The Little Book of Norwich E-Book

Neil R Storey

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 258

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Norwich is a city that has seen it all. Its citizens have been murdered with poisoned dumplings, royalty and rogues have walked the same cobbled streets, and rioters have mustered outside its city gates. Quirky details and local anecdotes abound as this jam-packed compendium explores the UK's most easterly city, from its earliest origins to the present day. Looking at conflicts, sports, entertainment, traditions and all that makes Norwich special, this book will entertain and enthrall all those looking for some frivolous facts about this marvellous city.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Title

Introduction

1 About the City

2 Uprisings, the Military and War

3 Royal Norwich

4 Crime and Punishment

5 Norwich People, Famous and Not So

6 Norwich at Work

7 That’s Entertainment

8 Sporting Times

9 Transport

10 Death and Religion

11 In Sickness and in Health

12 Food and Drink

13 Sense of Place

14 On this Day

About the Author

Bibliography

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

‘What a grand, higgledy-piggledy, sensible old place Norwich is.’

J.B. Priestley

Norwich, located in the far east of England, is a historic and, in many places, a green and beautiful city. It is the county town of Norfolk but remains distinct from the rest of the region, with its own local government, markets, festivals, dialect, music and culture, and there was even a time when it had its own law courts, prison and police force.

This book does not pretend to be a history, concise almanac or even a guide to Norwich; instead it is a collection of ephemeral, nostalgic and miscellaneous facts about a city brimming with history and full of fascinating stories. The contents of this volume will enliven a conversation or quiz, reveal the truths behind local myths and legends, and leave even those who know the city with the ‘well fancy that!’ factor. It will answer such burning questions as:

• What does a whiffler do?

• How tall is the spire of Norwich Cathedral?

• Who was Billy Bluelight?

• What connections do Mary Berry, David Frost, Muhammad Ali, Reg Kray and Philip Pullman have with the city?

• Where did Norwich City Football Club play its first matches?

• When did Norwich have a camouflage school?

• … and what, exactly, does Tombland mean?

Enquire within for the answers and a whole lot more to help you impress and intrigue friends, and confound even the most knowledgeable of Norwich citizens. Read this book from cover to cover or dip into it as you please – there are no rules – but above all, enjoy it.

Neil R. Storey, 2015

1

ABOUT THE CITY

NORWICH IS BORN

Archaeological finds, dating back to the eighth century AD, were discovered in Fishergate and suggest that the first settlement that could be thought of as Norwich – known then as Northwic or Norvic – existed there.

The first definite record of the place name Norvic appears on coins minted between AD 920 and AD 939 during the reign of King Athelstan of England.

Norwich would become a city in 1194, during the reign of Richard I.

NORWICH HAMLETS

The old hamlets within the county of the City of Norwich were places where the inhabitants were entitled to the same municipal privileges as those residing within the walls of the city, namely Earlham, Eaton, Heigham, Hellesdon, Lakenham, Pockthorpe, Thorpe, Trowse Millgate, Old Catton and Sprowston.

TOMBLAND

Tombland does not refer to a burial ground. The first syllable comes from the Old English tom, meaning empty or open, thus Tombland means empty or open space – exactly what was needed to accommodate the market that was regularly here during the late Saxon period.

NORWICH CASTLE

Construction of Norwich Castle started shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. An area of land was cleared, defensive ditches were dug and a wooden fort was erected. In 1094, the reign of King William Rufus saw work begin on a stone keep and, after Rufus’ death, his brother Henry I continued with the construction. The castle was completed by 1121.

Designed more as a symbol of power than as a necessary fortification, it is possible that the castle was intended to serve as a royal residence, although no Norman king ever lived there. In fact, it has spent the majority of its existence as the county gaol, a role it served from the fourteenth century until 1887, when the last prisoners were removed to a new prison off Plumstead Road and work began to convert the ancient castle into a museum which was opened in 1894.

