A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

According to Blomefield, the trade continued to increase during the succeeding reign, that of Richard II., when laws were passed for regulating the sale of worsted. Our ancestors were then a plain homely sort of people, and like their forefathers, were content with coarse woollen cloths for their plain clothes. In this and succeeding reigns important changes took place in the system of society, especially in the formation of a middle class, which gradually increased in numbers and influence, and became the great support of trade. Norman despotism was relaxed, and political liberty was advanced, and the darkness of the middle ages was dispelled.

In A.D. 1403, Henry IV. separated the city of Norwich from the county of Norfolk, and made it a county of itself, which it has been ever since. This, of course, has been a great advantage to the city as regards its self-government. In this reign it was deemed necessary to appoint officers, whose business it should be to inspect the goods; and in the reigns of Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III., complaints were renewed in acts of parliament and other documents of the great “crafte and deceite” used in the making of worsteds, says, serges, fustians, motleys, &c., at Norwich.

During the short reign of Edward VI., the making of “felt and thrummed hats, dornecks, and coverlets,” had sprung up in consequence of the decline of the old stuff manufacture; and in the reign of Mary the manufacture of “light stuffs” was introduced. These were of the same fabric as “the fustians of Naples,” and seem to have been so similar to the bombazines of succeeding years, that they may be considered as the commencement of the great staple of Norwich. During the subsequent reigns the city does not seem to have advanced in prosperity. Henry VII. succeeded in reviving the trade a little, but in the reign of his son, Henry VIII., it again declined. We find by an act passed in that reign “that the making of worsteds, says, and stammins, which had greatly increased in the city of Norwich and county of Norfolk, was now practised more diligently than in times past at Yarmouth and Lynn.” If so, the trade soon died out in those towns, as we have no record of any manufactures there.

Philip and Mary passed an act to encourage the making “of russels, satins, satins-reverses, and fustians of Naples.” From this time it appears that the stuffs made in the city were exported into foreign countries, most probably into Holland and Flanders, and at length partial restrictions were laid on the export trades, but still a great amount of business was done. As yet no one had promulgated the modern doctrines of free trade.

From Cotman’s valuable work, “The Sepulchral Brasses of Norfolk,” we may gather some information respecting the costumes of people in the middle ages. With reference to the dresses of the ladies, we may be surprised at the tardy progress of “fashion” in mediæval times, but a little consideration will enable us to solve the difficulty. In the fifteenth century money was very scarce, and all the articles of female apparel were about twelve times more costly than they are at present. Husbands and fathers were doubtless “intractable” in proportion. Hence our fair but thrifty ancestresses continued to wear the very same dresses on all festive occasions for many years. Now, however, the facilities of foreign travel, the introduction of cheaper materials, the results of modern ingenuity, and the spirit of the age in which we live, all tend to rapid, frequent, and capricious changes of costume; but it was not so then, and a lady was frequently attired as her grandmother had been before her! Our ancestors were slow coaches. Centuries elapsed before they achieved the ruff, before they discovered the bonnet, before they perpetrated the wig! They never dreamt of crinoline. Thus, for example, we observe the very same form of kirtle or gown—close fitting, low waisted, but wide and pleated at the bottom, during a period of more than 300 years, there being only a slight variation in the shape of its sleeves. The fall, the flounce, and cuffs of fur or some other material, must have been also a very long-lived fashion, being observable on many brasses from the dates of 1466 to 1537. But the designers of brasses may have adhered for a long time to merely conventional forms. The Rev. R. Hart, in his Letters to a local magazine, says:—

“The wife of Sir Miles Stapleton, in 1365, wears a close-fitting tunic over the kirtle, (the sleeves of which, with a row of small buttons extending from the wrist to the elbow, are seen underneath;) the sleeves of the tunic itself are short, but there are oblong narrow pendants almost reaching from them to the ground. It is buttoned at the breast, there are two pockets in the front, and the lower part is full and gathered into puckers or folds. (Cotman pl. 4). During the reigns of Henry IV. and V. the ladies wore a sort of bag sleeve, tight at the wrist (like that of a modern bishop). About 1481, the sleeve became wide and open like that of a surplice. About 1528, the sleeves of the kirtle, or under dress, were, in some instances, cut or pinked, so as to exhibit a rich inner lining. In 1559, there was a tight sleeve ruffled at the wrist, and with an epaulet upon the shoulder, pinked; and at the same period we observe the earliest specimen of the ruff, and the rudiments of the habit shirt. By far the most remarkable varieties are observed in head dresses, which frequently supply valuable indications as to the date. On the cup presented by King John to the borough of Lynn, and in the small figures upon Branch’s monument, some of the females wear a close-fitting cap like a child’s nightcap, and others a sort of hood with a long tail to it, which is sometimes stiff and sometimes loose like drapery. The wives of Walsoken and Branch (1349 and 1364) exhibit the wimple, covering the throat, chin, and sides of the face, and the couverchef (kerchief) thrown over the head and falling upon the shoulders. The next important variety was the forked or mitre head dress, which first came into fashion about 1438, and held its ground for about twenty-six years, though there is one specimen as late as 1492. This was followed by the pedimental style of head dress, which began about 1415, and continued till late into the following century. The butterfly head dress, which was a cylindrical cap with a light veil over it, stiffened and squared at the top, prevailed from 1466 to 1483. In 1538 we observe a graceful form of head dress, like what is termed the Mary Queen of Scots’ cap. The mantle, which was something like a cope, the jaquette, which may be compared to the “flanches of heraldry,” and excellent specimens of ancient embroidery, may all be studied in the brass of Adam de Walsoken. About the year 1460 we observe the aumoniere (like a reticule) hanging from a lady’s girdle, and also the rosary, terminating, not with a cross, but with a tassel.”

