Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Norwich

Norwich History by Parish : St. Martin at Palace

And a new little project that Jonathan and I are undertaking because this lockdown is clearly here for at least a few more weeks. It’s a bit niche (our project I mean, not the lockdown), I’ll accept that, but there we go. Effectively, it’s walking around Norwich, ancient parish by ancient parish and seeing what is there now compared to a map from the 1880s (the map above is from 1789, but the one from the 1880s is more detailed, which is why we used that). There’s a PDF of these boundaries to provide some extra background to this whole project. Our first parish was St. Helen’s and this is the neighbouring parish of St. Martin at Palace.

The precise ward boundaries are in the PDF above, but this is the area of Norwich that we had a little meander around.

This is an area that neither Jonathan or I were aware of, despite my having walked by it hundreds of times. It’s located in front of the courts complex in Norwich and it’s the former site of the Tabernacle. This church, which held 1,000 people, was opened in 1753 and there’s plenty of information about the history of the building at https://ukwells.org/wells/the-tabernacle-norwich.

The 200th anniversary of the building wasn’t the most fortunate, as it was entirely demolished in 1953 as it had fallen into a state of disrepair. The demolition was perhaps a mistake, this would have remained an interesting and quirky building if it had been allowed to stand. George Plunkett has a photo of what it looked like in 1941 and to give an idea of where it stood, that kerb on the bottom right hand side of the photo is where the Adam and Eve pub is located today.

Nearly nothing remains of the Tabernacle, but this now quite damaged tablet is visible in the area where the house next to the tabernacle stood.

Jonathan noticed a giant rat just before I decided I needed to have a look at this grave, but I braved the area anyway. There is very little I won’t brave for the sake of historical investigation. Well, not snakes though, I wouldn’t have gone in here if it had been ridden with snakes.

This whole area of land is now used by the courts, but 100 years ago this was the site of a large gas works. The road in the foreground is modern, but at this end it follows the route of the old World’s End Lane. The area to the left is now just left empty, but this is where it fronts onto Bishopgate today, although the buildings that George Plunkett took a photo of in 1936 have been demolished. I’m really not sure that the courts need such a large car park, there’s definitely space for a Greggs or something here.

This might not be much to look at, but underneath here is the Norman House (https://www.norwich360.com/normanhouse.html). I visited here on a Heritage Open Day, it’s well worth going to see for those who can, and I’ll put photos up in due course from when I went. Upstairs in the court area there’s also the Arminghall Arch.

This is the Bishop’s Gate (and is where the street Bishopgate gets its name, although I think most people would guess that) which is Grade I listed and was constructed in around 1436. Just behind it is the new Bishop’s Palace, but this was also the entrance to the old Bishop’s Palace, today part of Norwich School.

And I have managed never to notice this sizeable building which is attached to the Bishop’s Gate. This is a medieval barn and granary, although it was much changed in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is now offices. This also leads to the area where St Matthew the Apostle’s church once stood, long since demolished. The former churchyard, which was formerly left as a park, has now been built on by the council.

St. Martin’s Vicarage, serving the church that this parish takes its name from and is located opposite, St. Martin’s at Palace Plain. The building dates to the middle of the nineteenth century, although there was another building here before that.

St. Martin’s at Palace Plain church, which ceased to be used for services in 1971 and was later converted to be used by the Probation Service. It’s now used by the Norwich Historic Churches Trust as their base, and access is encouraged (well, not at the moment, but it will be again when normality resumes). There’s a George Plunkett photo of the interior from 1938, it’s quite a charming and well-ordered church.

When the building was being converted to better suit its new office usage, which as an aside was done quite sensitively, there was an archaeological dig underneath the floor. This discovered that there were once two Saxon wooden churches on this site, with the foundations of the current church dating from the eleventh century. Most of the current structure dates to the fifteenth century, although following a little incident in the 1840s when the nave and chancel fell down (which wasn’t ideal), with a Victorian restoration of the structure. The slum clearances of the 1930s swept away much of the church’s congregation, so it did well to manage to survive as a working parish church until the beginning of the 1970s.

The chancel wall, with the graves having been removed from their original place and shoved up against the church.

A garage type arrangement, visible on the left of the photo, has been inserted under the churchyard. This road is now private access to the courts, but it was once the end of World’s End Lane, so effectively the church site was in the middle of a traffic island.

The parish boundary takes in territory across the River Wensum, requiring a walk over Whitefriars Bridge. I’m not sure why it does this, I assume it was some medieval way of trying to balance out the population sizes between churches.

All that remains of the Anchorite House, part of the Whitefriars Monastery, which stood here between 1256 and 1538.

When younger, I thought that this was the National Coal Board building, which isn’t perhaps a bad guess. It’s actually the premises of Norwich Corrugated Board (well, Smurfit Kappa now, which goes to show that putting a company name on a building in brick isn’t perhaps ideal when the ownership changes) in what is an unusually large manufacturing building still in the centre of the city. More about this in the parish we visited the week after….

The corner area here now has a modern building on it, but this was the site of a shoe factory a century ago. The street here is now known as Whitefriars, although it has historically been known as Cowgate. When the council smashed through the area with their new road, it split Cowgate into two, hence why this section has now been given the new Whitefriars name.