GROWTH OF THE CITY

The old boundaries of the City of Norwich spread between St Clement’s Hill in the north to Harford Bridge in the south, a distance of 4.25 miles. Following a zigzag boundary, it was around 17 miles in circumference and comprised 6,630 acres of land.

In 1066, Norwich was one of the largest towns in England, with an Anglo-Dutch population of around 5,500.

In 1377, a census taken of some of the great towns of England recorded that Norwich contained 5,300 people.

By the sixteenth century, Norwich had grown to become the second-largest city in England and continued to vie with Bristol as the ‘second city’ of England until the Industrial Revolution.

OLDEST SITES

The oldest dwelling place in Norwich is the Music House on King Street, which was built in about 1175 by the Jurnets, one of the wealthiest Jewish families in England. It became known as the Music House after its time as the headquarters for the Norwich waits and minstrels during the reign of Elizabeth I.

The oldest surviving pub in the city is the Adam and Eve in Bishopsgate. It was built in 1249 as a brewhouse for the workers building the cathedral.

The oldest remaining bridge in Norwich is the medieval Bishop Bridge, built in 1295.

BRIDGING THE GAP

By 1300 there were five bridges over the Wensum in Norwich, making it the city with the most bridges in England.

CITY WALLS

The city walls were started in 1294 and took around fifty years to complete due to complaints about the cost being levied for their construction. In the end they were completed by a single patriotic individual, Norwich tradesman Richard Spynk, who in 1343 was rewarded by the grateful Corporation by being ‘quit all tallages, tasks and costs’ for both he and his heirs forever. Once completed the walls had twelve gates, they were:

• Ber Street Gate, taken down in 1807

• Bishop’s Gate, taken down in 1791

• Brazen Doors or Newgate, taken down in 1793

• Conisford Gate, at the south end of King Street, taken down in 1793

• Heigham Gate or Hell Gate, fell down in the eighteenth century

• Magdalen Gate, taken down in 1808

• Pockthorpe Gate, taken down in 1792

• St Augustine’s Gate, taken down in 1794

• St Giles’ Gate, taken down in 1792

• St Martin’s or Coslany Gate, taken down in 1793

• St Stephen’s or Nedham Gate, taken down in 1793

• Westwick or St Benedict’s Gate, taken down in 1793

CHAPEL FIELD GARDENS

The Field takes its name from the chapel of St Mary in the Fields. Founded in the thirteenth century by John le Brun, St Mary in the Fields had such numerous and generous benefactors that it soon became a college, complete with a dean, chancellor, precentor, treasurer and seven other prebendaries, and the premises were expanded. At the time of the Dissolution, the extensive premises were granted to Miles Spencer LL.D, the last dean. The ‘chapel’ stood on the site of today’s Assembly Rooms.

In 1406, the citizens of Norwich claimed 4.5 acres of ground that belonged to the Chapel in the Field. During the sixteenth century, what was know as Chapel Field was leased, complete with cherry yard and dove house, to notable citizens. Then, under a proclamation of 1578, it was used as an open area for mustering the trained bands, archers or the artillery and the ‘fit place’ to charge guns with shot and powder for the exercise of shooting. It was also the place where the ‘City Tent’ was set up for the Lord Lieutenant on the occasions of the general musters and where yearly reviews of the city regiment took place in the seventeenth century.

Chapel Field was first railed with fencing in 1707 and tree planting began when Sir Thomas Churchman leased The Field and laid out the main walks in 1746. In 1792, part of The Field was leased to become a large water reservoir for the city. Standing around 300yds in circumference with a high red-brick crenated water tower, it served this purpose until 1851 when the new Waterworks Company was established and reservoirs were built at Lakenham. In 1854, the old water basin was filled in and the people of the city lost a popular spot for skating. The Field then declined into a rough and uncared for place where washerwomen hung out their linen, children played and sheep were occasionally put out to graze.

