The Norwich Road: An East Anglian Highway

by Charles G. Harper

The Market Place is not yet wholly spoilt. The huge bulk of St Peter Mancroft and a row of queer old houses beside it still avert that disaster, and form a picture from one point of view; while the flint-faced Guildhall stands at another corner of the great open place and in its Council Chamber, in use five hundred years ago as a Court of Justice, and still so used, proves the continuity of "our rough island story." In a dark and dismal cell of the Guildhall once lay the heroic martyr, Thomas Bilney, who "testified" at the stake in the Lollards' Pit, where many another had already yielded up his life. He wondered, as others before and after him had done and were to do, whether the tortured body could pass steadfast through the fiery ordeal; and on the eve of his martyrdom put that doubt to the test by holding his finger in the flame of a candle. That test sufficed, and he suffered with unshaken constancy when the morrow dawned.

The Guildhall has less tragical memories than this, and was indeed the scene of many old-time municipal revelries in times before Corporations became reformed. But old revels and frolics have been discontinued, and "Snap," the Norwich dragon, a fearsome beast of gilded wickerwork, who was wont to be paraded from the Guildhall at the annual mayoral election, and last frolicked with his attendant beadles and whifflers in 1835, now reposes in the Castle Museum.

The Market Place on Saturday, when the wide open square is close-packed with stalls, is Norwich at its most characteristic time and in its most characteristic spot. In it the story of the Norwich Road may fitly end. The city itself, glanced at in the immediately foregoing pages, could not yield its story in less space than that occupied by that of the road itself.

