After 20 months, we finally closed the door on the Weaver’s Cottage and left the old parish of Norwich-Over-The-Water. It was a sad parting but bricks and mortar are just that, even when they’re 370 years old and located in the oldest ward in town. In any case, we shall return. Our new gaff (my 18th home since I dropped) is less than a mile across the city on the other side of the water. We fully intend to re-visit our old haunts every now and then and wallow in the exuberance and pretentiousness of Norwich arty types (also known as a few pints on a warm summer’s evening at the Playhouse Theatre bar).
There’s something a little bit special about Norwich-Over-The-Water. It’s reckoned by those in the know to be the site of the original Saxon (or rather Anglish) settlement called Westwic. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, wood-pannelled Westwic was torched in 1004 by the deliciously named Sweyn Forkbeard, King of the Danes. Clearly there was something rotten in the State of Denmark, to misquote the Bard. However, the doughty arsonist’s marauding hit the right spot and he later became the first Danish king of England and introduced flat-packed furniture to a world-wide audience. Okay, I made that last bit up.
Fast forward to medieval times and Norwich-Over-The-Water welcomed Huguenot, Walloon and Flemish refugees from the near continent, fleeing religious persecution from the dastardly French and Spanish. The immigrants became known as “The Strangers” and eventually made up a third of the city’s population. Apparently, the mighty flood of immigrants caused very little resentment at the time. Far from packing out the workhouses and stealing the jobs of the local farmhands, the highly skilled expats from the Low Countries bolstered trade with mainland Europe and helped make Norwich rich. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Nigel Farage and your UKIP xenophobic swivel-eyed loons.
So, I give you a little tour of Norwich-Over-The-Water from the comfort of your own sofa:
Thank you for the photos! I have never been across the pond but hope to make it one day. I live in southern Arizona where “old” is about 100 years.
LikeLike
Ah, but you have the warm sun, something in short supply on side of the pond at this time of the year. 😉
LikeLike
Güle güle oturun.
LikeLike
I googled ‘oturun’ and got ‘sit’ so I’m mightily confused 🙂
LikeLike
Mystery solved. Hopefully we will enjoying living here 😀
LikeLike
A nice tour, Jack. Some of your buildings have had quite a life but still look sturdy. History is so much more interesting when one isn’t young. It was boring then. 🙂
LikeLike
Sturdy but hell to heat. They had no idea about insulation in those olden days 😉
LikeLike
We lived in an old house finished in insul-brick. The wind came right through the walls. We found old newspaper stuffed in some corners. Brrr.
LikeLike
I feel your pain 😉
LikeLike
. . hayırlı olsen, guys!
LikeLike
Ta very much.
LikeLike
Thanks for the tour from my garden seat in Mexico. Maybe we could swap pads for a time?
LikeLike
Now, wouldn’t that be amazing?
LikeLike
So are you still considered to be living over-the-water, considering that you’re, well, over the water?
LikeLike
Ah, yes, but not over the hill. That’s a geologically feature too many 😀
LikeLike
hahaha–I can relate to that!
LikeLike