A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

In King Street are the churches of St. Peter per Mountergate, St. Julian, St. Etheldred, and St. Peter Southgate, all ancient edifices.

St. Peter per Mountergate.

St. Peter per Mountergate derives the latter part of its name from a gate formerly placed near the churchyard, at the foot of the Castle mount. The old church is in the perpendicular style, and has a nave, chancel, south porch with parvise, and a square embattled tower, with five bells and a clock. The building has been recently restored and fitted up with open benches, those in the nave being stained deal, and in the chancel oak. The famous Thomas Codd, who was Mayor of Norwich during Kett’s Rebellion, and who was a great benefactor to the city, was interred in the nave. The benefice is now a perpetual curacy, valued at £78, and augmented with £200 of Queen Anne’s bounty in 1766, and with a parliamentary grant of £800 in 1812. The Dean and Chapter are patrons. The Rev. John Durst, incumbent.

St. Julian.

St. Julian’s Church, in King Street, is a very small ancient structure, founded before the conquest, and comprises nave, chancel, north porch, and tower. It is principally of the Norman period, and most of the windows are decorated and perpendicular insertions. The tower, which is ruined, has a deeply recessed Norman arch, slightly pointed, and having shafts with caps and bases. It has also a small Norman loop window in the thickness of the wall splayed both inside and outside. The south doorway is a very fine specimen of Norman architecture, and was restored in 1845, when the chancel was rebuilt and the church thoroughly restored at a cost of £500. The east window was at the same time filled with stained glass, representing our Saviour seated and surrounded by the evangelists. The font is perpendicular in style, cup-shaped and panelled. There was a hermitage for a female recluse in the churchyard, but it was demolished at the dissolution. The rectory, certified at £19 3s. 1d., has been long consolidated with All Saints. The Rev. C. F. Sculthorpe, M.A., is patron.

St. Etheldred.

St. Etheldred’s Church, in King Street, is supposed to be one of the oldest structures in the city, and had in its burial ground a very ancient anchorage, which continued till after the Reformation. It is a small building with a nave, chancel, and tower. The benefice is a perpetual curacy, certified at £2 14s., and valued at £77. It was augmented from 1745 to 1802 with £800 of Queen Anne’s bounty. The Trustees of the Great Hospital are patrons. The Rev. W. Bishop is the present incumbent.

The parish of St. Etheldred seems to have been one of the parishes of the Anglo Saxon period, and in it formerly were the houses of many families of distinction, including the residences of Sir Thomas de Helgheton, of Henry de Norwich, of the Abbot of Wymondham, of Sir James Hobart, and of Sir Robert de Sulle, who was killed by the rebels in the reign of Edward III. No remains of these houses now exist. All along the east side of King Street, next the river, there is a line of vaults, which seem to have formed the foundations of old churches now demolished. The Old Music House still stands in King Street, in the parish of St. Etheldred, and on its site formerly stood the house of one of the rich Jews, who settled here in the reign of William Rufus. It afterwards became the property of his grandson Isaac, at whose death it was escheated to the crown. Henry III. gave it to Sir William de Valeres, Knt., and in 1290 it was the residence of Alan de Frestons, Archdeacon of Norfolk, who had a public chapel there. In 1626, it belonged to John Paston, Esq., and in 1633 it was the city house of Chief Justice Coke. The present house is not older than the 17th century. Under it there are very extensive vaults of a more ancient date, now occupied by Messrs. Youngs, Crawshay, and Youngs, as ale stores.

St. Peter Southgate.

St. Peter Southgate, near the south end of King Street, is an ancient church, with a nave, chancel, north chapel, south porch, and a square flint tower, in which are three bells. The windows are chiefly square headed, and the architecture is of the late perpendicular period. There is a good cross on the east gable. Part of an old screen remains in front of the north chapel. The Rev. W. Bishop is the incumbent.