Norwich - A CIty with a castle, two cathedrals, many churches and a rich history

 

Today (Tuesday, August 10th) we didn’t travel as far as on other days of the holiday but walked further than we had any of those days as we explored the City of Norwich. 

Norwich, with its castle, two cathedrals and multiple Churches is worth exploring. While we have been in the city twice before on this holiday, we had set today aside to really explore this city at the heart of East Anglia.

 

Breakfast

I was again up at 5.30am, it seems a perfect time for me, I had breakfast and then started on the lengthy blog of the day in Bury St. Edwards, Lavernum and Thetford, itself a very busy day. Given the need to shower and shave etc. I didn’t get time to finish the blog post but had made a good start on it by the time we left for Norwich at 9.30am.

 

The trip into the city was uneventful and we parked at our usual car park at 10am.

 

History

Norwich, or North Wic (Wic being a trading town or harbour) as its Anglo-Saxon founders would have called it, was created as a small town on the River Wensum. The Saxons preferring to be further up river in their habitations than the Britons (The Iceni Tribe of Boudica fame) or Romans who had set up their camps and towns respectively at a place now known as Caistor St. Edmund, then known by the Romans as Venta Icenorum.

In the 840s the arrival of the Danish Vikings was to change the focus of the City and the Region and Norwich, keeping its Saxon name, suddenly had Danish rulers and street names and place names reflecting the Danish tongue across Norfolk (all the places with by at the end being a good example). The Danes linked Norwich to their own expansive trading routes across Northern Europe and down the Constantinople.

The arrival of the Normans after 1066 was to change Norwich again. The building of the canal from the River Wensum to the Cathedral meant stone from Caen could be brought directly by boat for the building of the Cathedral. This involved knocking down much of the Saxon town.  

By medieval times Norwich had become the second biggest City in England after London, continuing its trade with the continent. 

See more about Norwich and its history here

 

Castle

At the centre of Norwich high on its hill stands a Castle like no other Castle I’ve seen in the UK. It is shaped like a big, window free, box. Oddly the Castle at Norwich was built without being needed for defence and apart from the formal use by the Sheriff of the city it wasn’t even where the Kings and Queens who visited the City chose to stay. Thus, it has a more decorative than functional use. By 1883 having spent some time as the County Jail it had become a Museum, which it continues to be today.

Unfortunately, due to a major renovation going on in the Castle we weren’t able to visit the battlements and see over the city from there. The bit of the castle that was open was the Museum which has NationalHistory and Art exhibits. There are many impressive paintings by local and international artists. Perhaps my favourite was one of the City itself (look at the horizon where you can see the shape of the castle, cathedral and another church) with a pastoral scene in the foreground.

The only historical parts of the museum being about  the Iceni and the Romans, rather than about the history of the City of Norwich. Which I felt was a bit disappointing. Some of the ancient artefacts were attractive, Drew was especially taken by the ring below which seemed very Tolkien like to him.  [Co-pilot's note: How many times do I have to say!!! Keep it secret, Keep it safe!!!] 

Cathedral

From the Castle we walked down to the Cathedral, passing another iconic Norwich site the studios of Anglia Television where for decades Sale of the Century was broadcast to the nation with the reliable charm of Nicholas Parsons, best known to me for his role as chair of Just a Minute for 60 years.

 

We entered the Cathedral grounds through one of four intact gates. The grounds are open and airy and many people were taking advantage of the great weather to have a picnic.

The West Door of the Cathedral remains a magnificent site after all these centuries and the statues of Dame Julian of Norwich and St. Benedict are very prominent.

Must of the excitement around the Cathedral today was of people visiting the ‘Dippy the Dinosaur’ exhibition. The pretend dinosaur skeleton, for long the preserve of the Natural History Museum in London, is now travelling through the country on a tour having been replaced in London by the actual skeleton of a whale. [Co-pilot's note: Chunter, chunter, poor old Dippy, I'd like to see you calling him that to his face.]

The queue for Dippy was enormous, but we were lucky to be able to avoid it and go into the South Entrance of the Cathedral and see the top end of the Church (but not see the Nave as that is where Dippy was being displayed).

The Cathedral has an amazing range of stained glass and that will go up on to Flickr on Sunday or Monday Evening depending on timing this weekend.

 

Tombland

The area of Norwich outside the Cathedral is known as Tomband which is also the name of the book which first got my interested in the city. The name is not about graves, but is the old English for Open Ground or Empty Land and donates the Market area that was outside the Cathedral in Norman times.