In reference to the dresses of the male sex, the Rev. R. Hart gives the following details as to municipal costumes.

“On the Lynn cup, already referred to, we observe the jerkin, or short coat; also a sort of cape, or short cloak; a larger cloak, and three or four sorts of head coverings, viz., a low flat-topped cap; another something like a helmet; a hat sloping upwards from the rim, and flat at the top; a hood with a tail to it; and another exactly resembling what is now termed a ‘wide-awake.’ On the monuments of Walsoken and Branch we notice the jerkin, the mantle, cloaks, long and short, (in one instance festooned over the right shoulder like the plaid of a Highlander,) and another long cloak, curiously buttoned all down the front; also several kinds of head-covering, some exactly similar to those which have been recently described, others with a broad rim turned up, the top being round-pointed or flat; and in one instance we observe a hat and feather. In their monumental effigies the laity are usually attired in a long gown, which has sometimes bag sleeves, but resembles an albe in all other respects. It is usually girdled with a leathern strap with a rosary of much larger beads than we observe on female brasses, and without any decads. Generally speaking, these rosaries have a tassel underneath, but on the brass of Sir William Calthorp, 1495, a signet ring is attached to the end of the rosary, while a beautiful shaped aumoniere also hangs from the girdle. About the year 1532 we observe gowns with hanging sleeves, like those which are still worn by masters of arts at our universities; and in other instances, of about the same date, we observe a pudding sleeve reaching a little below the elbow of the under dress. The brass of Edmund Green, in Hunstanton church, A.D. 1490, is chiefly remarkable from the resemblance that his upper garment bears to a pelisse or furred surtout. The short cloak—trunk hose (something like the ‘nickerbockers’ of our own time), and also the ruff, are observable upon Norfolk brasses between 1610 and 1630. During the first half of the fifteenth century, we observe a frightfully ugly mode of shaving of the hair all round, to some height above the ears. It looks like a skull cap, and is an exact inversion of the tonsure. Burgesses of Lynn appear to have worn, in the fourteenth century, long gowns, the lower part of which is open in the front about as high as the knees, and with wide sleeves reaching to the elbow. There is a richly bordered and hooded cape over the upper part of this gown. It is not unlike an amess. Aldermen of Norwich wore a mantle open at the right shoulder, falling straight behind, but gathered into a slope at front, so as to cover a great part of the left arm, while the other was exposed. It had a standing collar, and there were buttons upon the right shoulder. A Judge of the Common Pleas, in 1507, wore his hair long and flowing, and was habited in a long wide-sleeved gown, open in the front; apparently it was lined, caped, and bordered with fur, and there is a purse hanging from the girdle. On his feet he wore clogs of a very remarkable form. A Judge of the King’s Bench, in 1545, wore a wide-sleeved long gown, a mantle open at the right shoulder, as in the municipal examples, his head being covered with a coif or closely-fitting skull-cap.”

In the earlier years of the reign of Elizabeth, the Flemings, who fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva, settled at Norwich to the number of 4000, and much increased the prosperity of the city by introducing the manufacture of bombazines, which were long in great demand all over the country. Black bombazines were universally worn by ladies when in mourning, up to a recent period. These bombazines were mixed fabrics of silk and worsted, and were dyed in all colours. They did not wear so long as the more modern paramattas.

Elizabeth gave every encouragement to manufactures; and when more Flemings sought refuge in England, the city of Norwich gained an accession of knowledge in the art of weaving with a warp of silk or linen, and a weft of worsted, as well as in dyeing and other processes. And now the articles manufactured began to be classed as “bays, arras, says, tapestries, mockadoes, stamens, russels, lace, fringes, camlets, perpetuanas, caffas and kerseys.” Nothing contributed more to advance the prosperity of the city than the arrival of the industrious Dutch people, who brought with them arts before unknown in this land.