This is Whitefriars Bridge, which has also historically been known as St. Martin’s Bridge. It was first constructed in around 1110, but this story is best told by the formidable George Plunkett (and he has a photo of the bridge from 1933):

“Whitefriars Bridge is one of several in Norwich rebuilt during the 20c. Formerly known as St Martin’s bridge, it is first mentioned in a grant made by King Henry I to Bishop Herbert de Losinga shortly after 1100. In 1290 it was washed away by a great flood, and there are records of it having to be rebuilt at different times throughout the centuries. The earlier ones would have been wooden constructions; during Kett’s rebellion in 1549, we are told, the bridge was deliberately demolished with the dual purpose of impeding the rebels and using its timbers to strengthen the nearby city gates. In 1591 a more permanent edifice was built of stone, with a single pointed arch. This survived until replaced by the present bridge designed by Arthur E.Collins, City Engineer, and built by unemployed labour under a skilled foreman. It is of concrete reinforced by 1.5 inch steel bars and faced with mica quartz and white cement. The first half was opened to traffic on 19th February 1925. Its span of about 80 feet is some 50 feet wider than that of its predecessor.

It was said at the time that the stones of the old bridge would be marked in order that it could be re-erected on a different site, but this was never done. Several suggestions have been put forward as to their fate, one of the least plausible being “that they happened to fall into a wherry as it passed under the bridge” and were conveyed by water to Wroxham and Horning to be used as foundations for riverside bungalows. It sees more likely that some at least were taken from the bridge to the Corporation Depot at Infirmary Square (now Starling Rd), and were later moved to another store at St Martin at Oak Wall Lane, finally ending up as foundations for roadworks on Aylsham Rd.”

Now known as Quayside, this row of houses facing the river are around 100 years old. Although it wouldn’t have been possible at the time, there’s a path now along the river for those want to walk along it, a project which must have showed considerable foresight to establish.

Pyes Yard, which has also been known as Fyes Yard and Pyes Court. In 1938, there was a slum clearance of the 17 houses down here, so everything of historic interest down to the river is lost. George Plunkett took a photo shortly before the area was condemned, which might have today made for some rather beautiful townhouses with a little (well, quite a lot) of modernisation.

The old signage to the yard.

The buildings facing Palace Plain have survived, even if the yards behind them have now been taken down. The white building on the left is 1 and 2 Palace Plain, originally built in the seventeenth century, then used as a shop before more recently being incorporated into an office building. The white building in the centre of the photo is what is historically known as the White Lion pub which has been a licensed premises from the mid eighteenth century and which was originally built in the sixteenth century as a residential property. When the courts were opened in 1985, the pub name was changed to the Wig and Pen, perhaps to tempt the wealthy lawyers and judges over. The red brick building on the right of the photo is Cotman House, originally built in the eighteenth century as a residential property.

Cotman House is so named as John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) lived at the property. He was one of the artists who was part of the Norwich School of Painters, one of the first local art movements in the UK. The group was originally led by John Chrome, before Cotman took over to keep the informal movement going, although it fell apart a bit when he moved to London.

The back of what was Busseys, the Ford car dealership, whose city centre land no doubt just became worth far more for building than it did for selling cars. The street that runs behind the back of these buildings, connecting Bedding Lane to Pigg Lane, is Joseph Lancaster Way.

I’m not entirely confident that I know why this modern street has been given this name, so I’ll have to make a guess. The area behind Busseys was once a school and there is a Joseph Lancaster who was important in the nineteenth century for the establishment of more modern educational methods. He’s known for the phrase “a place for everything and everything in its place”, which makes him sound rather organised…. Anyway, I’ll probably find out that it’s been named after some local councillor, but that’s the best reasoning I’ve got as to the naming of the street.

The building in the centre is 17 Palace Street, which dates from the eighteenth century, although the range stretching back a little at the rear is from the seventeenth century. The building next to it is modern and is where the entrance to Busseys once was, and George Plunkett has a photo of that from 1987.

That concluded the day’s historical activities, we then went to try Ron’s Chips.

February 4, 2021
Norwich – Barrett’s Fish and Chips

Whilst meandering near to the Reepham Road on a random walk, I thought that I’d pop in here as the chip shop was well reviewed. It takes its name from Noel Barrett who owned and operated these premises for some decades, but there’s a new family now managing the shop. Incidentally, I’m not entirely taken by that signage, feels a bit generic to me.

Anyway, the service here was marvellous, and that’s evident in the reviews I read as well. One reviewer wrote, and wasn’t being sarcastic, that he refers to the owners as “Mr and Mrs Smiler”, which seems a suitable name given the friendly welcome that I received. It’s always nice to get a bit of welcoming enthusiasm, especially on a drab day.

The chips costs £1.80, which is a little higher than the average, but hardly anything to become overly irate about. And another of my complaints about not accepting cards is true here, although I was pre-prepared on this occasion so as not to be deprived of chips. Anyway, the packaging was rather thrifty, but the chips were suitably hot, firm on the exterior and cooked appropriately, just what I was hoping for. So, all rather lovely.

