Norwich - County town of Norfolk
A city since 1094, Norwich is the county town of Norfolk and unofficially seen as East Anglia's capital. From the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution, Norwich was the largest city in England after London and one of the most important.
The city is the most complete medieval city in the United Kingdom, including cobbled streets such as Elm Hill, Timber Hill and Tombland, ancient buildings such as St Andrew's Hall, half-timbered houses such as Dragon Hall, The Guildhall and Strangers' Hall, the Art Nouveau of the 1899 Royal Arcade, many medieval lanes and the winding River Wensum that flows through the city centre towards Norwich Castle.
The city has two universities, the University of East Anglia and the Norwich University of the Arts, and two cathedrals, Norwich Cathedral and St John the Baptist Cathedral.
Norwich Cathedral is dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites.
The cathedral was begun in 1096 and constructed out of flint and mortar and faced with a cream-coloured Caen limestone. An Anglo-Saxon settlement and two churches were demolished to make room for the buildings. The cathedral was completed in 1145 with the Norman tower still seen today topped with a wooden spire covered with lead. Several episodes of damage necessitated rebuilding of the east end and spire but since the final erection of the stone spire in 1480 there have been few fundamental alterations to the fabric.
The cathedral close is one of the largest in England and one of the largest in Europe and has more people living within it than any other close.
Norwich Cathedral has the second largest cloisters in England, only exceeded by those at Salisbury Cathedral. The large cloister has over 1,000 bosses including several hundred carved and ornately painted ones.
Statue of Lord Nelson
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Statue of the Duke of Wellington
St Ethelbert’s gate is one of the two main gateways into cathedral close and it was built by the good citizens of Norwich as a penance for their unruly behaviour.
Tombland, from the Old English meaning ‘empty space’, was also the site of a popular annual fair. Medieval fairs could get quite rowdy and the events often led to tensions between the monks of Norwich Priory and the townsfolk.
The story began in 1272 with a growing disagreement between religious men and the citizens of Norwich over rights, duties and boundaries – a number of citizens were even killed by the monks. The monks argued that as men of God they answered to their own justice system and did not abide by city laws. The monks locked the gates to the cathedral; instructing their men to attack anyone who got too close.
Things got even more heated, however, and the help hired by the murderous monks went on a rampage of violence that swept the city. The mob revolted and not only did they burn down the gates but also St Ethelbert’s church and damaged the cathedral and the cloisters during three days of rioting.
Once the rioting had been quelled, King Henry III himself came to Norwich and blamed the citizens for the damage - charging huge fines for repairs and rebuilding.
Even the Pope himself decreed that the entire city of Norwich was to be excommunicated from the church. Which says a lot about the secular justice system at the time and the status of the church. The citizens were ordered to build a new entrance into the monastery area and hence - St Ethelbert’s Gate.
Norwich holds the largest permanent undercover market in Europe. In the background is the Guildhall with its fine chequered flintwork.
One of the lovely cobbled streets.
Norwich Castle was founded by William the Conqueror some time between 1066 and 1075. It originally took the form of a motte and bailey. Early in 1067, William the Conqueror embarked on a campaign to subjugate East Anglia, and according to military historian R. Allen Brown it was probably around this time that the castle was founded It was first recorded in 1075, when Ralph de Gael, Earl of Norfolk, rebelled against William the Conqueror and Norwich was held by his men. A siege was undertaken, but ended when the garrison secured promises that they would not be harmed.
The first recorded presence of Jews in Norwich is 1134. In 1144, the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy (William of Norwich) was found dead with stab wounds. In February 1190, all the Jews of Norwich were massacred except for a few who found refuge in the castle. At the site of a medieval well, the bones of 17 individuals, including 11 children, were found in 2004 by workers preparing the ground for construction of a Norwich shopping centre. The remains were determined by forensic scientists to be most probably the remains of such murdered Jews, and a DNA expert determined that the victims were all related, so that they most probably came from one Ashkenazi Jewish family.
The Forum is a community building in Norwich, Norfolk in England. It stands opposite the St. Peter Mancroft Church. Built on the site of the previous Norwich Library which burnt down in 1994, the Forum was designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners, and built as a millennium project for the East of England, being finished in October 2001. The Forum is part of Norwich 12, a collection of notable buildings in Norwich spanning the Norman, medieval, Georgian, Victorian and modern eras. It is visited by more than 2.5 million people every year.
The building is home to the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium (NML) library, the local Tourist Information Centre, and the BBC East offices and studios, where the regional television news bulletin BBC Look East and local radio station BBC Radio Norfolk are based. The amphitheatre-like steps at the front have provided a venue for functions such as amateur theatrical performances, outdoor opera, musical competitions, art exhibitions, processions, and celebrations. Because the forum is funded partly by lottery grants, they hold certain events which are free of charge for people to attend. The Forum is commonly used as a meeting place, and the plaza area attracts skateboarders and free runners.
An update - In May 2012, Norwich was designated England's first UNESCO City of Literature. One of the UK's most popular tourist destinations, it was voted by The Guardian in 2016 as the "happiest city to work in the UK and in 2013 as one of the best small cities in the world by The Times Good University Guide. In 2018, Norwich was voted one of the "Best Places To Live" in the UK by The Sunday Times.
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