—Considerable excitement was caused at Thorpe, near Norwich, by the action of Mr. Henry Blake, who had enclosed the strip of grass land known as Thorpe Green, by the side of the river. Mr. William Birkbeck, as lord of the manor, announced that if the palings, &c., were not removed by noon on this day they would be forcibly taken down. The notice was disregarded, and Mr. P. E. Hansell, as steward of the manor, directed the removal of the obstruction. After the posts and palings had been taken down, Mr. Hansell intimated that Mr. Birkbeck was prepared to take the matter into the law courts, and to the House of Lords, if necessary.
16.—A remarkable scene was witnessed at a meeting of the Norwich School Board. A motion to increase the staff was supported by the majority and opposed by the Denominational minority, the latter of whom asserted that the proposal could be carried out only by rescinding a resolution passed almost unanimously at a previous meeting. “Finding their last effort useless to stem the current of expenditure into which the Board had plunged, and justly indignant at the treatment they received, the minority left the room, and Canon Heaviside intimated that it would be a matter for consideration whether they ever again entered it.” On May 8th a deputation went to Canon Heaviside’s residence and presented to the gentlemen constituting the minority a memorial, signed by the ratepayers, urging that by their presence at the Board they could “continue to protest against reckless extravagance, and so keep the ratepayers better informed of what is going on.” Ultimately the minority agreed to resume their duties, “at the request of their constituents, and in the hope that the public attention called to the proceedings which led to their withdrawal would have the effect of strengthening their hands in the endeavour to discharge effectively the duties that devolved upon them.”
28.—Mr. Sims Reeves sang at St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich. His engagement was originally announced for April 17th, but the usual postponement occurred.
—Application having been made by the Norfolk Court of Quarter Sessions that nine disturnpiked roads in the county should, by a provisional order, be declared ordinary, not main, roads, Mr. Courteney Boyle, an inspector of the Local Government Board, attended at the Shirehall, to hear the grounds of the application and any objections thereto. The application had been made on the following grounds: (1) That in consequence of the increase of railways, there was comparatively but little through traffic along the disturnpiked reads; (2) there being no highway districts in the county, the Court was not prepared to encounter the difficulty and expense of dealing separately with the surveyors of the large number of parishes through which the disturnpiked roads passed; (3) that should a highway board be established in the county, the unions through which the disturnpiked roads passed would not be unfairly burdened by their maintenance, while it would be hard upon outlying districts of the county to contribute to the repair of roads which they never used; and (4) that the Court having previously expressed itself in favour of county boards, hesitated to sanction so novel and large an expenditure for the county rate as would be involved in paying half the cost of repairing the disturnpiked roads until the ratepayers were more directly represented in the county authority. Mr. C. S. Read, M.P., stated his reasons for moving these resolutions at the Court of Quarter Sessions, and after evidence had been taken in regard to each road in question, the Inspector said that he should make his report.
MAY.
19.—A glove fight took place at the Corn Hall, Norwich, in the presence of an immense audience, between Walter Emms and Arthur Shaw. At the Police Court, on the 26th, the principals, and John Hicks, James Clarke, James Laxton, Robert Watson, sub-editor of the “Sporting Life,” London; Thomas Snelling, and Edwin Cunningham were summoned for unlawfully assembling together for the purpose of a prize-fight. Emms and Shaw were ordered to enter into their own recognisances of £100, to find two sureties of £50 each, and to keep the peace for six months. The other defendants were bound over in the sum of £20 each to keep the peace for six months.
20.—The Norwich Omnibus Company, Limited, was formed. The first omnibuses were put upon the Dereham Road route on June 23rd.
—Died at the Crescent, Norwich, Mr. John M. Croker, aged 57. His ample leisure enabled him to be of great service to many of the public institutions of the city, and he was for several years honorary secretary of the Norfolk and Norwich Cricket Club.
21.—A fire occurred on Messrs. Willis and Southall’s shoe premises, the Upper Market, Norwich. The damage was estimated at £1,000.