Inappropriate Histories of Norwich

INAPPROPRIATE HISTORIES of Norwich

AL STOKES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AL STOKES was born into an era of steam trains, when there was a King on the throne and rationing and brought up in Greenford, Middlesexv. He escaped a poverty stricken background and, in that wonderful year of 1967, appeared in Anne Jellicoe’s stage play The Rising Generation at the Royal Court Theatre.

In 1968 Al joined the BBC Film Department as a trainee at Ealing Studio.

After five years at the Beeb, learning the craft, Al left to go freelance as an editor and eventually, after a series of strange misadventures which included a spell as war correspondent, he became a film director.

In the 1990’s Al went back to acting and appeared in a number of Hollywood films, TV dramas and MTV promos.

Claim to dubious fame: Al was the screaming creature in Chris Cunningham’s 1997 Aphex Twin, Come To Daddy promo.

In 2002 art school beckoned for a late degree to upgrade his analogue film making skills to digital. He got a 2:1, whatever that is?

Currently he lives in leafy Norwich, writes copiously about obscure aspects of local history and sings in his band The Trolley Men. “People keep telling me I’ve had an interesting life. I’ve always taken that to mean I’m an unemployable hippie. Anyone calls me a hippie, I’ll nut ‘em.” website: www.alstokesofficialwebsite.yolasite.com eBooks: www.issuu.com/alstokes/docs

ABOUT THIS eBOOK “Inappropriate Histories” is a series of short Norwich histories which first appeared on the HEART Heritage website but were taken down in 2012 without consultation when the local arts school principal took over and decided my feature articles were inappropriate. I have no idea why.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH

Finding the remains of Norwich City Station, built by the Midland & Great Northern Railway in 1882.

page 1

closed 1969

2. HEIGHAM HALL

page 16

A grand country hall which became a lunatic asylum

3. THE HOUSES THAT COLMAN BUILT

page 20

4. SHAKE, RATTLE AND CLANG!

page 24

Workers cottages built by Colmans Mustard which ended their days in 1985, the biggest squat in Europe

Building the Norwich Electric Tramcar system

5. A GHASTLY MISTAKE

The story of building the Norwich Inner Link Road

page 42

and the Magdalen Street Flyover

6. THERE’LL BE A HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN page 56 TONIGHT The early days of the Norwich Fire Brigade

INAPPROPRIATE HISTORIES OF NORWICH Copyright © Al Stokes 2013 Al Stokes has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be indentified as the author of this work.

This ebook is subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, dowloaded, make copies, be lent, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published herewith and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent viewer.

In short, you can look but you can’t cut and paste.

INAPPROPRIATE HISTORIES - THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH

1. THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH

Opened: 2nd December 1882 - Bombed: 27th April 1942 Closed to passenger traffic: 28th February 1959 Closed to goods traffic: 3rd February 1969 As a London ‘incomer’ who moved to Norwich in 1985 I had no idea that every time I crossed St Crispin’s roundabout on the Inner Ring Road I was, in fact, passing over the site of a major railway terminus. Very little of the City Station remains to be seen on the site apart from what the Friends of Norwich City Station (FONCS) have uncovered since their operations began in October 2010.

The line started life as the Lynn and Fakenham Railway and later became the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GN) with its hub at Melton Constable, the Crewe of the East, with single line connections to Cromer Beach, Peterborough, Leicester and Norwich City. With nationalisation of the railways in 1948 it became part of British Railways.

Norwich City Station was built in 1882 on a low swampy island between the River Wensum and a flood channel which necessitated the building of two bridges made by Barnard, Bishop & Barnard of Norwich and an approach road onto the island.

The main station building was Italianate in design with a central portico entrance, giving onto two main 660ft platforms covered with canopies bearing the letters E&MR in the spandrels. In the centre of the main platforms, 250ft from the main entry, were two short bay platforms used mainly for storage. Due to the swampy nature of the ground the main THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 2

entrance arch began to subside and crack by 1900. A tramway adjacent to Platform One was laid across Station Road, following the west side of the Wensum, to the Corporation depot at New Mills Yard. Coal trains were piloted from the station, over a level crossing, by a local shunter to the coal shute, a short wooden two-line jetty built out over the river, where a wooden crane unloaded the coal onto barges which were taken to the gas works near Bishops Bridge Road. All that remains of this operation, closed in the 1930’s, are two short sets of tracks embedded in the cobbles which emerge from under the later built sewage pumping station at New Mills.

To the east of the main line was a three road engine shed, two signal boxes (Norwich North & South), a drivers’ canteen, water tower and a 60ft turntable which was installed in January 1931.

The connection into the goods yard was singled in 1926 and the North signal box demolished in 1934 with it’s duties replaced by the Norwich South box and an Auxiliary Tablet Hut ground frame. Norwich South signal box was demolished in October 1962.

The goods yard occupied a vast area of land encompassing the cattle sidings, often with over one hundred wagon movements a day, down as far as Heigham Street where cattle lairs and pens for loading the animals onto trains were situated.

When the Corporation Yard moved to the end of Barker Street in the 1930’s, a new coal siding was installed via a goods spur. Traffic movement into the Yard was a complicated affair involving coal trains from the north being shunted into the goods yard then back onto a spur siding and, points changed at a ground frame, shunted in the opposite direction into the Corporation Yard. This became the scene of tragic accident in November 1944 when a B-24 Liberator, on an instrument landing training flight from Horsham St Faiths, hit the tower of St Phillips Church severing 12ft off its right wing and, crippled, flipped over on its back and crashed inside the Yard. No civilians of the ground were hurt but the bomber crew were killed in the incident.

The main station buildings were badly damaged by an air raid in April 1942 and replaced by temporary buildings adapted from LNER sectional concrete huts which remained until the station closed.

With passenger numbers dwindling, in 1959 the line was closed to all but freight traffic until 1969 when City Station shut and was left to the encroaching undergrowth. Trees grew where trains once thundered on their way to bright holiday destinations or lowering THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 3

herds of cattle were shipped off to pastures new. No more the shrill whistle of departure or the clank of coupling rods. The last A2 diesel railcar to Melton Constable had definitely left the station.

Considering Norwich City Station was the main terminus on the M&GN line it is surprising so little of the structure remains. During the 1970’s, when the inner ring road was under construction, the platform infill was robbed out and used to build the mound on St Crispin’s roundabout and as hardcore for the duelling of nearby roads.

With pressure for building space in the city the extensive goods yard went under what is now an industrial estate. The houses on Barker Street were demolished and the road extended south east to join up with the new roundabout and northward along the course of the disused Corporation Yard siding tracks to where it joined the goods spur.

In 1976, local photographer Mark Dufton visited the site before the foliage took over completely and found the bay platforms. More recently Friends of Norwich City Station (FONCS) began digging at the site to preserve what is left of the station and surrounding buildings. Their current work is focused on Platform One where a wall has been found and the bay area cleared of undergrowth. Their hope for the future is to uncover all the railway related parts to the area and turn it into a memorial garden as a tribute to the station and all who served the railway. This will include planting flowers and small bushes, notice signs and information boards of old pictures and M&GN benches.

According to Jon Batley of FONCS, most to the station remains are there but were buried under tons of sludge when the river bottom was dredged. It is just a question of digging down to it.

The line had a good safety record with very few accidents. The worst of these, although no one was seriously injured, happened one foggy November night in 1946 when a coal train ran through the buffers at the end of the coal siding and plunged into the River Wensum. The locomotive driver, confused in the fog, thought he was on the main line and had put on all steam. The loco driver and fireman, in shock, failed to mention their momentary departure from the tracks to the management and went home. Next morning the loco was found half sunk in the River Wensum while a search party was despatched to find the errant crew who were later located asleep in bed. The loco, thereafter known as The Wensum Dipper, was hauled out of the river by crane.

The Marriott’s Way footpath, commemorating William Marriott chief engineer and THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 4

manager of the M&GN for 41-years, was extended to Norwich and follows the course of the old railway line.

ILLUSTRATED EVIDENCE

(above) Al Stokes’ illustration of Norwich City Station, circa 1920, with the goods, animal and coal sidings between the River Wensum and Heigham Street, Norwich.

