Norwich
This is about Norwich in England. For articles about other uses of the name Norwich, please click here.The city of Norwich is the regional administrative centre and county town of the county of Norfolk, England.
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2 Famous names asociated with City 3 Present-day 4 External links |
Norwich, and the country of Norfolk, was shaped by the Iceni the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Late Saxons,the Vikings and the Normans.
The word Norwich Norvic appears on coins minted during the reign of King Athelstan (early 10th century AD). The ancient city was already a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia when Swein Forkbeard the Viking in destroyed the City in
1004 A.D.
The main area of the City south of river Wensum was destroyed by the construction of the Norman Castle during the 1070’s. Creation of a ‘New’ or ‘French borough’.
1096 Bishop Losinga began construction of the Cathedral At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, and it continued to be a major centre for trade, especially wool. The River Wensum was a convenient exporting route to the sea.
There was a riot in
1272 when the citizens fought with the cathedral monks over the imposition of a toll on the annual fair.
The wealth generated by the wool trade during the Middle Ages resulted in the construction of many fine Churches. Norwich still has one of the highest number of splendid medieval churches in western Europe.
In 1507 the poet John Skelton (1460-1529) wrote of two destructive fires in his Lament for the City of Norwich.
All life is brief, and frail all man’s estate. City, farewell: I mourn thy cruel fate.
Ever since the great immigration of 1567 the Walloon community had been granted by successive Bishops the right to use a chapel for their own worship. Norwich has been the home of various dissident minorities, notably the French Huguenot and the Belgian Walloon communities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Primarily through Trading connections with mainland Europe, ideas of religious reform and radical politics were introduced to Norwich.
The Norwich Canary was first introduced into England by Flemish refugees fleeing from Spanish persecution in the 1500’s . They brought with them not only advanced working skills in textiles but also their pet canaries, which they began to breed. The Canary is the emblem of the City's Football team , "The Canaries", Norwich City F.C
Thomas Fuller in his The Worthies of England wrote of Norwich in 1662 that it was -
Early history
Celia Fiennes (1662-1741) visited Norwich in 1698 describing it as
She also noted also records that held in the City three times a year were-
Daniel Defoe in his Tour of the whole Island of Great Britain (1724) wrote of Norwich-
the inhabitants being all busy at their manufactures, dwell in their garrets at their looms, in their combng-shops, so they all them, twisting-mills, and other work-houses; almost all the works they are employed in being done within doors.
John Evelyn (1620-1706) Royalist, Traveller and Diarist wrote to Sir Thomas Browne-
- I hear Norwich is a place very much addicted to the flowery part.
The suburbs are large, the prospect sweet, and other amenities, not omiting the flower-garden, which all the Inhabitants excel in of this City, the fabric of stuffs, which affords the Merchants, and brings a vast trade to this populous Town.
George Borrow in his Lavengro (1851) wrote of Norwich as-
- A fine old city, perhaps the most curious specimen at present extant of the genuine old English Town. ..Thre it spreads from north to south, with its venerable hoouses, its numerous gardens, its thrice twelve churches, its mighty mound….There is an old grey castle on top of that mighty mound: and yonder rising three hundred feet above the soil, from amongst those noble forest trees, behold that old Norman master-work, that cloud-enriched cathedral spire …Now who can wonder that the children of that fine old city are proud, and offer up prayers for her prosperity?
- '' I arrived here a week ago and find it a place where the arts are very much cultivated....some branches of knowledge, chemistry, botany, etc. are carried to a great length. General literature seems to be persued with an adour which is astonishing when we consider that it does not contain a university, as is merely a manufacturing town.
Norwich's geographical isolation in the east of England was such that until 1834 and the establishment of a Railway connection it was often quicker and safer to travel to Amsterdam than to London! This geographical insularity is reflected even today in its resident's characteristics.
Famous names asociated with City
In his youth Borrow was resident at Willow Lane. He attended the Norwich King Edward school. Borrow recollects his youth in the City and conversations with the philologist and translater of German Romantic literature, William Taylor in his semi-auto-biographical novel Lavengro.
- The prison reformer Elizabeth Fry
- Thomas Ivory Neo-Classical Architect. Assembly Rooms (1776) and Octagon Chapel (1756)
- Harriet Martineau (1802-76) daughter of a Norwich manufacturer of Huguenot descent. She sufferd from ill-health and deafness throughout her life.
- Amelia Opie (1769-1853) Norwich author and Quaker .
- George Skipper (1856 - 1949). Architect. Examples of George Skipper's Edwardian Art-Deco style architecture can be seen throughout the City. The splendid 'Royal Arcade' , the Norwich Union Marble Banqueting Hall and the 'Hotel de Paris' at the seaside resort of Cromer are each fine examples of the so-called Gaudi of Norwich.
Present-day
A university, the University of East Anglia was founded in Norwich in 1963. UEA adopted the City's motto of independence Do different.
There is an airport offering some scheduled international services and holiday charter flights, developed from the former RAF airfield at Horsham Saint Faith. This was once the home of Air UK which grew out of Air Anglia and eventually became part of the Dutch airline KLM.
Satirical comedian Steve Coogan located his fictional, unbearably vain, cheesy broadcaster "Alan Partridge" in Norfolk, specifically hosting the pre-breakfast show on the fictional independent station "Radio Norwich". It exploited the county's reputation as being somewhat detached from modern trends, past its prime, and rather peripheral to national life.
Other comic entertainers who have drawn comedy from that stereotype include The Singing Postman and The Kipper Family lately represented by "son" Sid Kipper.
A shift from the decline in industries in the City throughout the eighties and nineties to new entreprenurial activities has stablised the City's economy. Recent developments include the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital, the Millennium Library complex The Forum now home of regional BBC broadcasting and the Riverside complex. Future plans for development include a new stadium for the football club, The Canaries, along with another badly-needed shopping mall on the site of the much-loved, recently demolished 'Caleys' Chocolate factory.
Attractions for those chosing to re-locate include its relatively cheap housing market, the compactness of City centre for shopping , its relatively low crime rate, its relaxing pace of life and access to the bootiful Norfolk countryside, including the Norfolk Broads and extensive coast-line. Toleration, combined with a curious insulation, has resulted in the City often being considered as out-of-step with national trends (see Alan Partridge); however easy access to the unspoilt Norfolk scenery, a relatively good rail link to the Capital, the continued growth of new retail and service businesses and small-scale skilled industries and the 'native's slow, but friendly absorption of all, continues to make Norwich a popular place to live.