February 3, 2021
GeoGuessr (Norwich Version) – Walk 1

I already have a better explanation (well, longer explanation anyway) for this plan. In essence, whilst lockdown is on, I need to find ways of walking nearby to Norwich in quiet areas for my LDWA 100 training. So, I’m using GeoGuessr to pick out five random locations within a certain area which I’ve defined and then walking to them, to see what kind of story I can uncover.

Pointless? Well, yes, it is a bit. But it’s good exercise and I’m hoping to always see something new or uncover a different part of Norwich. And I’ve got Liam, Nathan and Jonathan signed up to do these walks with me as well (separately as the maximum group size is two), so I won’t have any shortage of opportunities to meander around Norwich.

Anyway, the five locations randomly selected using GeoGuessr are in the map above. I used Komoot to draw a line between them, although I didn’t always follow it if something else looked interesting nearby. And, I accept this isn’t the most exciting walking adventure possible, but it’s about all that’s safe to do at the moment, so it’ll have to do.

So, the start of the walk in Barrack Street, which take its name from the Cavalry Barracks which were located here between 1792 and 1963. It’s now the Heathgate estate, which doesn’t seem to get a very good press in the local media.

The route goes up the big hill of Mousehold, by the entrance to Dragoon Way, a former cavalry way.

I realised at this point that I hadn’t bothered putting on walking boots, just normal shoes, which wasn’t entirely in keeping with meandering through the mud of Mousehold Heath. This route wasn’t too bad, although there were numerous options that looked quite moist.

I had a minor problem here, as I needed to get down to the road. And there were some slightly steep elements where I could have fallen down the slope. There’s a road at the back of this photo and people walking along it, so I didn’t wish them to have their walk distracted by the sound of someone falling down a hole. So I found a more manageable route back down to the safety of the pavement and I don’t think anyone noticed. I didn’t go too far into Mousehold Heath based on this experience, sticking to firmer ground.

This is a quite wonderful building and one of the oldest in the city, at over 900 years old. It’s the city’s lazar house, or leper hospital, founded by the first Bishop of Norwich, Herbert de Losinga. After centuries of helping the ill and poor, it was closed following the Dissolution of the Monasteries and used as a barn. The city was fortunate to have had people who managed to save it from destruction in the early twentieth century and it was restored and turned into a branch library. As yet another appalling decision from the local council, they decided in 2003 to scrap this library and stop free public access to the building. It is now used by a charity to help those with learning difficulties and they no doubt do an admirable job, but it’s a great shame that the usage as a library had to stop.

This is St. George’s Catholic Church on Sprowston Road. Simon Knott, who writes in detail on Norfolk churches, has an appalling tale about the unfriendliness of this church. I’ve never been turned away from a church and I’d be equally disappointed to be turned away in such a manner. If it was me, I’d be so annoyed that I’d stomp off whilst writing in my mind the letter that I was going to send to the Pope.

I don’t often see the word ‘Loke’ used in Norwich, another word to describe a road which come to a dead end or a narrow path.

I don’t have any interest in live music, so this is a pub that holds little relevance to me, but it has a formidable reputation for its work. There was a petition last year to keep this place going and I hope that it can continue, live music is important in pubs (albeit not the ones I visit) and it would be a shame to lose it.

Now starting to enter Old Catton, this is School Lane and appropriately this is the large former school building. It’s now the Sprowston Diamond Centre, but it was originally built as a school in 1860, soon being extended in 1873.

The Woodman pub, which I can’t say that I’ve ever been to. it was opened as a pub in the early nineteenth century and there were rumours of its closure a couple of years ago, but it’s still here.

GEOGUESSR 1 – I haven’t taken a huge amount of care in finding the exact spot of the five GeoGuessr locations in terms of matching up photos. This was the first one in Old Catton, on George Hill.

One of the things that I wanted to do on these walks was to identify some listed buildings that I’ve never noticed before. This is one, which is The Firs in Old Catton, and it was first constructed in around 1750. It has since been split into four buildings, although apparently the historic eighteenth century interior is intact.

This is the best non-pub pub sign that I’ve seen.

Taken over by Enterprise Inns in 2009, so it’s fortunate that it’s still here, this is the Maid’s Head which has been trading since around 1830. Now a Stonegate pub, I’ve never been to it, although perhaps I’ll get back here again to try the real ale (which judging from Whatpub looks a bit generic to be honest).

This is Catton Park, which wasn’t exactly the busiest today. This land was originally part of Catton Hall, which was built in the 1770s by Charles Buckle. That property is still standing, now owned by Norfolk County Council, but the land can be used by the public. The paths here were quite wet and muddy, but it’s a nice piece of open space.

Some World War Two history in Old Catton.

The Old Catton village sign and St. Margaret’s Church.

Mary Sewell is perhaps better known for being the mother of Anna Sewell, the author of Black Beauty.

Another listed building, this is the Manor House in Old Catton, built in the sixteenth century and extended in the following century.

Moving away from Old Catton, I had forgotten about this Greggs on Fifers Lane, although I’ve visited a few times before. It mainly serves the industrial units in the area, and, today it had the delight of my custom.