After the Norfolk Agricultural Association held its annual meeting on The Field, attempts to improve it were made and new iron palisadings were erected in 1866 when their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, accompanied by the Queen of Denmark, were received there. But it was over ten years later, in 1877, that the Corporation realised that the shabby field could be made into a beauty spot and the landscape gardener got to work. The newly laid out gardens were opened by the mayor, Harry Bullard, with much festivity in 1880. The cost of the complete transformation was about £1,400.

GUILDHALL

The flint Guildhall was built between 1407 and 1413, and when complete it was the largest and most elaborate city hall outside London. It primarily functioned as a place for meetings of the city’s council, but gets its name from the Guild of St George who also used the building. The Guildhall remained the seat of the city council until it was replaced by City Hall in 1938.

The Guildhall once had a tower, built in 1435, but it collapsed in 1511 and was never rebuilt.

NORWICH MARKETS

The ancient trading rows and markets of Norwich (listed before the reign of Richard II) consisted of Glover’s Row, Mercer’s Row, Spicer’s Row, Needler’s Row, Tawer’s Row, Ironmoner’s Row, the Apothecary’s Market, the Herb Market, the Poultry Market, the Bread Market, the Flesh Market, the Wool and Sheep Market, the Fish Market, the Hay Market, the Wood Market, the Cheese Market, the Leather Market, the Cloth-cutter’s Market and the White-ware Market.

The Market Cross that once stood in the Market Place was constructed between 1501–03 by Mayor John Rightwise. A commodious and handsome building, it stood for over 200 years until it fell into decay. In 1732 it was sold by the Tonnage Committee for £125 and was taken down soon after.

THE CITY’S COAT OF ARMS

The city’s arms consist of a ruby shield featuring a triple-towered castle in pearl above a royal lion, a symbol that was granted to the city by Edward III. The blazon of the arms is: ‘Gules, a castle triple-towered and domed Argent; in base a lion passant guardant Or.’

This design appeared on a fifteenth-century seal and was confirmed during a heraldic visitation in 1562 by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms. The arms are supported by two angels with their wings expanded (not included in the image below) and is surmounted by a fur winter cap of maintenance as its crest. The lower part was often shown embellished with sword and maces. The earliest depiction of the arms, including additions, to survive is in the form of a carving, was created in around 1534 and built into the outside wall of the Guildhall.

NEAR MISS FOR PULL’S FERRY

The picturesque fifteenth-century riverside watergate, Pull’s Ferry, is today one of the city’s most famous landmarks. It was, however, very nearly lost forever.

The watergate is named after John Pull, who ran the ferry across the Wensum from 1796 to 1841. It continued to operate until the 1930s (its last full year of operation being 1929), but after a number of years of disuse it became derelict and dilapidated. The structure was only saved after the Girl Guides lost their old local headquarters in an air raid during the Second World War. They subsequently raised and were given grants to the value of £2,000 to restore the historic building as their new headquarters in 1949.

IT’S PLAIN TO SEE

One of many reasons why Norwich is distinctive from other cities is its number of ‘plains’ – local dialect for an open space or square in the city. The word is derived from the Dutch and Flemish settlers who came to the city in the sixteenth century and used the word plein to describe such places.

THE POPULATION OF NORWICH SINCE 1693

1693

29,911

1752

36,369

1786

40,061

1801

35,633

1821

50,173

1841

60,418

1861

74,414

1881

79,977

1891

100,964

1901

100,815

1911

121,493

1921

112,533

1931

126,207

1941

112,669

1951

110,633

1961

116,231

1971

122,118

1981

119,764

1991

127,074

2001

121,553

2011

132,512

A HOLE IN THE KING’S HEAD

In 1813, Alderman Jonathan Davey shocked the Guildhall Council Chamber by declaring, ‘Gentlemen, I mean to put a hole in the King’s Head!’ His refusal to withdraw or explain his comment caused such great concern that local constables were ordered to observe his movements. The following week, an inn was sold on The Walk and the next day a huge hole appeared in the facade of the King’s Head pub. It was turned into a shopper’s foot street and, to this day, Davey Place remains a testimony to his sense of humour or perhaps his flair for publicity.

