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History of Norwich Page 3In the Middle Ages before the Black Death, which occurred in the year 1349, the city's population was approximately 30,000, and with nearly 60 parish churches and successful trades and industries including leatherworking (including tanners and skinners), textiles (including weaving and dyeing), shoemakers, saddlers and parchment makers, the city was indeed prosperous. With prosperity came the building of hospitals and colleges notable of which was the Hospital of St Giles on Bishopsgate, which was founded in 1249 and the College of St Mary's in the Fields founded in approximately 1250.
Certain areas of the city suffered badly at the time of the Black Death and became depopulated, with pestilence claiming one in three lives. The economic health of the city also suffered enormously although this is difficult to judge, as documentary and material evidence is scarce.
During the late 14th and early 15th Centuries, affluent members of the society built on a grand scale and there are still monuments surviving to this day reflecting the wealth at the time. Dungeon Tower, which was part of the Great Hospital, is faced with stone and contains vast quantities of flint in its structure and is a freestanding artillery tower which had gun emplacements on the roof. This building still remains to this day and is now known as Cow Tower. A new market cross was built in 1411 and rebuilt in 1501-3. A fire in 1507 destroyed the Pottergate and St Laurence's Lane corner of the city, this area not being rebuilt until the 17th Century.
The period of the Reformation brought much change and disruption to the city during the 16th Century, with new buildings being constructed and older dwellings falling out of use and into disrepair. Many churches were lost at this time. There is also some evidence that Dutch weavers, goldsmiths, builders and printers settled in the area in the 1700s but Norwich was still basically a medieval city in the late 1780s. Fashionable suburbs were created in the 1840s with construction and maintenance work of a high standard being demanded. The city was becoming a more 'middle class' society with the majority of the increasing population housed within the historic core of the city.
Many examples of late 19th and early 20th Century terraced dwellings survive having been modified and modernised, thus changing the appearance of the city. The city of Norwich has always been a commercially successful city with many diverse trades and industries. The Colmans Mustard works was established in Carrow the factory buildings being constructed in the 1850s. Many breweries occupy sites within the city confines, 17 having been recorded in 1854. These include Bullards, Steward and Patteson and latterly Young's Brewery built on the site of the Augustinian Friary. Boulton and Paul, Structural and Mechanical Engineers, dating from the 19th Century have their company situated in Norwich. This company has links with the aircraft industry, including the production of the framework for the R101, in the production and construction of aircraft frames.
Other industries of note in the area are Norwich Union Insurance and Anglia Television.
There is an art nouveau arcade and a new shopping mall which is architecturally stunning making Norwich one of Britain's top ten shopping cities. Norwich today is vibrant and bustling, with modern technology hidden behind the historical façade. Norwich has excellent transport facilities in that there is a major regional airport for travel further afield, ample rail and bus links. From Harwich to the Hook of Holland or Hamburg and Esbjerg the traveller can travel by car and passenger ferry with the ferries operating on a daily basis.
Norwich is easily reached by road with major trunk roads including the M11, A11, A47, A12, A14, A140, A146 and A1062 to name but a few.
Norwich Tourist Board
Lovely Britain, Odhams Press Ltd
AA Touring England 1990 Edition
AA Road Book of England and Wales 1962 Edition
English Heritage - Norwich 1994
Norwich History Index Website; History Norwich
Photographs by David Allison © 2000
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