A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

“Taking, then, Norwich for the Venta Icenorum of the Romans—called Caer Guntum by the British, and Northwic by the Saxons and Danes—you find the Capital of the Iceni, founded on the shoulder of the promontory overlooking the Wensum, towards the great estuary, which formed a natural stronghold for successive races of inhabitants. Whilst the Romans, fixing their permanent camp at Caistor, on the Taes, where that river joined the estuary, into which the Wensum, the Taes, and the Yare, all discharged themselves, would command the passage into the interior of the country; and taking Caistor for the ‘Ad Taum,’ you will find the distances sufficiently to agree with the Roman Itineraries.”

“The Camp at Caistor contains an area of about thirty-five acres, and the Roman station at Taesborough, on another promontory higher up upon the stream, has an area of about twenty-four acres.”

Another strong point in favour of Norwich having been the Venta Icenorum is, that all the roads radiated from the city to all parts of East Anglia.

In tracing the rise and progress of the city we must remember that it was in the centre of a vast common, and that it was the nucleus of an agricultural community, at first without any trade or any kind of manufactures. It was merely a collection of huts or a fishing station, near the banks of a river or arm of the sea. The social state of the place should be considered with reference to the progress of agriculture at different periods in the surrounding district. Norwich was for ages only a small market town, with a very small number of inhabitants.

CHAPTER IV.
Norwich in the Anglo-Saxon Period.

The destruction of all documents relating to East Anglia, during the irruptions of the Danes, has rendered this period the most obscure of any period of our history. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes having subjugated the fair territory of England, they divided it into seven kingdoms, called the Heptarchy, in which Norfolk formed a part of East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon leader, Uffa, established himself in this part of the island, in 575; and assumed dominion over that portion of the eastern district now divided into Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, giving it the name of East Anglia, of which Norwich was made the metropolis. Norwich was, therefore, a royal city, and the residence of the kings. Uffa, the first king, is supposed to have formed here a strong entrenchment of earth on the site of the present castle, encircled by broad ramparts and a ditch, as under the present Saxon arch. Uffa, who died A.D. 578, was succeeded by his son Titul; on whose demise, in 599, his son Redwald assumed the reins of government and embraced Christianity, but by the influence of his wife renounced it again. He was succeeded, A.D. 624, by his son Erpenwald, who was killed by a relation named Richbert, A.D. 633. His half brother Sigebert, who succeeded to the crown, established the bishopric of Dunwich, in Suffolk, and formed the first seminary for religious instruction, which led to the establishment of the university in Cambridge. Fatigued with the crown and its cares, he resigned it, A.D. 644, to his kinsman Egric, and retired into the famous monastery at Bury St. Edmund’s.

Norwich then became one of the chief seats of Anna, king of the East Angles, who gave the castle, with the lands belonging to it, to his daughter Ethelfrida on her marriage with Tombert, a prince of the Gyrvii or Fenmen, who inhabited the fens of Lincolnshire and the adjacent parts of Norfolk. At the same time Tombert granted to Ethelfrida, as a marriage settlement, the isle of Ely, which for greater security was to be held by castle guard service to the castle of Norwich.

From the time of Anna till the reign of Alfred the Great there are few events on record except the frequent incursions of the piratical Danes, who at last over-ran East Anglia, and had their head quarters at Thetford in 870. But the reign of the Great Alfred was distinguished by his decisive victories over those Northern marauders. One of his chief objects was to fortify the principal parts of his kingdom against hostile attacks. Finding the walls or ramparts of Norwich Castle too weak for repelling the attacks of the Danes, he caused others to be erected with the most durable materials. That it was a noted military station, and a royal castle in his time, is evident from a coin struck here in the year 872, having round the head AElfred Rex, and on the reverse Northwic. After making peace with the Danes in 878, he assigned to them, for their residence, the whole of East Anglia, and their leader Guthrum fixed his seat at Norwich; but, breaking his faith, the city and county were wrested from him, and reverted again to the Angles under six successive sovereigns.

Edward the Elder succeeded his father, the illustrious Alfred, in the year 901, and kept the Danes at bay. Ericke, one of their chiefs, held East Anglia under the king, till he rebelled in 913, when he was overthrown and slain. Athelstan, who succeeded Edward, totally expelled the Danes, and reduced the whole kingdom under his government. In his reign Norwich flourished, and it is probable that he was here in 925, for a coin still extant has on the obverse Ethalstan, and on the reverse “Barbe Mon Northwic,” that is “Barbe, mint master of Norwich.” Among the other East Anglian coins struck here, the following may be mentioned; one of Edmund, the successor of Athelstan, inscribed round the head Edmund Rex, and on the reverse Edgar Mon Northwic; several of Edred, coined about 946, and inscribed round the head Eadred Rex, and on the reverse Hanne Mo Northwic; two of Edward the Martyr, having on the obverse Edward Rex. Angl. and on the reverse Leofwine Mon Nor.; and three of Ethelred the Unready, having on the obverse Edelred Rex.

There is no account of the castle after the time of Anna till the Danish wars; and then it was often won and lost by the contending powers.

Blomefield, in his History of Norfolk, vol. II. p. 4, notices the coins of several Anglo-Saxon princes, Alfred, Athelstan, Edmund I., Edred, Edward the Martyr, and Ethelred II. The circumstance of Alfred coining money here is remarkable, as at the date of this coinage, (872) the government of East Anglia could only have just come into his hands, upon the extinction of the East Anglian dynasty in the person of St. Edmund, and the country either was or had just been in the military possession of the Danes.