(left) Al Stokes’ illustration of the M&GN Railway Norwich Corporation Barker Street coal yard and sidings, circa 1920.

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 5

(below) Al Stokes’ illustration of the M&GN Railway north eastern section of the Norfolk circle

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 6

Al Stokes’ illustration of the M&GN Railway south eastern section of the Norfolk circle

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 7

Al Stokes’ illustration of the M&GN Railway south western section of the Norfolk circle

(below) route of the disused coal spur from City Station to the River Wensum pier at New Mills Yard

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 8

Al Stokes’ illustration of the M&GN Railway Norwich connection to Cambridge and the North

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 9

Al Stokes’ continued illustrations of the M&GN Railway Norwich connection to Cambridge and the North

(above) 0-6-0 locomotive on the former M&GN Railway, now part of the North Norfolk Railway at Sherimgham.

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 10

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 11

(below) Al Stokes’ illustration of the M&GN track layout at Melton Constable

(above) the City Station bay platforms in October 1976; note platform infill robbed out to provide hardcore for the traffic roundabout mound. Photo by Mark Dufton. (below) Friends of Norwich City Station excavating the site, photo source FONCS

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 12

(above & left) Jon Batley and Friends of Norwich City Station digging out the bay platforms in Februaury 2011, photo source FONCS (below and over page) things to be found in the woods; City Station artifacts

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 13

THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 14

*

last train into City Station, August 1958 photo source Jon Crampton

* THE LOST STATION OF NORWICH - PAGE 15

2. HEIGHAM HALL, NORWICH

The original house on the site, off Heigham Street near the junction with Old Palace Road, known as the Grange, was occupied by the farmers of the manor of Heigham. At some time it became the residence of Mark Wilks. He once described it as, “… an old building at the bottom of Holl’s Lane used for the purposes of a brush factory.” Born in Gibraltar 5th February, 1748, Mark was the third son of John Wilks, described as an officer of subordinate rank in the British Army.

When aged two Mark moved with his family to a military station in Ireland. By the age of ten he was apprenticed to a Birmingham button maker, frequently working sixteen hour days. He later became a clerk to a mercantile house and joined a debating society. His life changed in 1776 when at the age of 28, he was employed by the Countess of Huntingdon as the minister of her Norwich tabernacle.

It was there that Wilks became a celebrated preacher who combined the character of an evangelist with that of an active politician. He was also an excellent farmer. In 1778 he married Susanna Jackson, of Norwich, which required him to resign his ministership and return to Birmingham. In January, 1780, he came back to Norwich to take charge of a chapel founded by Calvinistic Methodists. In 1788 he bought a farm near Norwich and became active in local politics.

His sermons, “The Origin and Stability of the French Revolution,” and “Anthelia, or the Tocsin sounded by Modern Alarmists,” were preached at St. Paul’s Chapel, Norwich, July 14th 1791. They were later published by the Monthly Association of Congregational Ministers, the income being used to defray the expenses of defendants being tried for high treason. A second edition included a history of the persecutions endured by the Protestants in the South of France, and more especially of the Department of the Gard, during the years 1814 to 1816, and including a defense of their conduct in the 1821 Revolution.

In his memoirs, later published by his daughter Sarah (London, printed by Francis Westley 1821), Wilks described himself as a Dissenter and a Baptist and a Whig. When the lease of his farm expired in 1797, he bought another at Aldburgh, before returning for a short time to Heigham, and later moving to Costessey. In March 1802, Wilks bought a farm at Sprowston where he died on 5th February 1819, aged 71.

In 1814 Thomas Browne, in his History of Norwich, described Heigham Hall as ‘an old building, but had lately been rebuilt in modern style.’ The Hall was at one time nicknamed “Marrowbone Hall,” the central part of it having been built by a retired butcher, John HEIGHAM HALL - PAGE 17

Lowden, and appears by that name in Manning’s map, but when later occupied by Alfred Mottram was known as Heigham Hall.

In 1836 Heigham Hall became a Private Lunatic Asylum, set up in opposition to the Heigham Retreat, and by 1845 was being kept by W. P. Nichols and John Wilcox Watson. The Heigham Retreat, opened 1829 by Mr. Jollye, of Loddon, was bought out by Drs. Wright, Dalrymple, and Crosse and closed soon after by John Watson, one of the proprietors of Heigham Hall. This may have been an early example of Victorian sharp practice; buying up a competitor and shutting it down. The site of Heigham Retreat lies under what is now Avenue Road, off Park Lane, Norwich, although its exact location is unclear.In October 1854 a scandal engulfed the Asylum. At the Norwich Quarter Sessions a Dr. Hull alleged that the hospital chaplain, the Revd. Edmund Holmes, had been wrongly admitted as a patient to save him from prosecution for a rape, he being a county clergyman, “a member of a high county family.”

Dr. Hull’s informant, said to be Mr. Nichols, a well-known local doctor and Mayor of Norwich (1878), emphatically denied that he had used the expression but the Justices came to the conclusion that Holmes had been placed in the Asylum to avoid facing a criminal charge. The affair blew over, a motion to refuse the licence to the Asylum was withdrawn and a demand to the Secretary of State for a searching investigation fell through.

In 1864 the Asylum was run by three surgeons, W. P. Nichols, W. H. Ranking, M.D., and J. Ferra Watson. On Watson’s death his widow, her daughter and son in-law (Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Mottram) kept it until it was transferred in 1904 to J. Gordon-Munn, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.E., who was Lord Mayor of Norwich (1915-16), previously Medical Officer in the Grenadier Guards and author of “The Uterus and its Appendages in the Insane” which alleged,“The causes of hysteria may be divided into the predisposing, such as hereditary predisposition to nervous degeneration, sex, age, occupation, and national idiosyncrasy; and the immediate, such as mental and physical exhaustion, fright, and other emotional influences, pregnancy, the puerperal condition, diseases of the uterus and its appendages.” The grounds of Heigham Hall mental hospital were described as unusually large and handsome, secluded and pretty. The last known death at the Asylum occurred on December 7th 1954, of 85-year-old Mrs Edith ‘Mollie’ MacRae, mother of pioneer aviator, HEIGHAM HALL - PAGE 18

RAF test pilot and air race contestant Campbell Mackenzie-Richards.Heigham Hall was taken over by Dr. J.A. Small in 1930, closed in 1960 and demolished to make way for Norwich Corporation’s Dolphin Grove social housing estate scheme which rehoused many Norwich families displaced by slum clearance. 

HEIGHAM HALL - PAGE 19

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3. THE HOUSES THAT COLMAN BUILT

According to a former Argyle Street squatter, Russell Bartlett, there has been a tradition of squatting empty properties in Norwich since the Baedeker raids of the 1941 Blitz.

However, according to a Norwich City Council source most of the bombed dwellings were completely destroyed with the people still in them so there were few homeless survivors and even fewer houses in which to squat.

The vogue for the Norwich squatting scene seems to have derived from the lofty notions of middle class students, studying at the University of East Anglia, who knew of people in London who probably had a history of post war squatting. Sixty years ago, to bombedout survivors of the Blitz, squatting was a matter of survival whereas to the ‘70s youth of London it was a means to escape parental constraints. Real homeless people were too proud to squat. Although, according to C. J. Stones,”People were finding empty properties that could be renovated, and moving in. ‘Borrowed from oblivion.’ The movement was inventing itself on the ground. There’s a sense the whole thing was being created before our eyes. I mean, regardless of what the organisers thought they were getting out of it, the crowds just weren’t interested in being contained and controlled.”

