Norwich – Chapel Field

Tags

Chapel Field, Chapelfield Gardens, Chapelfield Gardens Bandstand, City Walls, Cornus mas, Norwich, Roman Catholic Cathedral, St Stephen's church, The Assembly House, The Crescent, The Forum, walking

I took this short walk in Norwich on a dull cold day last spring.  I began my walk near the Assembly House.

This building was designed and built by the architect Thomas Ivory in 1794 and, as its name suggests, was a place where the local gentry could assemble and be amused and entertained by recitals, displays and dances.  One notable ball was in celebration of Nelson’s victory off the Cape of Trafalgar in 1805.  A waxworks exhibition from Madame Tussaud’s was hosted here in 1825 and Franz Liszt the composer gave a concert in 1840.  The building incorporates the layout of a previous building – the medieval college of St Mary in the Field.

The Assembly House – some more renovation work was in progress at the time of my photograph

It has been used as a dance academy, a cinema and, during the Second World War, it was an army office.  It was restored in 1995 but almost immediately afterwards was severely damaged by an electrical fire.  With the aid of photographs taken at the instigation of a trustee during WW2, the house was reconstructed and today it appears exactly as it did when it was first built.  It is used as a restaurant and hosts exhibitions, concerts, conferences and weddings, almost the same kind of use it was put to in its heyday.

The Forum

Opposite the Assembly House is the Forum, though the large entrance seen in the photo above is on the further side of the building.

Norwich’s Central Library was located on this spot until it was destroyed by fire in 1994 and this new building, designed by Sir Michael Hopkins, not only gave the library a new home but also was built to mark the Millennium in the East of England.  The main section of the building is an enclosing horseshoe shape.  It is made from hand-made load-bearing bricks and has many windows.

As well as The Millennium Library (the public library) the Forum houses a children’s library, the Norfolk Heritage Centre, the Norfolk Record Office and a business library.  The 2nd Air Division Memorial Library is also here; it pays tribute to the thousands of American airmen who were based in East Anglia during WW2.  There are over 4000 books covering all aspects of American life and culture with a specialist section dedicated to the 2nd Air Division.

Many other organisations have a base in the Forum.  BBC East has its studios in part of the building; there is a Forum shop, a café bar and a pizza restaurant.  The Tourist Information Centre is here, as is MINT – a charity which helps young people gain the skills and contacts they need to find employment.  MINT is run by City College Norwich where my daughter studies.  ‘BBC Voices’ provides film-making and radio-editing workshops throughout the Eastern Region for free.  There is a digital gallery – the Fusion Screen – which gives free screenings of work by artists, and a 120-seat auditorium called The Curve.  The Forum runs regular events and there is a venue hire facility.

Entrance to Chapelfield Gardens.

Not far from The Forum is Chapelfield Gardens which takes its name from the chapel of St Mary in the Field.  The chapel (built where the Assembly House is now) was founded in the 13th century by John le Brun and soon acquired many generous benefactors.  It became a college and the premises were expanded.  In 1406 the citizens of Norwich claimed 4.5 acres of ground that belonged to the Chapel and this land began to be called Chapel Field.  In the 16th century it was leased with its cherry yard and dove house to notable citizens and then, after a proclamation in 1578 it was used as an open area for mustering the trained bands, archers or the artillery.  It was the ‘fit place’ to charge guns with shot and powder for the exercise of shooting.  The Lord Lieutenant had his ‘City Tent’ there for the general musters and the yearly reviews of the city regiment took place there in the 17th century.

Crocus and daffodils in Chapelfield Gardens

The Field was first surrounded by fencing in 1707 and the main walks were laid out by Sir Thomas Churchman who leased the land in 1746.  The tree planting began then too.  A large water reservoir (about 300 yards in circumference) was dug in part of the Field in 1792 and was filled in again in 1854 when larger reservoirs were built elsewhere by the newly established Waterworks Company.  The reservoir in the Field had been used as a skating pond by the people of the city and it was much missed when it went.  For a few years the Field declined into a rough area where children played, washerwomen hung out their linen and where sheep were grazed.  Eventually, new iron palisades were erected in 1866 and in 1877 a landscape gardener was employed to make the Field into a beauty spot.  The newly laid-out gardens were opened by the mayor in 1880.