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INDEX

• Aldgate, [1], [8], [11], [13], [51]
• ---- Pump, [11]
• "Bacon End," [180]
• Boreham, [127-129]
• Bow, [6], [8], [75-80]
• ---- Bridge, [77-79]
• Brentwood, [23], [94-99], [132], [200]
• Brockford, [257]
• Brome, [261]
• Brook Street, [94]
• ---- Hill, [94], [132]
• Caistor St Edmunds, [4], [298], [301-303]
• Capel St Mary, [236]
• Chadwell Heath, [51], [83], [85], [86]
• ---- Street, [86]
• Chelmsford, [5], [40], [51], [52], [54], [57], [80], [114-121], [127], [167], [200]
• Chipping Hill, [133-139], [302]
• Claydon, [252]
• ---- Hall, [252]
• Coaches:--
• "Confatharrat," [34]
• "Duke of Beaufort's Retaliator," [46], [140]
• "Expedition," [39], [306]
• "Gurney's Original Day Coach," [39], [267], [306]
• "Ipswich Blues," [23], [39], [132]
• "---- and Yarmouth Mail," [41], [45]
• "---- Post Coaches," [36]
• "---- Shannon," [39]
• "---- Umpire," [81]
• "Magnet," [39], [306]
• "New Colchester," [81]
• "Norwich Machine," [34-36], [306]
• "---- Mail," [39], [40], [43]
• "---- Post Coach," [39]
• "---- Times," [28], [39], [267]
• "Parcel Mail," [54-57], [111]
• "Phænomenon," [39], [306]
• "Telegraph," [306]
• Coaching, [30-51], [54-57], [81], [82], [97], [132], [142-151], [267]
• Coaching Notabilities:--
• Alexander, Israel, [46], [140]
• Nelson, Mrs Ann, [19-25], [27], [81], [132]
• ----, George, [19]
• ----, John, [19], [25-27]
• ----, Robert, [19]
• Suggate (Norwich carrier), [34]
• Thorogood, John, [28], [267]
• Colchester, [5], [6], [43], [54], [56], [94], [156], [163], [165], [167], [177], [179-212], [217]
• Constable, John, R.A., [149], [154], [217-219], [232], [238]
• Copdock, [236]
• Copford, [175], [176]
• Copperfield, David, [28], [44], [45], [150], [226], [274]
• Creeting, All Saints, [253]
• Creetings, The, [255]
• Dedham, [217-221]
• Deodand, Law of, [50]
• Dickleburgh, [6], [277-279]
• Dilbridge, [217]
• Dunston, [298]
• Feering, [152], [153], [158]
• Forest Gate, [81]
• Goodmayes, [83]
• Gore Pit, [152], [176]
• Great Eastern Railway, [25], [46], [51-54], [83], [152], [158], [175]
• Hare Street, [94]
• Hartford Bridge, [304]
• Hatfield Peverel, [129], [131]
• Highwaymen, [29], [30], [41], [58-62], [85], [86], [87], [88], [99], [142], [143], [214]
• Highwaymen:--
• Cratfield, Rev. Wm., [30]
• King, Matthew, [58]
• ----, Robert, [58]
• ----, Tom, [58], [61]
• Tapyrtone, Thomas, [30]
• Turpin, Richard, [57-62]
• Ilford, [6], [29], [80], [82], [83], [167]
• Ingatestone, [6], [56], [99], [105-110]
• Inns (mentioned at length):--
• "Angel," Colchester, [196], [197]
• ----, Kelvedon, [140], [141], [147], [148], [162]
• ----, Norwich, [34], [306]
• "Belle Sauvage," Ludgate Hill, [19]
• "Black Boy," Chelmsford, [121]
• "Blossoms," Laurence Lane, [34]
• "Blue Boar," Whitechapel, [28]
• "---- Posts," Witham, [132]
• "Bull," Bishopsgate Street, [15], [37]
• ----, Leadenhall Street, [12], [15]
• ----, Whitechapel, [15], [19-28]
• "Bull and Mouth," St Martin's-le-Grand, [15]
• "Cauliflower," Ilford, [83]
• "Coach and Horses," Upton, [81]
• "Cock," Thwaite, [260]
• "Cross Keys," Gresham Street, [15]
• "Duke's Head," Wacton, [288]
• "Fleece," Brook Street, [94]
• "Flower Pot," Bishopsgate Street, [15]
• "Four Swans," [34]
• "Golden Cross," Charing Cross, [15]
• "Good Woman," Widford, [111-114]
• "Grave Maurice," Whitechapel, [69]
• "Great White Horse," Ipswich, [36], [37], [228], [247-252], [306]
• "Gun," Dedham, [221], [228]
• "Half Moon," Ipswich, [243]
• "Horse and Leaping Bar," Whitechapel, [29]
• "King's Head," Dickleburgh, [278]
• "Lion and Lamb," Ipswich, [243], [244]
• "Magpie," Little Stonham, [256]
• "Maid's Head," Newton Flotman, [297]
• ---- ----, Norwich, [34], [35], [306], [307]
• "Music House," Norwich, [307]
• "Norfolk Hotel," Norwich, [306]
• "Old Red Lion," Whitechapel, [57]
• "Popinjay," Norwich, [34]
• "Queen's Head," Thwaite, [259], [260]
• "Rampant Horse," Norwich, [306]
• "Red Lion," Colchester, [196]
• ---- ----, Kelvedon, [140]
• ---- ----, Whitechapel, [57]
• "Rising Sun," Manor Park, [81]
• "Saracen's Head," Aldgate, [14], [16], [17], [18]
• ---- ----, Chelmsford, [117-120]
• "Spread Eagle," Gracechurch Street, [15-19]
• "Sun," Kelvedon, [152]
• "Swan," Washbrook, [237]
• "Swan-with-Two-Necks," Gresham Street, [15], [43]
• "Three Cups," Colchester, [37], [167], [196]
• ---- ----, Springfield, [122]
• "Three Nuns," Aldgate, [29]
• "Vine," Mile End, [73]
• "Wheatsheaf," Kelvedon, [152]
• "White Elm," Copdock, [237]
• "---- Hart," Brentwood, [37], [97], [98], [119]
• ---- ----, Colchester, [196]
• ---- ----, Scole, [262-271]
• ---- ----, Witham, [132]
• "White Horse," Fetter Lane, [15]
• ---- Horse, Widford, [112], [114]
• Ipswich, [54], [56], [132], [212], [237-252]
• Kelvedon, [5], [139-153], [162], [176]
• Langham, [218]
• Lexden, [52], [147], [177-181], [302]
• ---- Heath, [177-179], [187], [190], [201]
• Little Stonham, [6], [256]
• "London Stone," [4], [13]
• Long Stratton, [6], [292-295]
• Manor Park, [81]
• Margaretting, [57], [110], [111]
• Mark's Tey, [158], [175], [176]
• Martyr's Tree, [95], [96]
• Mile End, [70-74], [163]
• "Mockbeggar Hall," [252]
• Moulsham, [114]
• Mountnessing, [101-105]
• Needham Market, [255]
• New Hall, [123-127]
• Newton Flotman, [296-299]
• Norwich, [51], [52], [161], [301], [302-320]
• Old Ford, [6], [8], [76]
• Old-time travellers:--
• Caroline of Brunswick, Princess, Queen of George IV., [165-168]
• Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Princess, Queen of George III., [162], [163]
• Kemp, Will, [79], [82], [161]
• Johnson, Samuel, [164], [165]
• Queen Elizabeth, [304], [307]
• William III., [140], [141], [161]
• Old-time travelling, [142-150], [159-168], [178], [225-237]
• Parcel Mail, [54-57], [111]
• Pulham St Mary Magdalene, [286], [287]
• ---- St Mary the Virgin, [286], [287]
• Puttels Bridge, [93], [94]
• Rivenhall End, [139]
• Romford, [5], [23], [29], [51], [82], [85], [88-93], [167]
• Scole, [6], [40], [262-272]
• Seven Kings, [51], [83-85]
• Shenfield, [99], [100]
• Shrubland Park, [253], [255]
• Springfield, [121-123]
• Spurgeon, Rev. C. H., [151]
• Stanway, [6], [174-178]
• Steam Coaches, [46]
• Stoke Ash, [257], [260]
• Stonham Aspall, [256]
• ---- Earls, [256]
• Stratford (Langthorne), [78], [80], [81]
• ----- -le-Bow, [6], [8], [75-80]
• ---- St Mary, [5], [6], [223-225], [274]
• Swainsthorpe, [298]
• Tasburgh, [292], [295], [296], [297], [302]
• Thwaite, [259]
• Tivetshall St Margaret, [6], [284], [287]
• ---- St Mary, [6], [287]
• Toll-gates, [40], [70], [71], [78], [87], [93], [94], [139], [179], [222], [237], [257], [288]
• Uphall, [5], [302]
• Upton Park, [81]
• Wacton, [288], [292]
• ---- Common, [288]
• Washbrook, [236]
• West Ham, [77], [81]
• Whalebone House, [86], [87]
• Whitechapel, [2], [12], [62-69]
• Whitton Street, [252]
• Widford, [111-114], [161]
• Witham, [23], [131-139], [163]
• Woodgrange, [81]
• Writtle, [5]
• Yaxley, [260]

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