THE CORN HALL

The first brick of the new Norwich Corn Hall, otherwise known as the Corn Exchange, was laid on 1 May 1861 and opened for business on 9 November that same year. The contractors for the building were Messrs Ling and Balls of Norwich, and Messrs Barnard, Bishop, and Barnard for the roof. The total cost was about £8,000 and the work was executed from the designs of Mr Barry, of Norwich, and Mr H. Butcher, of No. 37 Bedford Row, London. It was used for public events, entertainments and sporting matches such as boxing and wrestling, but sadly it was demolished in 1964.

THE LOST PAGODA

There was once a fine ornamented pavilion or pagoda that stood near the centre of Chapel Field. Designed by Thomas Jeckyll of London, it was made by Messrs Barnard, Bishop and Barnard in cast and wrought iron at their Norfolk Ironworks in the city. It originally cost £2,000, weighed 40 tons, measured 35ft long by 18ft wide and stood 35ft high with two floors, the upper of which was reached by a spiral staircase. The pagoda was used as a showpiece for various exhibitions, the first being at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876, and at exhibitions in Paris, Vienna, Buenos Aires and London before the Norwich Corporation bought it in 1880 for the nominal sum of £250, another £250 being required for foundations, erection and painting. It was erected the following year and the first band played there on 24 May 1881. The pagoda stood on Chapel Field through the two world wars, when it could well have been lost to scrap salvage. It was eventually declared ‘unsafe’ and taken down in 1949.

LOST LANDMARK

One of the features that stood out on arrival into Norwich from the late nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, was the Boileau drinking fountain for horses and their drivers at the junction of Newmarket and Ipswich Roads. Sir John Boileau had bequeathed the sum of £1,000 to pay for the fountain in memory of his wife, Lady Catherine.

Designed by Thomas Jeckyll of London, Sir Joseph Boehm executed the statuary – entitled Charity – in bronze, while the tall uprights and the canopy were constructed by Mr Hubbard of East Dereham. It was inaugurated on 30 October 1876 and Sir Francis Boileau performed the ceremony of asking the city to accept the fountain before being thanked by the mayor, Mr J.H. Tillett, in the name of the citizens. After being declared unstable, the structure was taken down in 1965 and the statue moved a short distance away. Today it stands in the redeveloped grounds of the old Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

A TERRIBLE DAY

The most serious and destructive fire to take place in Norwich during the nineteenth century occurred on 1 August 1898. At an early hour in the morning, the premises of Daniel Hurn, a rope maker who lived on Dove Street, were found on fire. The flames spread southwards to Messrs Chamberlin and Sons’ wholesale warehouse, northwards towards Pottergate Street and westward to the public library. The premises in which the fire originated, the warehouse, and a portion of the property on the north were all speedily destroyed, and ultimately the main library building was consumed along with its 60,000 volumes and the valuable Norton Library.

By some terrible coincidence, Norwich Central Library caught fire almost 100 years later on 1 August 1994, with extensive damage caused. It was also on 1 August – this time in 1970 – that the popular department store Garlands, on London Street, was discovered on fire.