And a quick sausage roll, which was entirely delicious.

Norse Groups is owned by Norfolk County Council and it’s a trading company providing services to local Governments across the country. Their company sign seems to have included random bits of material that they use and I couldn’t work out whether it looked really smart or really tacky.

The sad end to the Firs pub in Norwich, which closed down in 2009 and was turned into a Tesco. At least the building is still there, but I’d rather that it was in use as a pub selling decadent craft beer.

GEOGUESSR 2 – OK, I’ve cheated here (and I can hear Nathan tutting). The actual route that got selected for me was on the NDR, which isn’t accessible to pedestrians as they annoy Norfolk County Council. So, I was going to just get a photo of it from the nearest point, but that would have involved a huge detour. So, I thought I’d get a photo of it from Norwich Airport, but it was all a bit misty. So, this is the memorial at Norwich Airport to RAF Horsham St Faith, and that’s doing me as the second point.

Well, it was open, so I went in, as if I’m traipsing out to these places I might as well take advantage of the situation.

I’ll write about this elsewhere in more detail, but the service here was welcoming, the prices were OK (although not particularly cheap) and the chips were delicious.

Sad to see the Whiffler, a JD Wetherspoon pub, all closed up. This was, until last year, their car park, but to encourage social distancing and to give them more space, they opened it up as an external seating area. I hope that change of use continues in the future.

I noticed on the side of this sign it has printed on it “Do Not Display on Drive-Thru Lane”. I suspect this is because it mentions their cheap products on the Saver Menu (the ones I keep buying) and they don’t actually want customers to be reminded of them at the point of ordering.

I’ve been meaning to visit this, hence my detour along the Boundary Road, it’s the boundary cross which was erected in the fifteenth century to mark where the King’s Way crossed the Norwich City boundary.

I was slightly annoyed at this. I saw a sign to “new cemetery” and I’m intrigued by cemeteries, so went to have a look. It transpired that this was the back of St. Mary’s Church in Hellesdon, which I hadn’t initially realised. And, the sign was a lie, as there’s a bloody great big gate which stops pedestrians getting in. Looking at old maps, there were footpaths here which allowed people to access the rear of the church, but they never made it through to the Definitive Map and the church has taken the opportunity to restrict access. Or, at least, I couldn’t find access, hence the above photo. It’s also clear that people have been trying to gain access and the fence there has been added to stop them. Personally, if I had a church (which I don’t, and I don’t intend to acquire one), I’d quite like people to go in it.

Back on the route that Nathan and I undertook a few weeks ago.

GEOGUESSR 3 – this is the reason that I went out this far, to get to Gunton Lane.

This is the Marlpit Community Garden, a seven acre plot of land that was once part of Lower Earlham Farm. Individuals now use the land for communal growing and there’s a bee area, footpaths, orchards and wild flowers.

To get back to the city centre, I ignored the Komoot suggested route and just went along Marriott’s Way, which was much quieter than I had expected.

One of the sculptures along Marriott’s Way, a former railway line. There’s a sculpture every mile along the route, this is the second one along which was installed in 2009, designed by John Behm and Nigel Barnett.

The former inspection platforms at the engine shed at the now closed Norwich City Station.

I’m always sad to see railway lines closed, this is the site of Norwich City Station which closed to passengers in 1959.

This is a listed structure, a urinal which was designed by AE Collins, the city engineer, in 1919. It’s the oldest surviving concrete urinal in Britain and the city council now use it for people to graffiti on.

The walk back into Norwich covers areas that I’ve written about already, but I hadn’t noticed these flood level markers at New Mills Yard before.

Some information about St Giles’s Street that I hadn’t noticed before.

GEOGUESSR 4 – the fourth location was Norwich City Hall, a building that destroyed much local heritage when it was constructed in 1938. I quickly popped into Tesco on Westlegate at this point to buy their reduced sandwiches…..

Walking past St. Julian’s Church, which I wrote about the other day.

Going onto King Street, this is Dragon’s Hall, sadly no longer open to the public, but this was a museum that wasn’t allowed to continue. It’s a Grade I listed building, with much of the current structure dating to the fifteenth century, although there is evidence of a ninth century structure having been here before. I hope that this building can in future be repurposed and brought back into public use, as it’s currently been taken over by the National Centre for Writing.

Work has started this week on the development of the former Ferry Boat Inn site by the River Wensum. I don’t see why the developers couldn’t have restored the pub element in their project, but apparently the building was too damaged (although not too damaged to allow its conversion into two residential properties). It’s positive to see this area being brought back into usage though, it’s been derelict for over a decade now.

GEOGUESSR 5 – and the final point of the day, Norwich City Football Club. The club was founded in 1902 and they’ve played at this Carrow Road site since 1935.

And that was the end of the walk. It was fourteen miles and took me just under five hours, although I did keep getting distracted along the way, hence the slow pace. I’m not sure that there’s any great unifying story for me to tell here, but I discovered some things that I didn’t know existed in Norwich. And I like this element of random, it gives a purpose to an expedition, as otherwise there’s no way I’d have been bothered to have walked so far.

