House, with extensive Garden Ground in St. Paul’s in this City; and settled them by legal Instruments for a perpetual Hospital and School for INDIGENT BLIND PERSONS.

    This munificent Gift aided by the Patronage of other benevolent Characters hath secured an Asylum for the pitiable Objects of his Bounty; whose melancholy Situation he could but too well estimate, having himself passed many Years deprived of the Blessing of Sight.

    Whilst acutely feeling for the Afflictions of others he sustained his own with Resignation and Cheerfulness.”

    He sounds a really quite positive man by all accounts. Incidentally, I’m very impressed at this art collection which was sold off a couple of months following his death, the auction catalogue notes:

    “ALL the valuable PICTURES, Prints, Coins, and curious Articles, of THOMAS TAWELL, Esq. deceased, at his late Dwelling-house, in the Upper Close, Norwich; comprising some fine specimens of the old Masters, Ostade, M. A. Carraveggio, Wyke, Zuccorelli, Frank Hall, Old Frank, Teniers, Rysdael, &c. &c. proofs and fine impressions from Bartolozzi, Vasseau, Wille, Earlom, Sharpe, Edelinck, Woollet, &c. Cupid in Psyche, Bacchus and Ariadne, Venus in statuary marble—Italian workmanship, very fine; a large collection of gold, silver, and copper coins, Roman urns, and a variety of curious antique articles.

    In the Books will be found Jeremy Taylor’s Works, Shakspeare’s in folio, Mant’s Bible, Josephus, Clarendon’s Rebellion, Statutes at Large, Robertson’s Charles, America and Scotland, Hume’s England, Burke’s Works, Annual Register, 62 vols. Blackstone’s Commentary, Hook’s Roman History, &c. &c.”

    Owning a Caravaggio is really quite exciting. Although if I owned one, I’d be stressed worrying someone would pinch it and I dread to think what the insurance cost would be. I’d worry about it every time I looked at it, so I think on that basis I won’t buy a very valuable old painting for several million pounds. Although there’s another limiting factor within that last sentence, but I digress.

    At least this memorial is of a man who made a great contribution to the people of Norwich, and not a tomb to a bishop that oversaw the execution of people who had a slightly different belief to him.