In order to understand the local squatting scene in Norwich, we must travel back in time to 1864 when Colmans, purveyors of fine Norwich mustard, built seventy houses for their workers, just below Richmond Hill, adjacent to King Street and the City flour mill, bounded at the southern end of the cul-de-sac by Southgate Lane and leading into Rouen Road to the north.  The terraced houses were narrow, poorly built two up / two down brick affairs with a small yard in back for the outside privy and a garden beyond. By 1963 Norwich Corporation bought the seventy houses from Colmans and inherited one hundred tenants.In May 1964 Harry Perry, chair of the Corporation Housing department, convened a residents meeting where it was decided, at the cost of £1250 for each property, the City would renovate their century-old homes. It was the cheap option as opposed to costing the Corporation £2500 for each house to be demolished and rebuilt. The modernisation was due to be carried out in batches of eight houses, each house taking three months to complete with the entire project lasting no more than two years. Tenants Herbert & Hilda Cockaday at no:21 had lived on the Street for fourteen years and were overjoyed to be back even though they had to wait fourteen months for the renovations to their house to be completed. Not all of the tenants were able to move back THE HOUSES THAT COLMAN BUILT - PAGE 21

into the same houses they had before but the general consensus was their homes were better for the renovations.The tenants’ jubilation was short-lived when, a mere thirteen years later, Argyle Street’s housing problems once again made headlines. The City Surveyor was so concerned about the structural integrity of the houses that he told the Housing Committee one dwelling would have to be demolished immediately. Bore holes in the Street revealed the substructure to be nothing more than muddy water, the same colour and consistency of yoghurt, with no proper soil or minerals to bind it together.  Colmans, the altruistic Victorian employers who built the houses in the spirit of cradle to the grave care for their workers, did not seem to have planned much beyond the end of the 19th Century. Even if they had, the original builders seemed unaware that they were constructing these dwellings on what amounted to a Swiss cheese of subterranean chalk workings, the fact of which did not come to light until the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in 2005.What was not entirely common knowledge amongst the 1970s tenants was the City planned to sell the troublesome Argyle Street to the University of East Anglia as student accommodation. £100,000 had been earmarked to renovate the houses but releasing this money was dependant on the sale going through; essentially, State money intended for the benefit of Council tenants was being held back for a quick private sale, the only beneficiaries of which would have been UEA students. Equally what was generally unknown at the time was the Chair of the City Council housing committee, Pat Hollis, was also a UEA lecturer. Somewhat a conflict of interest.

By mid-October ’79 the Argyle Street council tenants were forced, once again, to take their grievances to the press. Some tenants had been moved out of Argyle Street but it was still not considered a priority for slum clearance; the tenants were in a state of limbo, a fact confirmed by housing manager Tony O’Reilly who stated that despite the Council having earmarked £100K from the budget Argyle Street was not considered a priority even though the Council had kept back a further £25,000 from the Norwich housing budget to renovate the Street.The question of who the intended beneficiaries of this fund were was never answered because events overtook the Council; on December 5th 1979, the UEA pulled out of the deal.

Pat Hollis demanded that all Council tenants be rehoused while the properties were renovated at a cost of £5,000 each. But many on the Housing Committee had had enough; Ward Councillor Len Stevenson was not alone in thinking the houses should be THE HOUSES THAT COLMAN BUILT - PAGE 22

demolished. Although he did make an interesting suggestion, that the Council should consider the idea of offering the Street to a Housing Co-Op, a notion which appeared to have come straight out of the ether.�Five days later, in a planned invasion, a vanguard of Squatters moved into Argyle Street and stayed seven years.

* THE HOUSES THAT COLMAN BUILT - PAGE 23



4. SWISH, RATTLE AND CLANG!



As industrial revolution continued to grow in the 19th Century Norwich and, with factories producing manufactured goods to the world, so too did the urban population as rural artisans moved to swell the inhabitancy of Britain’s second city. With this growth in population, 100,000 by 1900, the need to transport workers around the City became an imperative.

As the 1879 horse drawn Norwich Omnibus Company was no longer fit for purpose, in 1897 an electric tram car service gained Parliamentary approval which saw Norwich City Council authorise construction in 1898 by the Norwich Electric Tramways Company.Company members included the merchant banker Baron Emile Beaumont d’Erlanger, Francis Pavy, Theodore Matesdorf and Edmund Hopkins. On 30th July 1900 crowds lined the City streets to watch the first trams cruise for business, heralding in a innovative transport concept for 20th century Norwich.  Norwich was still essentially a medieval City of narrow streets with sharp bends and steep inclines which the new tram cars were not able to negotiate. In order to lay the three foot six inch (1066 mm) gauge track with sufficient clearance some buildings met an untimely end to make way for the new transport infrastructure. As 86-year-old tram enthusiast and former teacher Peter Ward recalls, “To get the trams from the Royal Hotel to Dereham Road they knocked down a whole lot of buildings in Redwell Street. They also knocked down buildings where there’s a fork with St Benedicts one side and Westwick Street the other side. Now on that corner, there was a huge pub right across called The Three Pigeons and that was demolished to get the trams through because St Benedicts Street was only about ten feet wide. They rebuilt The Three Pigeons on the other side of the street and that’s now called the Hog In Armour.” The City Arms, on the corner of St Andrews Street and St Andrews Hill, opposite what is now Delaney’s pub, was also demolished to straighten the road to make way for the trams.

The area of yards and small streets around Orford Place was obliterated to make way for a large triangular space which became the hub of the new tram scheme. In 1904 the Orford Place track layout was revised for ease of operation and in 1928 a ticket office and shelter was erected for passenger comfort.A tram depot, including maintenance workshops, was built at the northern end of Silver Road. This consisted of a two storey office block facing onto Sprowston Road, almost opposite Denmark Road. Access to the two four-road sheds at the Silver Road depot was via the Magdalen Road service which terminated in Denmark SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 25

Road, with a spur crossing Sprowston Road and on into the sheds. The workshops comprised of a forge and a wheel lathe.  Electrical power for the whole system was provided by a generating station in Duke Street which fed the overhead wires. By 1998 twenty-five power line suspension poles and wall mounted rosettes were to be found in the City, including one attached to the Guild Hall on Gaol Hill. Fifty open-top, fifty-two seat cars were provided with ten unpowered trailers which seated an additional forty passengers. Peter Ward again: “There was no limit to the number of people travelling on a tram. Initially they had seats for fifty-two. On the lower deck of the tram car there was just one long seat (on either side of the car) that went all the way along and if you squeezed up you could always get another one in. Upstairs they were all wooden seats and the backs of them went backwards and forwards so whichever way the tram went you could face the right way.” The unpowered trailers were not a success due to the sharp curves and gradients in the City, some as much as 1:14, and the tow bars on the power cars were removed.

By 1906 some trailers were converted to power operation and were utilised mainly on the twisty Aylsham Road route to which their shorter length were more suited. One former trailer was converted as a track gang van and the rest cannibalised for spare parts.Another conversion, after a particularly heavy snow fall in 1906, was that of a plough fitted to the front of Car-47. Every winter thereafter Car-47 was on standby as a snow plough but it was never needed to cope with the harsh conditions of 1906.Coachwork bodies were of a Brush Electrical SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 26

Engineering Company of Loughborough design, powered by Westinghouse 25hp motors and a short wheelbase (6ft) Peckham cantilever wheel assemblies with 30inch diameter wheels. A Conductor was paid 3d an hour while the Motor-men did a little better at 4d an hour with no guaranteed weekly hours nor holiday pay. Ticket Inspectors were known to deal harshly with fare dodgers and would countenance no excuses. Peter Ward explains, “We had a prominent Alderman in Norwich called Alderman Green and he had a large gents outfitters and drapery in the Haymarket. Well he got on a tram one day and up stepped Inspector Hunt with,“Tickets please?”And he approached Alderman Green and asked him for his ticket and he said he’d,“… dropped it on the floor while giving his seat to a Lady.”So the Inspectors says,“Well you’d better find it then.”And Alderman Green says he’s,“ … not going to grovel on the floor looking for a ticket,” and he expected the Inspector to “take his word as a gentleman that,” as he had, in fact, paid his fare. But no, the Inspector pressed charges and Alderman Green was duly fined five pounds. Which is about £250 in modern money. After that Alderman Green bought a cane and every time he passed a tram stand he used to hit it.” During the course of their service the cars underwent a number of modifications which included track brakes, platform life guards, head and tail lights and upper deck cladding.Initially the upper deck sides were clad in netting but in 1904 ‘modesty screens’ were installed to save the blushes of ladies riding on the upper deck.To save weight there was no roof, covers or screens on the cars due to the short wheel base and long upper deck overhangs.  In 1906 five cars were converted to Mountain & Gibson radial wheel assemblies which were designed to allow for a longer wheelbase to deal with the sharp curves on SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 27

the network but were not deemed a success. They were eventually sent to Coventry.