February 2, 2021
Norwich – Ron’s Fish and Chips

I haven’t been to Ron’s Fish and Chips on the market before, not least because I have been rather obsessed with Grosvenor for two decades. I visited a different chip shop on Norwich Market a few months ago and it was, to be honest, a really unimpressive effort from Norwich City Council who operate the market. There was near zero Covid-19 compliance and the chip shop (not Ron’s) in question was failing to operate with any care.

The picture today was really very different, and everything feels very safe and well managed. The one-way system is in operation, individual units no longer have customers standing and eating there and everything seems clean and organised. A polite member of security staff was explaining that there is no eating anywhere near the stalls, customers need to take food just a short walk away. All very professional, I’m suitably impressed.

Back to Ron’s. I’ve muttered and moaned (but not in a very grumpy manner….) about chip shops not taking cards, it’s just a faff to be forced to use cash. Ron’s isn’t one of those, they have a card machine (although I had come armed with coins just in case). They also have a very friendly member of staff serving, a clean operation and rather cheap prices. My battered sausage and chips came to £1.80, which I thought was really quite acceptable. The chips were hot and tasted sufficiently chip like for my needs (nice and firm on the exterior, fluffy inside and with plenty of smaller chips), with the batter on the sausage having some depth of flavour, I was again impressed.

So, all told, this is now one of my favourite chip shop locations in Norwich. Which will mean I’ll have to pop back a few times, but I think I can manage that.

February 1, 2021
Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (James Light)

Located at Rosary Cemetery in Norwich, this is the grave of James Light, who was born in Southampton in 1849, the son of Isaac Light and Lucy Light. Isaac and Lucy (nee Sillince) had married on 4 July 1847 in Southampton.

At the 1851 census, James lived at St Faith’s Lane in Norwich with his parents, and they were lodging with another family. Isaac Light was an engine driver on the railways and he would have been one of the first to have that role in Norfolk, as the first line in the county was Yarmouth & Norwich Railway which opened in 1842. I’m not sure why the family made a move from Southampton, but perhaps it was so that Isaac could secure employment in this new industry.

By the time of the 1861 census, James and his parents were living at Garden Street in the city, along with their other children, Emma, Richard and George. They had moved to Wilderness Place by 1871, with Isaac, Lucy, James, Richard and George living there. Isaac, James and Richard were all working for the railways and although I’m guessing here, I suspect they would have found this a more exciting job to have than some others which were available at the time (mostly shoe manufacture in Norwich). The railways were still relatively new and exciting, there must have been something of an element of adventure and a knowledge that the railway network was expanding.

However, bad things were to take place. Whilst working as a fireman on the train, James died on 10 September 1874 at the age of 25 in what is known as the Thorpe rail accident. This incident, which took place near what is now known as the Rushcutters pub, caused the death of 25 people and over 75 others were injured. It occured when a mail train and a passenger train hit each other head on due to some confusion and poor communications. When the crash took place it was the second worst rail incident that had taken place in the country in terms of fatalities, with more people having died only at the Abergele rail crash of 1868. One of the legacies of this major incident at Thorpe was the introduction of the tablet system, to try and prevent head-on crashes.

I’ve marked the scene of the crash on the above map from the 1920s, which was very close to the Rushcutters, although the pub was known as Thorpe Gardens at the time. The coroner at the time insisted during the trial that the phrase “railway accident” wasn’t to be used, it was to be referred to as “a railway collision”. Shortly after, he said “it is due to the public to know how this collision did happen, whether it was through carelessness or accident; though I am afraid we cannot bring it to the latter, for everything at present appears to contradict that”. It’s clear that the coroner didn’t intend to oversee a whitewash with his inquest.

The saddest element was the identification of the dead. For James, this was done by his brother Richard, who said:

“I live in Wilderness Place, King Street and I am a fireman. The deceased James Light was my brother. I have identified his body lying here. My brother was a fireman in the employ of the Great Eastern Railway Company. He was twenty-five years of age and lived at Wilderness Place”.

This must have been a hugely emotional task for Richard to perform, especially as he had the same job on the railways as his brother.

January 29, 2021
Norwich – Bridewell Prison Door

And today’s post is about a door-frame. Content doesn’t get more interesting than this….. OK, it does, but I still like this door and I’ve only recently noticed that it exists.

Perhaps the best description of this door is from George Plunkett, who noted:

“Descending St Andrew’s Hill from London St, there is about halfway down on the left a wooden doorway thought to date from about 1490, the former entrance to the Bridewell. Its spandrels, carved to resemble foliage, support a large wooden grille enclosed within the doorframe. This grille, which in unglazed, is of Gothic design and consists of two large lights, each divided into four smaller ones by slender mullions which interlace at the top like tracery in a church window. Sadly two of these mullions have gone since the 1930s; in view of the extreme rarity of such a doorway one would like to see it sympathetically repaired and conserved to prolong its existence for a few more centuries.”

And he’s quite right, he has a photo from 1935 and it shows that bits have gone missing since then, having previously managed to survive several centuries. And I’m not sure what that bloody awful box is doing to the left of the doorway, it hardly ignites a feeling of beauty and history.

