It was my wife who suggested I should have a free day in Norwich, sandwiched between the Wednesday working in London and a family funeral in North Norfolk on the Friday. Rather than doubling back to the North East, I booked two nights in the Premier Inn opposite Norwich railway station and had a free Thursday to explore again the city I lived in briefly from 1983-5.
Norwich is a large city, reached by train from the north-east via Peterborough. At 215,000 in the built-up area, it is the biggest settlement in East Anglia. I was spoiled with options of things to do. I started with the hourly open top bus tour with a recorded commentary.
An adult ticket was £10 which seemed a bit steep until I realised it included the regular bus services within the inner zone. The open top commenced its last rotation around nine stops at 1630 but I could, if I wished, continue riding the conventional bus services until gone midnight which are 100% electric. There was a convenient stop to board the open top service (now ceased for winter) opposite my hotel.
First stop was Tombland, which enabled me to explore the alleys and lanes of Elm Hill, and the warren of wholly pedestrianised streets running up to the City Hall. If you want to see a real emporium of junk/collectables, depending on your point of view, try Whistle Dixie on Elm Hill. There’s a ground floor, and, not for the fainthearted, stairs down to a basement full of stuff that you wonder how on Earth they managed to get down there.
I walked out to the huge Roman Catholic Cathedral (since 1976) on the western edge of the city centre, but with another stop on the open topper route. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, it was constructed between 1882 and 1910 to designs by George Gilbert Scott, Jr. as a parish church, on the site of the Norwich City Gaol. The funds for its construction were provided by Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, as a gesture of thanksgiving for his first marriage to Lady Flora Abney-Hastings.
I had a wander around the colourful market below the City Hall, and found a half-timbered cinema, and lunch at Turtle Bay, a favourite of mine.
On the east side of the city, in 1096, Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral. The chief building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy. To transport the building stone to the site, a canal was cut from the river (from the site of present-day Pulls Ferry, pictured) up to the east wall. Herbert de Losinga then moved his See there, to what became the cathedral church for the Diocese of Norwich. After a riot in the city in 1274, Norwich has the distinction of being the only complete English city to be excommunicated by the Pope.
I took the last journey on the open-topper to this Anglican Cathedral for 1730 Evensong, at which I learned it was the commemoration of the Beheading of John the Baptist. So strange, there was nothing mentioned about that earlier at the Catholic Cathedral dedicated to him!
It was not until later in the day, when the Shrine had closed, that I remembered I had neglected to visit the home of anchoress Julian of Norwich, on Rouen Road. It was she who, living in the tumultuous fourteenth century, who wrote: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”
Sorry, Julian, I shall have to find another excuse to visit you.
alexnelson@nationalrail.com, www.nationalrail.com