Literally.The company colours were dark maroon and ivory with the company name above the windows.  The light weight track was of Belgian manufacture shipped over to Great Yarmouth by tug. 65lb rail was used on the straights and 90lb on the curves. The joints were welded together, using the Falk process, by the R.H. Blackwell Company. Welding the track lengths was lighter and less expensive than bolting fishplates together. However, once welded, this lighter track was difficult to handle when layout alterations were required and this welding system was discontinued. The majority of the lines in the City were of single operation with loops to allow oncoming trams to pass. The points on the passing loops had two blades, instead of the more usual single blade utilised by street trams, fabricated from Vignole rail in place of the normal British Standard grooved rail.The initial fifteen mile tram network later to expanded into the suburbs with a total of seventeen and a half miles of tram track.The planned routes, according to Peter Ward, were: “The Norwich tram cars had seven routes and they had boards on the front of the cars, different colours to indicate the routes; The white route was Unthank Road and Denmark Road, the red route was Earlham Road and Thorpe Road, the green route was Newmarket Road and Cavalry Barracks with an extension to Mousehold Heath in the summer months.

The orange route was Orford Place to Trowse, The yellow and red route was Orford Place to City Road, the red and blue route Aylsham Road to the Royal Hotel and the blue route started at the Royal Hotel and went all the way through to the top of the hill on Dereham Road, near Merton Road.” A route was built from Orford Place, which ran the full length of King Street, to Trowse Station but due to operating difficulties this line was discontinued and replaced by the Yellow route via Queen’s Road and Bracondale, post-1914. Peter Ward remembers, “There was one tramway which had a tremendous alteration. Where they ran trams to Trowse, the tram line went from Prince of Wales Road, the entire length of King Street until you got to Bracondale, all the way to Trowse. They found King Street impossible, it seemed to be too narrow, so they re-routed that one from Orford Place, that ran along Queens Road to take it to Trowse that way.” Non-passenger service routes were laid in Magpie Road and Heigham Road to get trams SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 28

to and from the depot to their starting points, with further routes along Chapel Field Road and Theatre Street via Rampant Horse Street as a bypass when Orford Place was grid locked. All of the by-pass routes were discontinued by 1924. A temporary ‘works’ route was laid down in 1918 to transport armaments and aircraft parts from the factories around the now long defunct Mousehold Heath RAF airfield to Thorpe mainline station.The Mousehold Light Railway used the Newmarket Road / Cavalry Barracks line with an extension through the Heath, a short way east of the Pavilion (now Zakks) on Gurney Road to the Roundtree Corner factories. The rails for this line were recycled from the disused King Street route and differed in construction by using wooden sleepers.This Light Railway departed from the Green route at the south end of Riverside Road, crossed the Thorpe road junction east of Foundry Bridge and entered the Thorpe station forecourt by means of a spur line which ran up the northern side of the terminus from where goods were off-loaded onto the main line. The goods wagons were hauled by two Government owned electric tractors, with BTH controllers and powerful 38hp motors, to tow the heavily loads over Mousehold Heath.

At War’s end this line was discontinued and the tractors passed into the possession of Norwich Electric Tramcar Company who converted them to tram use, known affectionately by the Motor-men as ‘Dreadnoughts’ due to their wartime role.The rails and sleepers were not taken up until the 1930’s but evidence of the course of the disused railway, cuttings and curves through the wooded Heath, are still to be found.  After almost a quarter of a century of valiant service the ageing Brush cars were replaced in 1924 by a Metropolitan English Electric Company design. As testament to the rugged construction of the cars, Peter Ward recalls, “When we were little, every year there was a big schools sports day up at Newmarket Road. After the sports was over there’d be three or four trams waiting on Newmarket Road to take all the children back to the City. It was quite unbelievable the number of people they’d get on a tram. They reckoned they could get well over a hundred people on a tram car.” The Norwich Electric Tramcar Company had a good safety record with few noteworthy accidents; in 1925 an Unthank Road tram ran off the rails and crashed into a wall near St Giles Gate with no casualties; in the same year two Dereham Road trams crashed head-on in thick fog, injuring a Motor-man.In two unrelated incidents, involved men insisting on SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 29

standing on the top deck, the men fell over the side rail and onto the road below although thankfully without serious injury. Peter Ward recalls incidents from his childhood, “I remember on Magdalen Road there was a loop where Sprowston Road joins Magdalen Road, opposite Albany Road, and the points there were in a very bad condition. Frequently the tram used to go up the wrong side of the loop. My sister was attending a dancing class on Unthank Road, just before you got to Park Lane, and I was with my mother and my grandmother and we were going up to this place to pick my sister up from her dancing class. The car was travelling along when all of a sudden there was a funny noise, the tram sort of heaved a bit, and it went off the lines.And the Conductor said, “Oh keep your seats ladies and gentlemen, we’ll soon be on the tracks again.” (Laughs) So the Driver went to the other end to operate the engine to come in the other direction. There were a few lumps and bumps and we were back on the lines again. But some of the lines were in a very bad condition.” But the end of the trams was neigh; in April 1925 the tram route from Aylsham Road to the Royal Hotel was closed and replaced by a motor bus service. In March 1930 the Orford Place / Trowse Station route was closed. In the same year a special committee was formed by Norwich City Council to consider a proposal to seek powers to abandon the tram system, ‘a source of congestion in the streets of the city,’ and replace it with buses.

According to Peter Wards, “Well Norwich City Council had the rights to purchase Norwich Trams every seven years.

The option came up for Norwich City Council to buy the Tram company and they were totally opposed to the idea and they said they weren’t going to prop up an organisation which was on the way down.” There were strong feelings in the City over the proposed Council purchase keeping the Tram Company and a poll was organised for 10th January 1933. Despite the 90,000 leaflets distributed throughout the City only 29% of the City’s population bothered to vote, resulting in 11,033 against the purchase and 7,775 for. In December 1933 it was announced by City Council that the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company had purchased the controlling interest in The Norwich Electric Tramcar Company. “… and they promptly closed the whole thing down and replaced them all with buses,” said Peter Ward.

The Abandonment Bill received Royal Assent on June 6th 1935.The final tram swished, rattled and clanged through the City on the night of December 10th 1935 amid wild scenes SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 30

of cheering crowds singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and City church bells ringing out. Car-10, driven by the Company’s longest serving Motor-man George Hill and their youngest Conductor, Bernard Fisher, ran from Newmarket Road, packed with passengers, with cars and cyclists following along behind and reached the Silver Road depot at 11pm. At the depot shed, the crowds and staff joined hands around the tram and sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ for the final time.  After closure the tramcar bodies were available for purchase at £5 each. One is known to have ended its days as a garden shed in Norwich but Peter Wards tells of the fate of a Lowestoft tram, “In 1957 all the people who were interested in trams got together and formed a Tram Club. There was some gentleman at Carlton Coalville who was going to get this tram car from on the cliffs somewhere not far from Lowestoft. We all went over there and dug the whole thing out, got it all jacked up, put it on a trailer and they took it to Carlton Coalville.

Then the boys got to work on it and restored it and that was the last remaining Lowestoft tram. I think its still at Carlton Coalville and they run it on rails now, don’t they.” Years later, Motor-man George Hill’s funeral cortege followed the route of his last tram journey from Newmarket Road via Orford Place and the Silver Road depot.

(above) artifact supplied by Peter Ward SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 31

(above & left) artifacts supplied by Peter Ward SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 32

(above) Al Stokes’ tram designs based on Peter Ward’s original collection of plans

(left) Peter Ward’s childhood Norwich tram route plan SWISH, RATTLE & CLANG! - PAGE 33

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(above) Al Stokes’ graphic design based on Peter Ward’s original artifacts collection

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NORWICH TRAMS ROUTE MAP

tram map design © Al Stokes 2012

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�

photograph panels this page: the wartime tram route from the arms factories, through Mousehold Heath to Thorpe railway station

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5. A GHASTLY MISTAKE

As the builders of the tram system discovered in the late 19th century, Norwich was still essentially a medieval City of cluttered back yards, narrow streets and sharp bends.