These Norwich Lanes tablets (or slabs, whatever they’re called) very often give details of where pubs once stood, but this is a handy reminder that this door was once the entrance to Bridewell Prison. And if this excitement about the door isn’t enough, here’s some more about the flint wall on the same building, with a bit more history about the prison. I think I need to get out more….

January 29, 2021
Norwich – St. Julian’s Church

It’s not known who the church of St. Julian is named after, it could either be Julian the Hospitaller or Julian of Le Mans. I hope that it’s the former, as he’s the Patron Saint of travellers and he’s venerated in Malta, where there’s a town called St. Julian’s which is named after him. The church seem less convinced, they think it’s of Julian of Le Mans….. Anyway, I walked by here a couple of weeks ago and hadn’t realised it would be open, so I had a little meander inside.

Much has changed from this nineteenth century map of the church, with St. Julian’s Alley now reached off of Rouen Road.

The church was heavily restored between 1868 and 1870 under the supervision of Walter Emilius McCarthy. The chancel was reconstructed and there was some modernisation to the building, similar to what Victorians did to other churches across the country. Here though, the work was overdue as the church had been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair before the work was undertaken.

Unfortunately, nearly all of what is visible today is a post-war reconstruction as the building was nearly entirely destroyed during the Second World War, on 27 June 1942. The church has been restored to mostly look like as it did before it fell, but the tower wasn’t restored to its original height. It was the only badly bomb damaged church in Norwich to be rebuilt, even though others had more structurally left standing. This is mostly, and indeed likely entirely, due to the connection with Mother Julian.

One discovery which was made were the Saxon windows that had been covered up in later restorations and which have now been made visible again. One example in the main photo of the church’s frontage above is the small circular window which are likely late Saxon.

The main doorway of the church, which needed to be repaired following the war damage. George Plunkett has, of course some marvellous pictures of the church before it was damaged, as well as during the restoration.

1937 – church before war damage

1946 – church reduced to rubble

1952 – reconstruction of north side of church

1962 – completed church after rebuild

The nave of the church.

The chancel of the church.

The church’s font was originally located at All Saints’ Church in the city.

This door is from the nearby St. Michael at Thorn Church which was also damaged during the Second World War, but despite the tower remaining, the whole building was pulled down. The site is now used as the EDP’s car park and although I understand that there was a problem with the high number of churches already being under-used in Norwich, not keeping at least the tower was I think a mistake. But there was a desire to entirely redevelop that area of the city, something not really done that well in my view and it would have preferable to at least keep the streetlines.

The door is though quite marvellous, it dates from the first half of the twelfth century and it’s now the entrance into the chapel of Julian of Norwich.

This is the chapel of St. Julian, which is where Julian of Norwich was an anchoress where she lived in total seclusion whilst praying and writing. This chapel is a new addition, there were some foundations found during the excavations of the church following the war damage and it was thought they might have been from Julian’s cell. It was thought appropriate to build a chapel on those foundations, and I must say this is a gloriously peaceful little room.

She has the honour of being the first known woman in England to have written a book, known as the Revelations of Divine Love (of which much more on Wikipedia). There’s also more about Julian of Norwich at the church’s web-site.

January 28, 2021
Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (George Johns)

This is the gravestone of George Johns, located in the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich. George was born in Ludham in 1833, the son of John Johns, who was an innkeeper. George trained as a carpenter, but for reasons unknown, perhaps by necessity or in search of adventure, he decided to embark on a new career in the military.

George joined the Royal Regiment of the Horse Guards on 9 October 1862, at the age of 31. His army records show that he was 6 foot tall (well, 5 foot 11 and 3/8 inches which seems ridiculously precise to me) and had brown hair. His service record seems a bit patchy, and there’s an absence without leave in there.

George, who by now had retired from the army, married Lydia Bond, who was 12 years younger than him, on 22 October 1874. Eugene had already been born on 16 December 1870, which is perhaps the reason that George thought he’d better request to leave the army.

At the 1881 census, George was living with Lydia and his 10 year old son Eugene at 3 Chester Place in Norwich. This road still exists, it’s located off of Earlham Road, near to the Roman Catholic Cathedral. Indeed, when George and his family were living here, work would have been taking place to demolish the Norwich City Gaol which was on the site to replace it with the Cathedral.

The three family members were also living in the same location in 1891, with George still working as a starch maker and Eugene was now working as a shoe maker. I do wonder what someone like Eugene would have been doing today, perhaps a computer programmer or working in finance, there would be plenty of choice. For men in the late nineteenth century in Norwich, the choice was often limited to work in the shoe trade.

George died on 19 May 1892, at the age of 59 years old and Lydia, George’s wife, died on 25 May 1922.

Eugene married Kate and at the 1901 census, he was living with her at 12 Patteson Road, along with their children Harry, Hilda, George and Ivy. Eugene is listed on the 1939 register, by this time retired from the shoe industry, living with his wife Kate at 45 Midland Street in Norwich. Eugene’s home on Midland Street was only a two or three minute walk from where he had lived at Chester Place for many years. Eugene died in 1959, at the age of 89.

January 28, 2021
Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Arthur Thomas Woodard)

Arthur Thomas Woodard was born on 6 June 1873, the son of John and Charlotte Woodard. He was baptised at St John de Sepulchre Church in Norwich on 27 August 1879.