The houses of the wealthy merchants from the time when Norwich was the second biggest City in England, after London, are all represented in this area. 

 

St. Julian of Norwich

After the Cathedral we went to visit the shrine to DameJulian of Norwich. I was lucky enough to be introduced to her wonderful little book ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ in my late teens.

Dame Julian, an anchoress (a female hermit who lives in an anchorite next to a Church), had a deep and abiding love for Jesus which inspired her to give her whole life to her Lord as an act of faith. Her inspiration like those of later religious women like Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux and Faustina Kowalska is about coming to know Jesus in an absolutely personal way through a deep and abiding love for him, whose love for us exists before we are created. It is humbling for me to sit in the space where Dame Julian gave her whole life to love of God and her neighbour, to hope and pray that I can have a scintilla of that same love for Jesus whose love for me has been so abundant throughout all of my life.

St. Stephen’s Church

Moving back from St. Julian’s Church, which is on the edges of the City Centre, into the City Centre we came to St. Stephen’s Church which is beside the most recent shopping developments in the city.

 

The Church grounds form a perfect place for people to gather on this glorious sunny day with the temperature at 24 degrees Celsius.

 

The inside of the Church is less full of ornament than some of the places we have visited, but it was interesting to find that in the Middle Ages it was the centre of pilgrimage for one of its former clergy – Richard Caister – who served the people of his parish with unusual simplicity and fervour (to be clear I mean unusual for that time.)

 

St. Giles Church

From St. Stephen’s we travelled up the City to St. Giles' Church which can be seen from distances around due to its position on the hill to the west of the city. While the Church was locked, we appreciated its size.

Drew particularly liked its gargoyles, especially this fella:

The Catholic Cathedral

Just up the road from St. Giles is the Catholic Cathedral ofSt. John the Baptist. This Cathedral for the Diocese of East Anglia was built in the 1880s as a Parish Church. Its style is remarkably different from most Gothic churches and cathedrals of its time. Taking a more traditional English approach to architecture rather than the pan-European influence seen in the works of both Pugins in many Cathedrals in England and Wales, like St. Chad’s, Birmingham and St. Joseph’s, Swansea.

The Cathedral Treasury is on display

 

It was lovely to have time to sit and pray in the Blessed Sacrament chapel while Drew took photos of stained glass and statues for loading on Flickr later this week. 

 

Chickens

After we finished our visit, we left Norwich at 4pm (a six-hour visit, wow) and drove out to Attleborough for another visit to Robin and Liz Croft. We sat in a lovely, shaded outdoors and enjoyed some cool after the sunny heat of the day. Drew spent time visiting the hatchlings which had pecked their way out of their shells this morning and really enjoyed seeing them. 

 

Dinner

We had originally planned to eat this evening at the Tipsy Vegan in Norwich, however early this afternoon I got a call from them to say they have had to close due to a staff member having a positive PCR test for Covid. 

Robin and Liz had put their thinking caps on and by the time we got out to them in late afternoon they had managed to book dinner for 7:45pm at the White Lodge in Attleborough.

The White Lodge is a pub and restaurant on the old Norwich to London Road which now runs parallel here to the A11. It has been refurbished recently and has a large, barn like, restaurant space, which was full apart from the table booked for us, when we arrived.

 

The menu is eclectic but included lots of things we like. Drew began with Whitebait 

I had Chicken Wings in Smoky Hickory BBQ Sauce which were sticky and lovely.

Robin and Liz shared a Baked Camembert plate together.

Drew’s main was a venison burger which came served with lettuce, tomato and pickle and a red cabbage and apple coleslaw and chunky chips.

For mains I had a Warm Goat’s Cheese Salad with two generous pieces of goat’s cheese and a lovely fresh salad drizzled with a sticky balsamic vinegar, wonderful.

Robin also went for a burger, but a spiced halloumi one in his case.

Liz opted for the Salmon with roasted potatoes and vegetables and a rocket salad.

We were all very happy with our respective meals.

 

For dessert Drew had what turned out to be a huge Wild Berry Eton Mess and Liz had Caramel Crunch cheesecake with Popcorn.

After a lovely meal and catch-up we dropped Liz and Robin back to their home at 9:50pm and for back to Wagtail Barn at 10:30pm.

 

Like many days on this holiday it was a long yet enjoyable and fulfilling day.