COURTS AND YARDS

In 1900, there were 749 courts and yards in Norwich, many of which have since disappeared through slum clearance, bombing during the war years and redevelopment. Here is a nostalgic list of some of them; many were named after the pubs that they once served:

Bath House Yard, Oak Street

Bird-in-Hand Yard, Barrack Street

Boarded Entry Yard, Ber Street

Cardinal’s Cap Yard, St Benedict’s Street

Cattermoul’s Yard, Pitt Street

Cock and Pie Yard, Quayside

Cock Yard, St Giles Street

Crawfoot’s Yard, Ber Street

Crown Court Yard, Elm Hill

Flower-in-Hand Yard, Heigham Street

Gaffer’s Yard, St Benedict’s Street

Greenland Fishery Yard, Oak Street

Grimmer’s Court, St Andrew’s Broad Street

Little Cow Yard, Cow Hill

Loyalty Court, St Stephen’s Street

Museum Court, St Andrew’s Broad Street

Oby’s Yard, King Street

Pipe Burner’s Yard, Pottergate Street

Ratcatcher’s Yard, Ber Street

Rock Yard, Barrack Street

Seven Stars Yard, Barrack Street

Sultzer’s Court, Botolph Street

Thoroughfare Yard, Magdalen Street

Tiger Yard, Fishgate Street

Two Quarts Court, Bridge Street

Wrestler’s Yard, Barrack Street

SOME UNUSUAL STREET NAMES IN NORWICH PAST

Winkle’s Row, King Street

Bull Close Road

St Laurence Little Steps, St Benedict’s Street

Back of the Inns

Cockey Lane (now London Street)

Gropekunte Lane (now Opie Street)

Curson’s Opening, Philadelphia Lane

Pig Lane, Palace Street

Rampant Horse Street

Weed’s Square, Bishop’s Bridge Road

Hangman’s Lane (now Heigham Street)

Fuller’s Hole, St Martin’s Road

World’s End Lane

Upper Goat Lane

Twenty-One Row (New Lakenham)

Zipfel’s Court, Magdalen Street

Mountergate

LAST AND FIRST

The last Mayor of Norwich was the antiquarian Walter Rye who served 1908–09. The title then changed to Lord Mayor and Dr E.E. Blyth was the first to take this post that same year (1909–10). Rye always maintained: ‘The old plain Mayoralty of Norwich was more honourable than a later-given Lord Mayorship.’

DEATH BELL NELLIE

When the mighty bell of the clock atop the 206ft tower of City Hall was heard sonorously striking the hours for the first time in 1938, it was dubbed ‘Death Bell Nellie’ – it is thought to be one of the deepest-sounding clock bells in the country and it is certainly the largest. For some, City Hall has never had much aesthetic appeal. When Norman Long, a popular comedian of the day, lampooned City Hall as a ‘marmalade factory’ during a show at the Norwich Hippodrome, the nom de plume stuck for years after.

City Hall also has the longest balcony in England, at 365ft long (111m). It was suggested among the people of Norwich that the City Hall, which remained remarkably unscathed through the blitz on the city during the Second World War, had been deliberately missed on the orders of the Führer himself as he wanted the building intact so it could become his headquarters in the east.

CASTLE MALL

The Castle Mall shopping complex, completed in September 1993, cost £75 million to construct as part of a £145 million redevelopment project of the old Cattle Market site. The cast-iron arch erected over the entrance to the Castle Mall car park once spanned the River Wensum as part of the Duke’s Palace Bridge from 1822 until it was replaced by the new bridge in 1972.

TWINNINGS

Norwich is twinned with four towns and cities:

• Rouen, France, since 1951

• Koblenz, Germany, since 1978

• Novi Sad, Serbia, since 1985

• El Viejo, Nicaragua, since 1996

NORWICH AROUND THE WORLD

There are seven places named Norwich in the USA, they appear in Connecticut, Kansas and Long Island, there are two in New York State, and two more in Vermont. There is also a Norwich in Ontario, Canada.

SOME MORE NORWICH FACTS

Norwich is the most easterly city in the United Kingdom.

It is latitude 52°42' north and longitude 1°20' east of Greenwich.

An ancient saying states that Norwich has ‘a pub for every day of the year and a church for every week’ – if the Nonconformist churches and chapels are counted then this still holds true, as does the number of pubs.

In 1404, the citizens of Norwich obtained a charter from Henry IV for its first mayor and two sheriffs to be appointed.