Pleasing to the eye of the passing tourist but, according to J.B. Priestly in 1933,“The capital of East Anglia … where the feeble light of occasional street lamps showed you ancient, gnarled and gnome-like houses and little shops, you expected to run into characters from Edwin Drood going muffled through the chilled gloom. It was difficult to believe that behind those bowed and twisted fronts there did not live an assortment of misers, mad spinsters, saintly clergymen, eccentric comic clerks and lunatic sextons.

Impossible to believe that the telephone could find its way into this rather theatrical antiquity.” It was possible, however, to believe that motor vehicles could not find their way in this rather theatrical antiquity following the post First World War increase in traffic of trucks, buses and private cars. The motor car first arrived in Norwich in 1896 with pioneer driver Mr F. W. Fitt and by 1927 ten thousand cars had been registered in the city. Traffic congestion was causing concern. Something had to be done! One means of reducing this problem was to build a road to send the traffic around, instead of through, Norwich.

In 1931 architect Robert Atkinson, referring to City congestion, claimed, “… in almost every position are slum dwellings put up during the last fifty years. It would be a great adventure to clear them all out and open up the road following the wall which has always been a natural highway. Do this, and you will have a wonderful circulating boulevard all round the city and its cost would be comparatively nothing.” Although the term a great adventure probably meant something else back in 1931, the words ‘comparatively nothing’ still had a certain ring to planners with an eye on their budgets. Although the cost turned out be much more than comparatively nothing, the concept of an orbital feeder road for Norwich was in the public arena and by 1939, in a bold move, Barrack Street was widened to 50ft. Unfortunately the orbital road scheme ground to a halt when World War Two stopped play. Norwich was badly hit in the Luftwaffe raids which gave the City planners an idea, as Norman R. Tillett put it,“It is a truism now to say that the devastation caused by bombardment from the air has given Norwich and her sister cities in the front-line an unrivalled opportunity to re-plan their physical structure.” So the town planners rolled up their sleeves and went to it with a will. Norwich City A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 43

Corporation engaged architects James & Pierce to draw up the 1944 City of Norwich Plan:“… much thought (has been given) to the treatment of the many fine old buildings – chiefly churches and houses of the medieval periods – which still exist in Norwich; and we have not been unmindful of the architectural or material values of buildings of later or a recent date … Buildings are the cultural manifestations of the internal conditions of a city; they express the quality of its aesthetic ability and appreciation, the degree of prosperity and its civic sense. Unfortunately, much energy is sometimes spent in producing meaningless architectural fakes, and comparatively little is directed towards revitalising and maintaining the old buildings of genuine and undisputed lineage.” However, Norwich City engineer Horace Rowley came up with an alternative, potentially devastating plan in his 1945 Reservations On Report by a City Engineer, stating,“designed for the long term, during which time a considerable increase in traffic must be expected.

Bearing in mind the life of a City depends on its industry and business I feel that the limited sacrifice of property must be made and that, in the interests of efficiency and safety to the public, my suggestions are the minimum that should be laid down.” His map of the new Norwich was, according a contributor to Eastern Daily Press letters to the editor, ‘architectural rape, a ghastly eyesore,’ as huge swathes of the city were to be bulldozed for road widening and a four-lane inner link highway.  From a new hub centred on the Royal Hotel, (see fig.1) properties along Tombland, Wensum Street, Fye Bridge Street and the full length of Magdalen Street would have been swept away. From another new hub (see fig.2) at Orford Place, centre for the earlier tram system, another four-lane highway would done away with Gentleman’s Walk, Exchange Street, jinked left up Duke Street, Pitt Street and followed the line of Aylsham Road as far as Drayton Road. The northern section (see fig.3) of the inner link road is much as we see it today with the exception of a major cross roads with Magdalen Road. The most devastating part of the plan (see fig.4) would have entailed eradicating an area between Chapel Field North, Theatre Street, St Peters Street, Pottergate and bearing south west just beyond St Gregory’s Church to what is now Chapel Field roundabout. Far from keeping traffic out of the City centre, Horace Rowley’s plan would have brought major highways into it.

According to Gavin Stamp in his book, Britain’s Lost Cities:“The principal achievement of the wretched Rowley – Planning Officer until 1966 – was the Inner Link Road proposed A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 44

back in 1944 and finally planned in 1965. This runs outside the City walls to the east and then cuts across the City centre to the north – precisely what James & Pierce had hoped to avoid. In the late 1950s Magdalen Street received a ‘face lift’ from the Civic Trust, only to have a flyover crash through it a decade later …” The motorway plan for Norwich went dormant, with the country’s coffers empty paying off war debts, until 1961 when Ernest Maples, the then Minister of Transport, brought out his ‘rolling programme’ of regeneration allowing Norwich City Engineers to carry out a Comprehensive Survey Project. In December that year Norwich City Council accepted a plan from the City Engineer for a viaduct across Magdalen Street. The previous plan was to widen the whole street and build a big roundabout with the inner link road to the north.

In 1962, the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) in an editorial dubbed the flyover ‘The Bridge of Sighs’ and wrote,“The Civic Trust claims the new development, far from destroying the character of the (Magdalen) Street, gives it fresh interest.”And on 6th March 1962, The EDP reported of a Council Meeting,“Town Planners agree ‘the flyover, instead of a ground level crossing, will save the destruction of a good deal of property.’”Which led to an irate letter to the editor from Geoffrey Gorham quoting Basil Spence, architect of The Sea & Ships Pavilions at the Festival of Britain (1951) and Coventry Cathedral (1956) wrote,“Sir, The road vehicle is one of the greatest potential menaces to our civilisation from an aesthetic point of view and if Magdalen Street was freed from the brutalising effect of the motor car it would be a place people would want to go to (but) decapitated by an unwanted flyover it is a place where only planners would want to go.” In March, City Hall displayed a model and photographs of the scheme to the public and in April the City Council approved the building of a flyover by thirty votes to eight. In 1963 City Council approved the Project to uproar from the public at news that £173,950 would be borrowed with annual capital charges of £13,000; and £521,840 ranks for grant. Marples informed the City Council that he was prepared to consider an application of a grant for the construction of the inner link road between St Giles Gates and Barrack Street, to begin in the financial year 1964-65. The Committee welcomed the 75% grant and said if work were to begin, the route must be settled without delay and land acquired so detailed planning could proceed on the basis of,  •

The route proposed was the shortest and therefore likely to be the most attractive A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 45

to traffic. •

It passes through an area where much traffic is generated and will thus best serve its purpose of distributing such traffic.

•

The route provides convenient links to the radial roads.

•

It does not pass through any primary residential areas.

•

It is substantially less costly than the alternative proposals. And, the report went on,“The Committee believes that the construction of an inner link

road along this route, as opposed to Oak Street, Bakers Road, Magpie Road and Bull Close Road will enhance rather than detract from the value of Magdalen Street as a shopping area. Earlier proposals, the Council was reminded, envisaged a widening of Magdalen Street which would have entirely destroyed its character.” Despite the City Council’s protestations they were not, as it turned out, in for an easy ride. The Norwich Society objected to the proposed line and advocated one across City Station, a new bridge across the Wensum, and then via Bakers Road, Magpie Road and Bull Close Road to join Barrack Street at Silver Road. This, the Society claimed, would be cheaper than the City Engineers’ plan. The Chamber of Commerce supported the Norwich Society plan principally on the grounds of amenity. But, it said,“Modern planning recommendations that, for reasons of convenience and safety, a link road should skirt rather than cut through an area such as Coslany.” The Magdalen Street and District Traders’ Association objected because they felt the flyover would create a division in their shopping area, ruin the beauty of the Street and St Saviours Church in particular and disrupt business during the building as well as causing some shops to be closed.Horace Rowley, in a long report to the Executive Committee answering these criticisms, claimed the cost of his flyover was £695,800 compared with well over £900,000 for alternative schemes. He told the Planning Committee, “The traffic problem is already upon you and in about seven years the probability is that what is now congestion will become chaos.” The Executive Committee report concluded that in annexing the comments of those who have made alternative suggestions for the inner link road, together with the complete reports and plans which the City Engineer has prepared, they have provided the City Council with the fullest possible information to judge the matter.However, both the Norwich Society and Magdalen Street and District Traders’ Association spent the next two A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 46