At the 1881 census, Arthur was living with his parents at Brown’s Yard, off St. Stephen’s Street in Norwich. Later renamed Mansfield Court, this was all swept away with the post-war widening of St. Stephen’s Street. Arthur’s father John was working for the railways, and Arthur had numerous siblings also living in the same property, namely William, Elizabeth, Robert, Jemima and Mary Ann.

Arthur served in the Royal Navy on HMS Abdiel and his service number was 350238. HMS Abdiel was a minelayer which launched in October 1915 and it laid 6,293 mines during the course of the First World War.

Arthur died on 10 March 1918, at the age of 45. Arthur was a 2nd class sick berth steward and although the ship was involved in dangerous military action, his death followed a heart attack he had on board. Arthur’s job title sounds like it was something akin to a cruise ship, but here it’s just the rank for what is better known today as medical assistants. The ranks were, from more junior to senior, 1st & 2nd class boys, sick berth attendant, sick berth attendant 2nd class, sick berth attendant 1st class and chief sick berth steward.

At the time of his death, Arthur’s parents were living at 11 Thorn Lane in the city and his father had to sign this letter to confirm the details of what they wanted on their son’s grave. I can’t quite imagine the emotions that parents and loved ones went through when sending these forms back to the Imperial War Graves Commission. It’s nice though to see that someone is still tending his grave, with Arthur being one of 31 Commonwealth War Graves at the cemetery.

January 26, 2021
LDWA 100 – Training Walk 10 (Finding the Source of the River Yare Part 2)

This was our tenth walk in preparation for the 2021 LDWA 100.

WALK NUMBER: 10 (Finding the Source of the River Yare Part 2)

DISTANCE COVERED: 14.7 miles

NUMBER OF NATHAN’S FRIENDS WE “ACCIDENTALLY” BUMP INTO: 1 (might have been someone I knew)

SUFFICIENT BEER CONSUMED: No (all the pubs are shut)

PUBS VISITED: 0 (not through choice)

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Dry

ATTACKED BY ANIMALS: No

NUMBER OF SNAKES SEEN: 0

The eagle eyed reader will note that the 14.7 miles has been split across two posts. Some might suspect that this was because I couldn’t be bothered to post about the entire walk in one go, but I repeat that it was to add suspense. Or something like that….. Anyway, the first post ended with Nathan faffing about crossing a puddle.

At the moment, we’re on the right of the above map (moving left) and we were able to track the river for the first stretch.

A frosty scene….

We were able to continue by the river, although there were stretches that were particularly muddy. Slightly amazingly, neither of us fell over during the day. There weren’t that many other walkers along this little stretch, but that’s probably because they didn’t feel that sludging through this was ideal entertainment.

Long before this health predicament I had been planning to be in Las Vegas at this time, accidentally ordering a sack of burgers at White Castle. As an aside, this is why the United States is so exciting, where else can you buy a sack of burgers? And yes, this is a real thing, anyone interested can Google it. I could have been playing video poker in Excalibur, getting free beer and popping into Banger Brewing later in the day after a ride on the Deuce (not Douce). Instead, I was walking on mud, but I think I was still enjoying it.

Here we came across a little problem. That’s the path.

The Yare had entirely burst its banks at this point and the footpath wasn’t even visible, let alone walkable. It’s evident in the map image, we could no longer walk by the river and instead had to head back inland (not sure that’s the right word there, but it sounds more exotic) towards Eaton Golf Course.

Instead and so no-one feels that they’re missing out, here’s a photo of that exact stretch of flooded route that we walked last June. It was less moist then.

Don’t fear, I didn’t linger on the railway line.

On the above map, the blocked footpath meant we couldn’t track the river, but we did walk back down to it (on the left-hand side) to try and explore it a little bit. This was always a closed loop we’d have to go back up from, but it was part of our policy of walking by all the bits of river that we could. I got a bit muddled up here and tried to walk the wrong way along a path that looked interesting, and I’ll have to credit Nathan for noticing that I was trying to go back in the same direction we’d just walked from. He can be quite observant.

For anyone who wants to see the map click on the above image (and to read about how one child said this area was “very wild”) to see where the footpath was meant to be.

Nathan set off to explore the area and I pretended that I was Stewart Ainsworth from Time Team. For those who never watched that, Stewart is the guy who looked at the wider environment, often looking for evidence of raised land where historically people would have walked so that they didn’t get their feet wet. To cut a long story short, all the terrain was flat, I forgot that I was in Norfolk. So whilst Nathan was sinking into mud, I concluded this strategy of mine was failing. It wasn’t possible to get to the river here. Well, not without sinking anyway and although I wondered what Nathan would look like if he sank three feet into the ground, I thought it would all be too much hassle to fix. And that kid was right (not Nathan who is nearly 30, I meant the one who was featured on the sign), it was very wild around here.

After spending some time helpfully smashing the ice to help the local wildlife (I’m not sure we worked out what help we actually were, but there’s something satisfying about making a hole in ice), we decided we’d seen enough of this meadow.