In 1509, a fire swept through the city and destroyed 718 houses. The City Corporation subsequently decreed that no newly erected buildings would be roofed with thatch.

The ‘cross’ on Boundary Road (near ASDA) was first erected in the fifteenth century to mark the spot where the King’s Way crossed the boundary of the City of Norwich.

In 1712, an Act was passed for the illumination of the streets of Norwich, whereby, as soon as it got dark, every householder would hang lamps or candles outside their houses until 11 p.m.

The names of the streets and highways of the city were affixed to walls and displayed for the first time on 1 March 1771.

The moat surrounding the Castle Hill and the ascent from thence were laid out as gardens and shrubberies in 1784.

The clocks of Norwich were regulated upon Greenwich mean time as early as 1794.

The first gaslight was installed in Norwich on 21 December 1814, in Mr Harrison’s hosiery shop in the Market Place.

The beautifully carved Bassingham Gate – formerly the entrance to the house of Tudor goldsmith John Bassingham at Nos 57–59 London Street – was bought by William Wilde when London Street was widened in the mid-1850s. In 1857 it was installed at the magistrate’s entrance at the south-west corner of the Guildhall.

The first record of a telephone wire erected in Norwich was in December 1881 when the United Telephone Company suspended a line of wire between Messrs Morgan’s Brewery, King Street and Mousehold House, the residence of the head brewer, Mr William H. Hackblock.

The wettest year in Norwich was 1912. A total of 40.74in of rain fell on the city and the heavy rainfall caused serious flooding.

In 1928, water mains formed from tree trunks were unearthed in King Street. This discovery indicates that some form of piped water system existed in at least one part the city as early as the fifteenth century.

Postcodes were introduced in Norwich in 1959.

During the coypu epidemic and cull of the 1970s, there was a Ministry of Agriculture Coypu Research Laboratory in Norwich.

In 2011, a news story revealed that Norwich has the shortest set of double yellow lines in Britain. Painted on the road surface of Stafford Street, they measure just 17in (41cm). Incredibly, this claim was beaten in 2013 in Cambridge, I bet locals were left wondering what vehicle you could fit in to that space if you were allowed to park there.

Norwich was designated England’s first UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) City of Literature in May 2012.

2

UPRISINGS, THE MILITARY AND WAR

RIOT AND REVOLT

The citizens of Norwich did not always get on with the servants of the cathedral priory. There were violent exchanges on a number of occasions, but one day those old animosities boiled over into a full-blown riot. During a fair held on Tombland in June 1272, an argument broke out and a mob of citizens drove a group of priory men back to the cathedral close. As the priory men were being forced back, one of them – armed with a crossbow – shot and killed a citizen. Days and weeks passed, and the citizens of Norwich were outraged that no action was taken in consequence for the man’s death. As a result, an attack was launched against the cathedral and Bartholomew Cotton’s Historia Anglicana provides an account:

1272, on the day following the Feast of St Laurence, the citizens of Norwich laid siege around the precincts of the monastery. When their insults failed to gain them admittance, they set fire to the main gate into the monastery … they burned the dormitory, the refectory, the guest hall, the infirmary with its chapel and indeed almost all the buildings within the precincts of the monastery. They killed many members of the monastery’s household, some sub deacons and clerics and some lay people in the cloister and in the monastery. Others they dragged off and put to death in the city.

After the fire, the citizens entered the buildings and looted everything the flames had spared; sacred vessels and books were taken, as well as gold and silver. In the immediate aftermath, King Henry III arrived to personally ensure that justice would be done to the ‘delinquent citizens’. Alleged participants and ringleaders of the riot were tried and thirty of them were found guilty. Those condemned were dragged to the gallows by horses, hanged, then cut down and their bodies were burned to ashes. Keen to dissuade the citizens of Norwich from further outbursts of this nature, Henry III also deprived the citizens of their liberties. The Pope then laid Norwich under an interdict and called for the city to pay a large fine and build the Ethelbert Gate as penance.

