OCTOBER.
5.—Joseph Wiggins, driver of the Norwich Phenomena coach, was fined at Ixworth in the mitigated penalty of £90 for having 36 head of partridges in his possession, contrary to the statute 5 Anne c. 14, s. 2.
11.—Died in Goat Lane, Norwich, aged 75, Mr. John Reynolds, who served the office of Sheriff in 1796.
17.—At Norwich Quarter Sessions a committee of justices reported that the Bridewell was “insufficient, inconvenient, and inadequate to give effect to the rules and regulations enforced in recent legislation, and it was necessary from the increased number of commitments to such Bridewell that some other and more commodious building should be erected or substituted.”
19.—A meeting was held at the Angel Inn, Norwich, under the presidency of Mr. Unthank, at which was passed a resolution to the effect “that by the present mode of electing Guardians the great body of the payers of the poor-rates are entirely unrepresented, that the extraordinary increase in the poor-rates of the city within the last six months has caused the greatest alarm and demands the strictest scrutiny, and that it is desirable a Bill should be brought in to amend the present Court of Guardians Act so far as to the choosing members of the Court.” A petition embodying the principle of this resolution was ordered to be presented to the House of Commons.
21.—Died, Mr. John Ansell, plumber and glazier, St. John Maddermarket, who served the offer of Sheriff of Norwich in 1806.
—At about this date large numbers of people assembled nightly on Orford Hill, Norwich, to watch for a “ghost” which was said to haunt the premises of a Mr. Hart. Martin, a police officer, examined some unoccupied premises adjoining, and discovered a hiding-place which had evidently been used by the person who had annoyed Mr. Hart’s family.
—Mr. Stone, the County Surveyor, was reported to have “discovered rooms and passages within the walls of the Keep of Norwich
Castle which have been unknown since it has become a county gaol, a period of nearly 500 years.”
22.—The Friends’ Meeting House in Goat Lane, Norwich, erected on the site of the old Meeting House demolished in 1825, was opened for public worship. The architect was Mr. Patience, and the builder, Mr. John Bensley.