A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

The Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingites) occupy a building in Clement Court, Redwell Street. The present minister is the Rev. Arthur Inglis, B.A.

Since the 17th century Nonconformists have increased from a few hundreds to 10,000 in this city.

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

Norwich Antiquities.

The Castle, Cathedral, and churches already described are the chief antiquities of the city, but other remains are worthy of notice, and have been described by Blomefield, Kirkpatrick, Taylor, Harrod, S. Woodward, B. B. Woodward, the Rev. R. Hart of Catton, R. Fitch, Esq., and other antiquaries, who have explored every part of the old city. They nearly all agree in their accounts of the rise and progress of Norwich, and of its condition at different periods.

THE ANCIENT CITY.

B. B. Woodward, Esq., F.S.A., delivered two lectures on “Norwich in the Olden Time,” to the members of the Church of England Young Men’s Society, at the Assembly Rooms, some years since. He showed a thorough knowledge of all the previous authorities, with whom he sometimes differed. He exhibited four large maps, presenting views of the Old City at different periods, from A.D. 400 to A.D. 1400. He stated that he had derived the greater part of his materials for them from the series of maps of ancient Norwich made by his father, the late Mr. S. Woodward, but he had corrected and completed them from the publications of various Archæological Societies since they had been constructed, and he hoped that they would serve to illustrate the growth and progress of the ancient city with general fidelity to facts. Directing attention to the first map, which represented the condition of the Venta Icenorum, A.D. 400, Mr. Woodward pointed out the purely fictitious character of the earliest accounts of Norwich to be found in the older historians, who drew, in all good faith, on their fertile imaginations, and both persuaded themselves that they were writing history, and that they were believed to be doing so by others.

The old-established tradition, that the sea came up to Norwich, he stated, was undoubtedly to be accepted, but not as having occurred within the historic period. From various facts, and particularly from the occurrence of a Roman road at Wangford, near Bungay, near the edge of the present stream, he concluded that in the times of the Romans, the valleys of the Eastern Counties did not present a very different aspect from their present one, though of course where there was now meadow, marsh existed formerly, and many small streams have disappeared. Mr. Woodward, on this point, differed entirely from all the local historians and antiquarians, and his opinion is not supported by any evidence. The existence of a Roman road at Wangford, near Bungay, if such there be, has nothing to do with the river Yare. Mr. Woodward offered no proof that it is a Roman road. All the local historians state that a broad arm of the sea flowed up to Norwich till the 11th century, when Sweyn came up with a great fleet and landed an army here. Parochial records prove that the river came up to St. Lawrence Steps at a later period. We may therefore dismiss this singular opinion as untenable.

Mr. Woodward regarded Norwich as the Venta Icenorum of the Romans for several reasons, and particularly because it was plain from the occurrence of these Ventas in Britain, and none in any other part of the Roman world, that this was the name of a British town, which its being called the Venta of the Iceni strongly confirmed—even, in fact, a British stronghold, constructed according to the custom of that people in parts of the country without hills. In hilly countries the strongholds were entrenchments round the summits of the hills, but then there were small tracts of land surrounded by marshes. Such were the British strongholds on Bungay Common, and that at Horning, and such he believed was the Venta Icenorum. They were not intended for permanent occupation, but as places of safety for their wives and children, and for their cattle, in case of the attack of another tribe; and they could rarely be held against the enemy for any length of time. In this instance, the trench was drawn in a horse-shoe form, from the eastern slope of the ground on which the Castle now stands to the western side, the steep bank of the little stream, called the Cockey, being rendered more steep by art, whilst the Wensum and marshes protected the other sides. The position of the Roman camp, as the map showed, was determined by its being the fittest for keeping in check the Iceni of Venta, and preventing them from marching against the southern part of the island; and it might probably have been placed there after the disastrous experiment of what the Iceni could do under such a leader as their famous Queen Boadicea. In the latter part of the Roman period it would seem that the conquerors had less occasion for mere military force here, for the remains of a Roman villa had been found in the northern side of the camp at Caister.