years drumming up support from Members of Parliament to look into the matter again as the EDP reported,“Opponents of the Magdalen Street flyover in Norwich may yet take heart. They are to be given the opportunity to do battle again. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government has given notice that a public inquiry is to be held. It is believed it may be a joint inquiry with the Ministry of Transport, taking into account the whole of the inner link road scheme, of which the flyover forms a part.” For the City Council it was a blow to their hope of making a start on the first stage of the road and, according to Horace Rowley,“It has come more or less as a bombshell. It could hold us up for another year. If any other line is accepted, there could be another two years work ahead. I have no grievance against the holding of an inquiry, but it could not have come at a more inconvenient time. If it had been 18-months ago there would have been no difficulty.” One of the puzzles for City Hall was the Minister of Transport had already scheduled the first phase of the inner link road for 1964-65 with the promise of a £500,000 grant. Over two years had elapsed since the City Council approved the line of the northern sector, from Barrack Street to Barn Road, incorporating the flyover near Stump Cross. At the time the Norwich Society and the Magdalen Street Traders’ Association were campaigning for an alternative route via Magpie Road and Bell Close Road and eliminating a flyover had lodged objections. The Association collected more than 2,000 names for its petition against the flyover. The City Engineer’s department had been working flat-out on the detailed preparations and a good deal of property had been bought. Test borings had been made and consulting engineers engaged to design the structure of the flyover itself. Mr. Rowley was not a happy man, “Never once has it been suggested by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government or the Ministry of Transport that the line was unacceptable. It does not mark any material departure from the town development plan, which was approved after a public inquiry.” The Ministry of Housing and Local Government were concerned the proposed road as shown in the plan did not envisage a flyover. Since then there had been the Civic Trust’s Magdalen Street ‘face lift’ and Horace Rowley later added the flyover which was the main complaint by both the Norwich Society and the Magdalen Street Traders’ Association. It was this addition which persuaded the Minister to hold a public inquiry to satisfy himself A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 47

on the ‘line of the road.’ Solicitors acting for local residents in respect of the proposed St Giles roundabout were also informed.  However, hopes dashed again, the 1965 Public Enquiry found in favour of the plan which included a five-span viaduct with East & West approach ramps, high level access to Anglia Square made from reinforced concrete with brick facing. Various legal, land and grant procedures were carried out.  On 22nd December 1966 Richard Crossman, Ministry of Housing, told Norfolk MPs George Wallis and Christopher Norwood the flyover decision could not be reversed. The following year work was started on the Barrack Street section of the inner link road by City Engineers’ Direct Labour Organisation (DLO) and in 1969 contracts were awarded to May Gurney for the Chapel Field Road roundabout, Barrack Street roundabout to Pitt Street and Pitt Street to Westwick Street.The cost of the scheme included £785,000 for the land purchase; £1,118,000 for the works; Pitt Street roundabout to the flyover £274,000 for the land purchase and £470,000 for the works.The scheme required a viaduct of five spans – four of 60 feet and a central span of 70 feet. Each span was supported and pin locked at the base. The deck was made up of precast hollow box-beams, post tensioned with high tensile bars. The viaduct was designed so the space underneath would be used for shops although they were never built and it was left as empty voids. There was no provision for pedestrians on the flyover so, with no segregation to be built between vehicles and pedestrians, reduced the amount of land required. Roger Gosney, resident engineer for Gibbs & Partners, claimed the cost of the beams were £65,000. However, the cost of the inner link road in total had risen by 8.5% to £618,380 from the 1966 figure. On 9th December 1966 Philip Sutton, of Hainforth, wrote a letter to the EDP criticising the paper for not standing up to the builders, “Sir, … a gigantic wart is to be erected and all you can manage is a weak whimper.” However, there was bad news for the City Council by May 1970 when objections arose once again for the need to build a flyover at all. The City was changing, heavy industries were moving out and residential areas were taking their place. Apparently Horace Rowley, by then retired, had not foreseen this in his ‘the life of a City depends on its industry and business, the limited sacrifice of property must be made’ comment back in 1945.  There was uproar at the Council meeting but the proponents of the flyover felt they had gone too far to pull back. In a moment of ‘you turn if you want but this Council is not for A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 48

turning’ the meeting clashed as all sides recognised the flyover was a ‘ghastly planning mistake.’

Harry Perry suggested to the City Council that money allocated to the flyover could be switched to another section of the road scheme while the committee re-considered the northern route. But planning permission had already been given to Sovereign Securities to close Botolph Road, for the spur link to a car park and to buy up properties for £250,000. Tom Eaton was worried how a U-turn would be seen by local industry,“In my view businesses and industry are entitled to feel that once a decision has been made it is a firm decision. To throw out something which has been planned for 10-years we lose not only respect but create chaos and confusion.” Harry Perry was,“… adamant that the flyover could and should be stopped now we have changed circumstances. For Council members to say it is a ghastly mistake and still say it must go on is too silly for words.” Arthur Smith (Lab) said,“I opposed the building of the flyover over at Stump Cross all the way through but I seriously doubt if we could hold it up now, even though a good deal of industry has moved out. While the reason for the line of the flyover no longer exists, to change horses now would be an appalling hold up which could not be sustained.” Horace Rowley, architect of the flyover, was reported as saying, “I do not particularly like the flyover but if we were back in 1959 I think we would have made the same decision.

Circumstances have now completely changed. It has become a residential area which is an argument for having it as it is. The flyover is an integral part of Sovereign Securities plan at Magdalen Street, giving this shopping centre easy access to the inner link road.” It seemed to be a case of the tail wagging the dog. The builders Sovereign Securities were not to be inconvenienced even if the flyover was no longer necessary, as stated in a letter to the EDP by O.R. Durrant, of Eaton,“Sir, The Ministry of Transport admits the second route proposed by the Norwich Society would provide a satisfactory traffic route (and) would pass through the area behind Stump Cross which is already derelict whereas the City Engineer’s route would destroy one of the most picturesque and thriving sections of Magdalen Street and (claims) any change would inconvenience Sovereign Securities.” Designed by Monty Gaynor’s and his team at Alex Gibb and Partners, the flyover section cost £410,000, to be constructed by May Gurney. It was expected the bridge would be A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 49

finished in the summer of 1972 using 5,000 tones of concrete, 360 tons of steel, 10,000 tons of infill and special rubber and steel sandwich hinges under the supporting columns to allow for 4.5 inches of expansion during hot weather. The project was known amongst the construction workers as ‘May Gurney’s Flying Circus.’Commenting on the alleged ‘ghastly mistake,’ Monty Gaynor responded, “Norwich will have its ultra-modern four-lane flyover, whether Norwich takes to it is a matter for the future.” One unforeseen design element in the plan for the flyover was the spans were too low to allow older buses, which needed a 14ft 6” height clearance, to drive underneath as buses taller than 14ft 3” would not be allowed. That same year Anglia Square opened and in December construction started on the flyover, finishing two-months ahead of schedule.

On August 27th 1971 the EDP reported on noise pollution during construction of the Magdalen Street flyover;“Charles & Peg Lane, at 68a Magdalen Street on top of a cake shop of what remains of the corner of Botolph Road, are subjected to constant noise and their back yard is a jungle of unfinished concrete and steel with the constructors hut on the site of the nearby Barclays Bank.”And on 2nd September The Whiffler EDP column reported,“The former pride and joy of Civic Planning has slipped into shabby garb but now that Anglia Square has definite shape it is attracting both shops and shoppers.