We (well Nathan did, I was looking for a big stick to break the ice with) did spot the river and although it’s hard to see, it’s the water course at the back of this photo. We only knew it was the river as we could see it flowing at some speed.

So, we retraced our steps (visible on the right of the above map) and then walked into the wealthy Norwich suburb of Eaton. We lost sight of the river at this stage, but it was nice to see civilisation again after our time in the wilderness. OK, I accept we had hardly been walking in the Amazon, but it’s all relative and I have to try and make a walk around Norwich sound as exotic as possible.

This is St. Andrew’s Church in Eaton and it’s rare to see a thatched church in the area around Norwich. The bulk of the church dates from the thirteenth century and there are some wall paintings inside which I’ve looked at before and had no idea what they were portraying.

I think I annoyed Nathan by applauding an extension they had put on the back as meeting my design requirements (where the old meets the new….), whereas I didn’t like the one at the church where he got married. He’s getting very protective of that church….

We might have seen someone we knew at this stage, as we saw someone waving and calling out. Then they looked grumpy and walked off before we worked out who it was. Hopefully it was one of Nathan’s friends who was annoyed and not someone that I might know. If it was someone I knew calling over, then hello 🙂

We thought at this stage that we’d pop into Waitrose. Now, given that Nathan and I are hardened walkers ready to take on the 100 in a few months, we feel that we’re competent navigators who are experienced and confident. We then couldn’t find our way into Waitrose and got entirely muddled up, which frankly wasn’t ideal. As an aside, and without being rude, whoever is in charge of signage at this Waitrose is a bloody idiot. Right, moan over.

The true measure of a shop is the quality of their craft beer selection. Although not world class and lagging behind Morrison’s, this wasn’t a bad effort. Anyway, Nathan and I decided that Waitrose was too decadent for us (I still feel I’m an imposter going into M&S, let alone Waitrose) and so we continued on our walking expedition.

This was the path at the rear of Waitrose and there is a path which leads from here to the UEA. We were a little concerned at first as this was not an ideal situation in terms of the mud, but it transpired that this was the only problematic stretch.

This is the stretch to the A11 and it hadn’t flooded at all, which was rather lovely.

I’m not a bike expert, but this could have done with a service, perhaps using the scheme promoted by the Government which nearly no-one was able to get.

The bridge looks quite ugly here with the graffiti and rickety metal structure shoved on the side.

It’s more pleasant from the other side and this is Cringleford Bridge which was built in 1520 and extended in 1780. The previous bridge had been lost to floods in 1519, which probably annoyed the locals at the time. This was once on the main road, but there’s a new road bridge on the nearby A11 to relieve the traffic on this one. Of relevance to our walk, the listed building records notes that “the southern bank of the river Yare is now the boundary of the City of Norwich”.

A previous flood level marker on the bridge. Fortunately, the water wasn’t quite that high when we meandered along the route.

The bench didn’t seem correctly proportioned to me.

This is the next stretch of the path, which sticks by the river and leads into the University of East Anglia (UEA).

This was our final stretch on this walk, and that stretch from the bridge to the lake is visible on the above map. The big lump of water is the UEA lake, with the university buildings just above it towards the top of the map.

I’ve never seen a dog entry point into a river, but it didn’t seem like a bad idea. I thought at first it was something that snakes had created for themselves, so I was pleased it was a less dangerous type of animal (although knowing someone that has been bitten by a dog recently, she might not agree).

I noticed there was a little stretch off the main path which stuck close to the river. We went down there, but didn’t get far as there was a tree in the way further down.

A little pier on the lake with the UEA buildings behind. As one of the university’s leading alumni, I didn’t note Nathan gazing longingly at the buildings, but perhaps he was inwardly excited to be back.

This is the ‘Man of Stones’ bronze sculpture designed by Laurence Edwards and installed here in 2019.

We didn’t need to cross over here for the purposes of our walk, although we might have had a little meander on the other side if it had been open.

I was quite glad that it was shut, as it’s called the Mathematical Bridge and this might have over-excited Nathan given his maths degree. I can imagine him walking over 25 times to celebrate just how mathematical it was.

It is called the Mathematical Bridge due to its construction being comprised of only straight lines and this mathematical structure is meant to surprise and delight people as the average person might think from its design that it would collapse. Anyway, it’s closed as it’s collapsing, but once they’ve fixed the foundations it’ll be open again. I hope the bridge that my civil engineer friend Liam is currently building doesn’t suffer from the same fate, but I’m sure he’s got that under control.

I wanted to carry on by the river, but it was getting muddier.

At this point, we’re on the left-hand side of the lake. The path that was too muddy to follow would have allowed us to carry on by the river, but instead we took a parallel route (well, sort of parallel) route towards Earlham.

This was too difficult to cross as the water was deeper that it looks in the photo. I know this as I tried to walk across it. Nathan, who can sometimes be more sensible than me, held back looking concerned. He was right (hopefully he won’t notice me writing that).

A bushy tree. Anyway, at this point we had gone off track and so we’ll be back soon to try and carry on along the path that we couldn’t walk this time. And then we’ll walk further down the River Yare and I can imagine how excited everyone must be to read about that……

January 26, 2021