Waking up to a misty morning, I decided nonetheless to carry out today’s planned mission to visit all the medieval churches within the old city walls, photograph them, and map out the route, just in case anyone else would like to carry out such a trek themselves. By ‘all the medieval churches’ what I really mean are those churches with ‘working’ parishes in 1837, as well the sites of those that have been lost since. I also included a couple of others which I passed on my way that were already out of use whencivil registration came around.
While this morning’s walk takes in churches, it also passes a great deal of other sights and sounds, ancient and modern vistas, bits of city wall, 60s redevelopment (love it or loathe it), the legacy of 19thCentury industry, more recent regeneration and the old standbys – Cathedral, Castle, Guildhall and Market – so if you’re new to the city or just looking to uncover more of it, you might like to give the following a go.
To give you an idea of how close together the churches are, I’ve included the time at which I took the first of each pair of photographs below. The fog makes for moody shots, and while there is a trade off here with the loss of some towers to the mists, the weather does help disguise some of the less impressive architecture close to the churches. It is not very difficult to imagine yourself part of a grey Victorian morning on a day like this.
It is not my intention here to talk about the history of the churches, rather to help you put them into the context of their modern surroundings and give a flavour of what they look like. There are many here that locals will recognise, but there are others which are right next to busy thoroughfares and nevertheless unnoticed by passers by on their way to work, nestled as they are in the peripheral vision of drivers and pedestrians.
So, in order to help you identify the names (in some cases the ‘old names’ as new uses have come to the buildings) and locations of the churches, here are two views of each, in the order I visited them, starting from Chapelfield and heading out and back again around the city. I’ve done the route from the bus station as this is where most visitors are likely to arrive, but you could start it at whichever point takes your fancy.
And so, at 9:30am, the Beastie Boys and I headed up to the city, fog lights blazing, and the mission began…
From the bus station, enter Surrey Street, turn right and then left up All Saints Green. Follow the road north onto Golden Ball Street into Cattle Market Street and then turn right beside the old Marquee Pub to enter the churchyard of St Peter Permountergate at the end of a short alley.
10:01
Leave the churchyard through the entrance on King Street. Turn right and then right again in the vicinity of Dragon Hall to walk past St Julian, rebuilt after bombing in World War Two.
10:05
At the top of the alley, turn left along Rouen Road and head south towards the very bottom of the spine of Conesford. St Etheldred is nestled in trees to your left.
10:09
Keep walking towards King Street and turn right continuing towards the bottom of the inner ring road. Almost at the junction with the ring road itself, look right and walk up a pedestrian path. The ruin of St Peter Southgate, pulled down in the late 1800s, is now inside a children’s playground.
10:26 (closer together than this – took a little detour!)
Walk up hill past the playground and the end of Argyle Street. Follow the pedestrian path up a further steep hill which turns into Southgate Lane. At the top, turn right back towards the city centre and right again down Ber Street, next to a small section of city wall. St John de Sepulchre is on the left by the junction with Finkelgate.
10:32
Continue along Ber Street until you see the ruin of St Bartholomew on the right, pulled down just before the Second World War after a few centuries of use as a factory and store. Not to be confused with the ruin of St Bartholomew, Heigham, to the west of the city wall.
10:35
Keep walking up Ber Street and cross over the road by some new flats on the right. You have just come to the site of St Michael at Thorn, bombed in the Baedeker Raids in 1942 and never rebuilt (although the doorway became part of the rebuilt St Julian).
10:37
Continue along Ber Street back to All Saints Green having completed a loop to the south of the city. St John Timberhill is in front of you.
10:39
6 Responses
What a brilliant idea to look at this! Sometimes, when I am wandering around the city, there are three or four Churches in the immediate vicinity and I wonder how the inhabitants chose which one to go to! Did it depend on where they lived, what the Vicar was like, where the family had always gone or did they just go where they liked? In a village, it is pretty obvious where you go for baptisms, marriages & burials, but in the City, there was such choice!
Definitely food for thought!
Thanks.
Very interesting, my mother was from Burgh, and I have visited and stayed in NOrwich. Did you see ST Mary the Less Church.. My ancestors – Hugenots – came there in the 1600's , and inside is a plaque in memory of David Blackburn. We came to Alberta , Canada in 1929.
Hi both,
Glynn – I recently created a parish map for the city, many of the parishes were small but most people would have been aware which was 'theirs'. Will DM you details.
Naomi – St Mary the Less is in the final part of the blog – I included it as it's such an interesting one!
Thanks both for your comments,
Elizabeth
brilliant.. have being meaning to return toNorwich and look for the churches my ancestors worshipped in
any links to the Stangroomes would be appreciated.
Stangroom is a very local name in Whissonsett, near Fakenham. I don't know if that's where the family originated from, it's just that every Stangroom I know is from Whissonsett!
🙂
Hi Carolynn,
A quick search shows possible links to St Helen and St Martin at Oak at least – both of these are photographed in the blog.
Elizabeth