PEASANT’S REVOLT, 1381

Across England, peasants rose up in protest against the oppressive nature of the Poll Tax. In June 1381, Geoffrey ‘John’ Litster (also spelt Litester), a dyer of some means from Felmingham, led a rising in the north-eastern part of the county. Rebels also arrived in Thetford, spreading revolt in the south-west of the county towards the Fens. The agitators converged on Norwich, Lynn and Swaffham; assembling on Mousehold Heath before marching on Norwich, where they caused considerable damage to the property and possessions of poll tax collectors and officials, destroying legal records such as court rolls and taxation documents as they went. A further attack was made on Great Yarmouth.

Henry Despenser, the ‘Warlike Bishop’, set off with his own retinue to engage the insurgents and gathered support from those who opposed the rebels as he marched across the county. Litster and his rebels fell back to North Walsham Heath where, on 25 or 26 June 1381, a bloody battle ensued. The rebels were no match for Despenser’s better trained and equipped men. The denouement of the battle was the slaughter of the peasants, who had fled to the unconsecrated footings of the new church in North Walsham after they mistakenly believed they might be able to claim sanctuary there. Litster was captured and hanged, drawn and quartered. His remains were displayed in Norwich, Yarmouth, Lynn and his home near North Walsham, as a stern warning to any others who would consider rebellion.

GLADMAN’S RISING, 1443

The Abbot of St Benet at Holme pressed for the removal of the new flour mills that had been built by the city on the Wensum and, in January 1443, it appeared he would have his wish. City folk feared a shortage of flour and, in an attempt to block the abbot’s legal process, Robert Toppes (a former mayor) removed the common seal from the Guildhall. A full-scale riot, enflamed by old resentments over the power of the Church, ensued. Rioters, led by such luminaries as the Mayor of Norwich, piled wood against the cathedral gates and threatened to burn the priory down.

In the midst of the commotion, it was arranged for John Gladman (one of the rioters) to ride into the city ‘like a crowned king with a sceptre and sword carried before him’. Riding with him were twenty-four others, ‘with a crown upon their arms and carrying bows and arrows, as if they were valets of the crown of the lord king’, followed by 100 more carrying bows and arrows and swords. They processed around the city and rang the bells to gather the populance to them. It was claimed that they were able to bring together 3,000 people and urged them ‘to make a violent insurrection throughout the entire city … armed with swords, bows and arrows, hauberks and coats of armour’. The rioters held Norwich for a week, but once it was over, accusations were made that their actions were actually a challenge against the king’s authority. It was suggested that Gladman’s parade had been in mimicry of a royal procession and all those who had followed him were branded as ‘rysers ageynst the kyng’.

The consequences of Gladman’s Rising were serious for Norwich. The city was fined 3,000 marks (later reduced to 1,000), its liberties were seized by the king and Sir John Clifton of New Buckenham was imposed upon the city to rule it as governor for four years.

KETT’S REBELLION, 1549

On 6 July 1549, the feast of the translation of St Thomas à Becket was celebrated at Wymondham. Recent enclosures of land around the town led locals to rise up and start smashing down fences at Hethersett. When the mob arrived at yeoman Robert Kett’s enclosures he sympathised with their cause and joined them in tearing down his own fences.

The rioters mustered again in Wymondham on 8 July and marched on Norwich with Robert Kett at their head. Refused entry to the city, the rebel force made camp upon Mousehold. They established a council headed by Kett, who sat under the ‘Oak of Reformation’ and drew up a charter of demands righting the wrongs done to commoners. A royal herald came to the camp and offered a pardon but Kett refused, saying they had offended no laws and did not require one, following which a boy stepped forward and defecated in front of the herald to show his contempt. The herald went away denouncing Kett as a traitor. The following day the rebels stormed the city.