Perhaps now the time has come for a second Magdalen Street face lift. Nothing succeeds like success.” Two weeks later on September 17th Assistant City Engineer, Frank Jones, gave notice of closure of Magdalen Street for laying 90 concrete beams, 30-tons each, laid one every 20-minutes. The beams, each 75ft long, were precast at Lenwade and 5,000 leaflets were distributed to announce the road closure.On June 12th 1972, the flyover was opened by Mayor Dick Seabrook.  The new inner link road brought forth a gush of plaudits. By July 1972 it was reported that the £710,000 scheme allowed 660 vehicles an hour to use Station Road. More people, it was claimed in the EDP, were using the inner link road and avoiding the City centre. But the uncertainty was not over for nearby residents. On May 8th the EDP reported,“There was mixed feeling at a Public Meeting which was attended by 80 local residents invited to discuss the future of 60 properties in Peacock Street, Willis Street, Cowgate and St Paul’s Square, voting whether to stay or go. Most were in favour of improving their properties rather than sell them for demolition for the inner link road. But Councillor Hollis didn’t want A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 50

to see, ‘a row of demolished terraces with a couple of little palaces in the middle.’” In 1989 Norfolk County Council agreed to continue the development of the city’s inner link road by adopting a line from Queens Road (see fig.5) across Surrey Street via a tunnel below Ber Street to Rouen Road, then by new bridges over the river and railway to Lower Clarence Road and Thorpe Road. This idea was later abandoned. The flyover lasted twenty years before it hit the headlines once again when City Engineer, Steve Hague, reported to City Council that repairs were needed to the expansion joints which were breaking up at a cost £20,000. That same year, on 27th November, Phase 3 of the Inner Link Road started.According to an anonymous Norwich wag, the Inner Link Road caused more devastation to Norwich than Sven Forkbeard, the Norman Conquest and the Luftwaffe put together.

FLYOVER SUB CONTRACTORS Anglian Building Products – precast concrete beams Atlas Aggregates – filling material & sub base Ayton Asphalte Co. – bituminous surface City Engineers (DLO) – street lighting and signage Grundy Arnott Ltd. – guard rails Harford Plant Hire – earth moving equipment F. Lee & Son – demolition PSC Ltd. – toothed expansion joints Readicrete - in-situ concrete

LOST UNDER THE INNER LINK ROAD TARMAC Pubs which were all trading until the bulldozers moved in: The The Lame Dog demolished soon after November 1975.

The Great Eastern, The Bull Inn and The Trumpet were all lost to the St. Stephen’s roundabout in 1962.

The Volunteer Arms near the top of Grapes Hill, closed in 1964.

St. Giles Gate Stores closed in February 1965.

The Paul Fry survived until March 1967.

The Bull & Butcher closed in November 1963. A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 51

For more demolished pub information see: http//norridge.me.uk/pubs/pubareas/ring.htm The home of John Crome (December 22, 1768 – April 22, 1821) principal artist of the ‘The Norwich School was also lost under the new road.

St. Paul’s Church, now partly under St Crispins Road and partly under a children’s playground.

For more details see: http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichpaul/norwichpaul.htm  FAMOUS RESIDENTS OF THE MAGDALEN STREET AREA 1505 – Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, born in St Clements Parish. 1549 – During the peasants’ revolt Robert Kett broke into the City via the Magdalen & Pockthotpe Gates and set up camp there. 1579 – Good Queen Bess stayed at the Maids Head Inn. 1777 – Painter John Thirtle born in Elephants Yard. 1780 - Elisabeth Fry, in Gurney Court of Magdalen Street, prison reformer and the face on the £5 note. 1802 - Harriet Martineau, wrote 35 books and a multitude of essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic, and, perhaps most controversial, a feminine perspective, as well as translating various works from Auguste Comte.

Photographs of the Inner Link Road scheme can be found at: http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Website/roadschemes.htm http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Website/Maps/1945%20City%20Engineers.jpg

* A GHASTLY MISTAKE - PAGE 52

(below) the Magdalen Street flyover, February 2012

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6. THERE’LL BE A HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN TONIGHT1

Most buildings in medieval Norwich were built of wattle & daub, thatch & tar without chimneys with only a hole in the roof for the vapours of cooking fires to escape. They were a tinder box and one spark could bring devastating fires which often laid waste to whole areas of the City. Fire was a menace to the population and it took centuries of destruction before even rudimentary precautions were taken. In the restless times of the tenth to thirteenth centuries political feuds between the people and the Church led to arson on a grand scale. In 1234 the citizens rose up against the power of Prior Brunham and a large angry crowd broke down the Cathedral gates, plundered and burned the Convent which resulted in the King seizing the City’s liberty.In the reign of Henry IV (1399 – 1413) three thousand armed rioters, led by Mayor Hempstede, marched on Prior Haverlord to burn down the Priory and kill the monks.

Although Prior Haverlord backed down from the confrontation and, after rioters had dug a tunnel under Ethelbert Gate with the intention of entering the grounds with kindling to set a fire, he later had to deal with the King. The sentence for Mayor Hempstede, the leader of the riot, was gruesome even by the standards of the times. He was hung by his heels in Fleet Prison. No serious attempt at fire fighting was made until 1429 when the Rev. Thomas Kewrale, Rector of Banningham, willed fire buckets, hooks2 and,“… also I deserve that my ladder … may always be dependent upon the walls of the Church of St. James in Norwich, in case of peril of fire.”The method for raising the alarm was by the ringing of the church bell and waiting for enough of the local population to turn up to help fight the fire. The ladder at St, James’ remained in situ until 1897.  With one hundred and thirty trades and a population six thousand by the fifteenth century made Norwich the sixth largest town in England. The complacency with which City leaders had had with fire fighting and prevention was having a real effect on the local economy with a resultant loss of income and therefore a loss of tax revenue to the Crown. In 1413 Blackfriars had burnt to the ground but is was not until 1437 that Norwich Assembly3 announced,“For mitigating and combating accidents of fire happening in this City in future, sufficient ladders and other instruments shall be more adequately appointed in divers parishes in every ward of this City, and they shall be kept in the open, so that every liege of the Lord King shall have access to them for combating the said accident.”Constables were appointed to warn of fire and organise bucket chains.

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However, large fires continued to menace the City. In 1463 the Cathedral was severely damaged and in 1467 a massive conflagration burned for three months which decimated the Mancroft and Wymer wards which led to the land being abandoned. The Assembly were to complain of the latter, “… such land seized by beggars, rascals, lepers, disbanded soldiers and impoverished countrymen whilst the affluent moved to manors in the country.” Some Norwich citizens began to question building methods using thatch and wood which spread the fire. The wealthy Colegate area in the City was the first to be built in stone and flint but the spread of fire did not make them immune. In 1502 a fire at the Popinjay Inn spread from Tombland to St. Andrews and in 1505 a fire in Colegate at the house of surgeon Peter Johnson, thought to be arson, burned for two days and spread as far as Coslany, taking with it St. Michael’s Church. According to the London Gazette, “Much damage was done by fire … a great part of Norwich was burnt.”These fires destroyed 40% of the housing stock, effecting local rents with a loss landlord income from £10 per annum to £150. And according to the historian Bloomfield, “… the city was almost utterly defaced, there were 718 houses burnt … and to have made great havoc … so stopped up with rubbish, the first thing the court did was to order it forthwith cleared …’But the idea of using safer building materials must have been getting through to the City leaders when, in 1509, the Assembly declared,“No one should cover any new built house with thatch, but should tile them all for the future safeguard of the City.”In 1534 they issued another edict which stated that any void ground not enclosed by walls would be claimed by the Assembly.

The root cause of many fires was chronic fly tipping in the River Wensum and the Castle ditches which led to the appointment of a Canal Raker to dispose of the rubbish. Proper legislation against fire prevention was not enacted until 15704 which included, •

New buildings to be covered with tile roofs – non-compliance fine £5

•

Church Wardens to provide fire buckets and ladders – fine 50p

•

Annual inspection of Church fire appliance by Aldermen – fine 30p

•

Aldermen to provide one dozen buckets and one ladder in their own homes – fine 17p for every bucket or ladder short

•

Any bucket or ladder burnt at a fire to be replaced – fine, cost of the bucket

•

Every parish shall provide one crome of iron and rings and ropes and four great THERE’LL BE A HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN TONIGHT - PAGE 58

ladders stored in a convenient place – fine £2 per inhabitant of the parish •

Every parish with a common well shall provide sufficient buckets and ropes for drawing water at all times

•

All pits, common drains and waterings to be properly maintained

•

Every Constable shall inspect all ladders, cromes, buckets, wells, pits and drains, and to see that every man’s chimney be swept and made sure against danger of fire and to report to the Mayor at Guildhall – fine 35p for failing to do his duty

•

If any serious fire occurs, every carrier and brewer in the City be ready with horse and cart to get vessels to carry water to the fire and to continue to carry water until the fire is extinguished – fine £2

1577 saw the introduction of the water pumping house at New Mills, Westwick, and by 1742 the City was served by water cisterns.The 1666 Great Fire of London concentrated Parliament’s mind to the hazard of fire and ordered every parish in the country to maintain fire fighting equipment. In 1668 Norwich became the proud owners of a hand pumped fire engine which was stationed at St. Andrews Hall and, for the princely sum of £51, bought a second engine 1679. Daniel Fromanteel was paid £2 per year to maintain them.