The bandstand

This lovely Victorian bandstand in the middle of Chapelfield Gardens is still in use.  During WW2 Glenn Miller visited Norwich and gave a concert here in 1944.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral is close to Chapelfield Gardens

City wall

City wall

City wall

City wall

I then walked along Chapel Field Road which follows the line of the old City Walls.  As you can see from these photos the new and the old rub shoulders in Norwich.  The weather had also improved by this time!

Building work on the City Walls began in 1294 and took 50 years to complete mainly due to complaints about the cost being levied for their construction.  They were completed in 1343 after a very generous donation by a Norwich tradesman, Richard Spynk who was rewarded by the Corporation by being ‘quit all tallages, tasks and costs’ for both he and his heirs forever.  When the walls were completed they had 12 gates, now all gone.  Ber Street gate – taken down in 1807, Bishop’s Gate – taken down in 1791, Brazen Doors or Newgate, taken down in 1793, Conisford Gate, at the south end of King Street – taken down in 1793, Heigham Gate or Hell Gate – fell down in the 18th century, Magdalen Gate – taken down in 1808, Pockthorpe Gate – taken down in 1792, St Augustine’s Gate – taken down in 1794, St Giles’ Gate – taken down in 1792, St Martin’s or Coslany Gate – taken down in 1793,St Stephen’s or Nedham Gate – taken down in 1793, Westwick or St Benedict’s Gate – taken down in 1793.

A beautiful Cornus mas growing in a garden on the opposite side of the road to the City Walls was in flower

A row of attractive houses in a private road (The Crescent) off Chapel Field Road

The houses were built in about 1820 and are a mixture of terraced, semi-detached and detached houses, many of which are listed.

St Stephen’s Church which is next to Intu Chapelfield – a large shopping mall.

St Stephen’s church has it’s tower over the porch on the side of the church.  I hope to visit this church later in the year and write about it in more detail as I also hope to write about the RC Cathedral.

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

Peak District Holiday 1st to 9th July. Days 1 and 2.

Tags

Buxton, camping, caravanning, Chinley, Duke of Devonshire, Flash, holiday, Huntingdon, Pavilion, Pavilion Gardens, Peak District National Park, River Great Ouse, River Wye, Roman, scout camps, Sheffield, spa town, Staffordshire Moorland, Stffordshire, Testament of Youth, The Crescent, Vera Brittain, war memorial, warm springs

When I was young and living at home with my parents, our summer holidays were camping holidays spent in the UK.  I became fairly well travelled in England, Scotland and Wales.  We never went to Northern Ireland because not only was the cost of the cross-channel ferry prohibitive and the journey was too far for the five of us travelling in a small car from Kent, but Northern Ireland was not a safe place to go during the 1960s and 70s.

This is not my family but we had a tent very much like this one

 Not only did we go on family camping holidays but we also went on scout camps because my father was a Scout Master for many years.  I didn’t like scout camps as I was very shy and a little frightened of all the big, noisy boys but my younger brother and sister loved them and wanted to join in all the fun and were upset when they weren’t allowed.  Mum was in charge of the first aid.

This is an image I got by googling. Scout camps were just like this.

R’s family holidays were in bed and breakfast hotels as his mother refused to go camping, having had enough of it in the Girl Guides.  He was a Scout and enjoyed going off on scout camps and grew to love the hills, mountains, moors and rivers in the North of England.  He eventually became a Scout Leader himself with his own scout troop.

I had camped a couple of times since leaving home and before marrying Richard so we did consider getting a tent.  Eventually, after holidaying in rented cottages for a couple of years we decided to get a caravan instead.  Our daughter E had just been born and we thought a caravan holiday would be easier to cope with than camping.  Camping and caravanning holidays have their drawbacks but we have always enjoyed the freedom they bring.

R and I have just bought a new caravan.  Our two previous ones had been second-hand and this is our first brand new one.  We are very pleased with it and hope to be able to go away in it very often.  That is not to say that we won’t be going to hotels and holiday cottages again, we will, especially as E hates caravanning now she is older.

I find getting ready for holidays quite exhausting.  Having a new van made things a little easier as we didn’t need to clean and service it, but making sure the house and garden are left clean and tidy before we go, making sure Mum has everything she needs for the time we are away and trying to remember to pack all we need for the holiday was tiring enough.

