City in Norfolk, England
Norwich
Norwich was once England's second-biggest city, then became home to a medieval woman who wrote the first book in English by a woman, plus a football club named after a bird.
Key information
- County
- Norfolk
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 144,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Norwich Cathedral, Norwich Castle, Colman's mustard, Norwich City, Julian of Norwich, UEA creative writing
- What locals are called
- Norwich folk; formally, Norvicensians
- Famous people
- Julian of Norwich, Elizabeth Fry, Olivia Colman
- Football clubs
- Norwich City (Carrow Road)
About Norwich
The city with a church for almost every street corner
Norwich was among the largest and richest cities in England in the Middle Ages, thanks to wool and cloth. That wealth paid for churches, and 31 medieval ones still stand within the line of the old city walls. It is an astonishing number for a place this size. The grandest building is the cathedral, begun in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga. It is built of pale stone shipped over from Caen in Normandy. Its spire rises about 96 metres, making it the second tallest cathedral spire in England after Salisbury. Peregrine falcons nest on it, and the cathedral has more than 1,000 carved roof bosses, with around 400 of them in the cloisters. On a mound above the centre sits Norwich Castle, a Norman keep from the early 12th century. It has been a royal fortress, a prison and now a museum.
The woman who wrote the first book in English by a woman
Around 1395, an anchoress known as Julian of Norwich finished a book called Revelations of Divine Love. It is generally considered the earliest surviving book in English written by a woman. Julian lived shut away in a small cell attached to St Julian's Church, advising visitors through a window. She is remembered above all for the line "All shall be well", which she heard in a vision during a near-fatal illness. Her cell has been rebuilt after wartime bomb damage, and people still visit it. The literary streak never faded. In 2012 Norwich became England's first UNESCO City of Literature. The University of East Anglia, founded in 1963, launched its famous creative writing course in 1970, and its alumni include Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Why a football club is named after a songbird
In the 1560s, Dutch and Walloon refugees fleeing religious persecution settled in Norwich. They brought skills in weaving and a passion for breeding canaries. Norwich became a centre for the little yellow birds, and the football club founded in 1902 took the nickname the Canaries, along with yellow and green shirts. They play at Carrow Road, which takes its name from the road on which the stadium stands, in the Carrow area of the city. The club's best-known supporter is the cook Delia Smith, a former majority shareholder and now an honorary life president. In February 2005 she grabbed a microphone at half-time and urged the crowd with "Let's be having you!" Few moments of English football are quoted as often.
Rebels, mustard and insurance
In 1549, Robert Kett led thousands of rebels from Mousehold Heath in protest at the enclosure of common land. They captured Norwich, one of the biggest cities in the country, before royal troops defeated them. Kett was hanged from the castle walls that December. He is now remembered as a folk hero. Two centuries later the city was building fortunes of a different kind. Norwich Union, an insurance society, was founded in 1797 and grew into the company now called Aviva, which still has a big Norwich presence. Then there is mustard. Jeremiah Colman's family business, which began in 1814, grew into one of the city's biggest employers. Colman's mustard is still associated with Norwich, though the Mustard Shop and Museum in the Royal Arcade closed in 2017.
Lanes, markets and the Norwich School
Norwich Market has traded since the Norman period, around 1070, and is one of the largest open-air markets in England. Its stalls sit under colourful roofs below the castle. A short walk away, the Lanes weave between independent shops. Elm Hill, a cobbled street of crooked timber-framed houses, looks much as it did centuries ago. Tombland, by the cathedral, has nothing to do with tombs. The name comes from an old word for open ground, used for a market place. In the early 1800s, the Norwich School of painters, led by John Crome and John Sell Cotman, became Britain's first major provincial art movement. They painted the Norfolk landscape with a freshness that influenced later artists. The Sainsbury Centre, designed by Norman Foster and opened in 1978, carries on the city's art tradition. Locals sometimes call a friend "bor", a bit of Norfolk dialect. Norwich is also the gateway to the Norfolk Broads, and its many pubs and cafés are a good place to start.