By the 1750’s5 fire was still plaguing Norwich and, although greatly reduced from the bad old days which proceeded it, mention should be made of one such outbreak in Bridewell Alley which started on October 22nd 1751. Inmates of the nearby Bridewell Prison were released to help fight the fire in a nearby warehouse. One inmate, who today would be described as having learning difficulties, helping that night to fight the fire was known only as ‘Peter The Wild Boy’ who, it transpired, had run away from his keeper in Birkhamstead and was arrested in Norwich as a stroller6. He was commemorated by having The Wild Man public house in Bedford Street named after him. Of the fire itself, it was put out at 7am next morning with the total loss of the Prison and eight houses.It was due to the unacceptable financial losses suffered by local businesses which promoted the introduction of insurance companies and, in 1797, Thomas Bignold set up the Norwich Union Fire Insurance company in Gentlemen’s Walk, Norwich Union provided their own dedicated fire service by 1800 for their customers at reasonable weekly rates. For those who could afford the service, gone were the days of haphazard parish volunteers with their inadequate equipment to be replaced by horse drawn fire engines. Insured premises bore a plaque with the insurer’s company name THERE’LL BE A HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN TONIGHT - PAGE 59

and policy number. Firemen were recruited locally on a quarterly retainer of 35p per hour when attending a fire and were expected to be sober, clean and take part in regular training sessions. The fine for being found drunk on duty was 25p, uncleanliness 5p and striking another fireman 25p.With the growth in the fire insurance other companies sprang up and, for a short period, so did company rivalries. It was not uncommon in those early days for rival companies to impede operations and cut fire hoses.Interestingly Norwich Union’s company regulations included,“… to keep in view that the fire engine establishment is the property of and is supported at the sole expense of the Norwich Union Society and therefore not subject to the control orders of the Police, military or any persons whatsoever.”This was at a time when the City maintained two fire appliances at the Guildhall and several parishes kept their own pumps who would all turn out for a big fire along with constables and the military. It is possible to imagine the cross communication between too many vested interests issuing conflicting orders.  In 1836 Rev. John Anthy of Caister St. Edmonds exhibited his new invention, the escape ladder, which comprised of eight extending ladders, raised by ropes and pulleys, mounted on a wheeled platform. Although local Councils were happy with the arrangement of Norwich Union maintaining it’s own highly professional fire service they also felt the insurance companies were only protecting their own clients and, in 1835, the Municipal Reform Act provided that local Councils should take over control of the fire service.

Norwich Union continued to operate their own fire service until 1858 when they disbanded and handed over their equipment and rule book to the combined Police Force & Norwich Fire Brigade.  Industrial innovations in fire service machinery continued throughout the nineteenth century in hoses and vehicles although the defeated Bill of 1818, which attempted to outlaw sending small boys up chimneys, was noted by Sidney Smith in a 1819 edition of the Edinburgh Review,“… it is quite right to throw out this Bill for prohibiting the sweeping of chimneys by ‘climbing boys’ because humanity is a modern invention … the complete abolition of climbing boys is impractical without great injury to property and greatly increased risk of fire,”The Bill was finally passed in 1875. It took fifty seven years for the concept of ‘humanity’ to catch on. It became apparent that combined Police / Fire Service was inefficient and the state of the appliances were no longer fit for purpose, especially when attending a large fire.

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In 1846 the first steps were made by Norwich City Council to form a separate Municipal fire brigade and, funded by Norwich Union, in November of that year the City Council delegated fire responsibility to the Watch Committee. The founder members of Norwich City Fire Brigade were Sergeant Matthew Copeman and Constables John Underwood (a former butcher), Robert Allen (a former carpenter), Charlies Fairhead (a former bricklayer), William Callow and Robert Thompson.

In 1866 the system for calling out the Fire brigade was changed from that of finding a policeman on patrol to the use of maroons to summon officers to the fire station. This practise was stopped after a rocket came through the skylight of a printing works in Market Place and caused a fire.  By 1869, with City appliances in a dilapidated state, the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire provided Norwich with a 40ft escape ladder and new horse drawn appliances.

Local industries had their own works’ fire services including Colmans, Careleys, Bullard Brewery, Boulton & Paul, Hill & Underwood and Sexton’s Shoe Factory, all of whom were paid a pepper corn retainer by the City Council to turn out for major fires. In 1873 the Watch Committee decided to charge a call-out fee of £3.15p to attend fires with their new steam engine at premises within the City but in 1883 the High Court in London decided it was not lawful to charge ratepayers for the use of their own equipment.

In 1898 it was decided the Guildhall was unsuitable for housing the Fire Brigade and it was moved to new premises in Pottergate, buying the lease from a vetenary surgeon, Mr. Low, for £60 with £1,116 for rebuilding the site into a combined Fire Station, Police Section House and stables. Pottergate is a narrow street and driving a team of horses out of the station yard required careful handling. The fire station, viewed as a disgrace and a reproach on the City in its latter years, stayed in Pottergate until 1934.  The new Bethel Street Fire Station was designed by Stanley G. Livock of Norwich, built by Simms & Cooke of Nottingham at a cost of £33,000 and opened by Mayor Jex on November 9th 1934. Work was initially delayed by the discovery during work on the foundations of several wells, some of which were thought to have housed secret caches of arms and gunpowder during the Civil War, and cesspits. 

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FOOTNOTES & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHAPTER 1: The Lost Station of Norwich Research Sources: Norwich City Reference Library, The Forum Eastern Evening News clip library Photo Sources: Friends of Nowich City Station http://www.railbrit.co.uk/location.php?photographer=Mark_Dufton&loc=Norwich+City The author

CHAPTER 2: Heigham Hall Research Sources: Norwich City Reference Library, The Forum Photo Source: the author

CHAPTER 3: The Houses That Colman Built Research Sources: Primary research by the author Eastern Evening News clip library

CHAPTER 4: Shake, Rattle & Clang!

Research Sources: With grateful thanks to Peter Ward who supplied tram memorabilia, car plans, photos, maps and his personal memories Jon Crampton who allowed his early prints of the City to used in this article. Norwich City Reference Library, The Forum Norwich Tramways by David Mackley, published by Middleton Press, 2000 Lost Tramways of East Anglia by Leslie Oppitz, published by Countryside Book, 2004 Photos & Illustration Source: the author Places to visit: East Anglia Transport Museum, Chapel Road, Carlton Colville, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR22 8BL - (01502) 518459 - www.eatm.org.uk PAGE 65

Model Norwich tram on display at Bridewell Museum, Bridewell Alley, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1AQTelelphone:01603 629127 Norwich Archive Photos can be found at: www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Website/index.htm

CHAPTER 5: A Ghastly Mistake Research sources:  Eastern Evening News clip library Jon Crampton Gavin Stamp’s Britain’s Lost Cities http//norridge.me.uk/pubs/pubareas/ring.htm

CHAPTER 6 Primary research source: A History of the Norwich City Fire Brigade by B.S. Veriod, 1986. Photo Sources: George Plunkett The author Footnotes: 1

From the song, llyrics by Joe Hayden, published in 1896

2

for pulling burning thatch from roofs

3

the local council

4

City population 12,000

5

City population 36,000

6

thought to be a vagrant

(photo right) author Al Stokes filming the Argyle Street eviction, February 1985 PAGE 67