 I decided to stop feeding the birds just before we left.  While I had been in Sheffield during the week before, something had killed one of the three ducklings that were living in the garden.  Also, a couple of days before we left, I was admiring a little bird looking for insects in the window box outside my kitchen window, when a kestrel plummeted out of the sky and caught it just in front of me.  I felt that the feeders were making the birds I wished to feed more vulnerable to birds of prey and also to the cats in the neighbourhood.  I had been having a lot of trouble from the local squirrels too.  They had wrecked a few feeders and had been eating so much of the bird food as well.  They had become very bold and one had tried to attack me when I attempted to shoo it away from the ground feeder.  I wished to discourage this and a period of no food might be good for all concerned.

We all set off in good time on the morning of the 1st July but at Huntingdon we got stuck in a traffic jam for an hour and a quarter because of an over-turned lorry.

This is the view from the car while we were on the stationary A14.  The river is the Great Ouse.  We were sent on another diversion to avoid another accident involving a lorry when we were only half an hour away from our destination so the journey was very long and tedious.  For the last few years we have stayed in the Staffordshire Moorlands right on the edge of the Peak District National Park.  The site is at Blackshaw Moor, just to the north of the town of Leek.

   A had kindly offered to look after E for the week, so as soon as we had found our caravan site and pitched the caravan we set off again to the nearest railway station on the line to Sheffield.  While E and I and her enormous, weighty suitcase took the train to Sheffield, R found a supermarket and bought supplies for the week.  He then waited and waited for my return.  I meanwhile, got to Sheffield and we found A waiting for us at the station.  I handed over E, the suitcase and a quantity of money and then found them something to eat.  I decided to get myself a sandwich as the next train back to Chinley, the station where R was waiting, didn’t go for another hour.  I eventually got back to R just after 9p.m.  We drove the 25 or so miles back to our caravan, unpacked the car, collected the water and plugged the electric cable in and our holiday had begun. 

The following day, after a very leisurely breakfast and a restful morning, we put the awning to the caravan up.  The awning (a tent-like porch attached to the caravan) is not a large one but we find it useful for hanging coats and towels and keeping shoes and rucksacks etc.  We sometimes sit out there and we have used the awning for dining in the past when all four of us were together or when we have had visitors.

That afternoon we visited Buxton, about half an hour’s drive away across beautiful moorland.  The views from the road are outstanding especially on a fine day.  One of the villages we pass on the road is called Flash which is reputedly the highest village in the Peak District.  It is 461m /1514′ above sea level and is often snowbound in the winter.  it was once a hideout for footpads, highwaymen and counterfeiters and prize fights took place there even after it was made illegal.

The village of Flash, courtesy of google images

Buxton is the highest town of its size in England at 300m/984′ above sea level and has been occupied continuously since Roman times.

Buxton Thermal Baths – google image

The Romans were attracted by the warm springs which emerge near the River Wye and are a constant 28 degrees C.  They built baths here and these springs have been very important to the town ever since.  The spring at St Ann’s Well was probably a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages and by Tudor times it had been established as a spa.

St Ann’s Well – google image

The great period of Buxton as a spa began when the 5th Duke of Devonshire started the construction of the Crescent in 1780.  The building took ten years to build and cost £38000, a fabulous sum in those days.  It was sited alongside the site of St Ann’s Well.  From then until the 20th century many fine buildings and hotels were constructed in Buxton.  In 1851-53 a new set of thermal baths were built and in 1863 the railway arrived in the town which made the spa much more accessible.  The Opera House and the Pavilion Gardens were built.  Vera Brittain, who wrote ‘Testament of Youth’, her book about her life during the First World War, grew up in Buxton.  The main industry of the town from the 19th century to the present day is limestone quarrying.  The spa declined in popularity after the Second World War but since the 1980’s when the Opera House was re-opened the town has started to come alive again.  The annual Opera Festival was established and the University of Derby moved into the former Devonshire Royal Hospital building.  There is work going on now to re-open the spa and the Crescent.  For the past couple of times we have visited the town we haven’t been able to see the Crescent because of the hoardings in front of it. 

This is what the Crescent looked like the last time we saw it – google image

The reason why there are so many google images in this post is because we forgot to take our cameras out with us.  R was able to take a couple of pictures with his phone and these I will include now.

The Pavilion

We did some shopping for things R couldn’t get the night before and then walked up to the Pavilion, looked at the plants in the glasshouse and had coffee/tea in the café.  We walked about the Gardens and then walked back down to the town past the War Memorial.

View of Buxton from the War Memorial

The day, which had started bright and breezy, became cloudy and very humid during the afternoon.  We returned to our caravan and rested for the rest of the day as we were still very tired from our exertions of the day before.