History of Norfolk - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Norfolk ˈ is a rural county

Counties of England

Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical and political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 counties. The counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several...

in the East of England

East of England

The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...

. Our knowledge of prehistoric Norfolk is limited by a lack of evidence — although the earliest finds are from the end of the Lower Paleolithic

Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the...

period. Communities have existed in Norfolk since the last Ice Age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

and tools, coins and hoards such as those found at Snettisham indicate the presence of an extensive and industrious population.

The Iceni

Iceni

The Iceni or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD...

tribe inhabited the region prior to the Roman conquest of Britain

Roman conquest of Britain

The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and...

in 43 AD, after which they built roads, forts, villa

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...

s and towns. Boudica

Boudica

Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....

's rebellion in 60 AD, caused by the imposition of direct rule by the Romans, was followed by order and peace, which lasted until the Roman armies left Britain in 410 AD. The subsequent arrival of the Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

caused the loss of much Roman and British culture in Norfolk. It is known from external evidence from excavations and place-names that by c. 800 AD all Norfolk had been settled and the first towns had emerged. Norfolk was the northern half of the Kingdom of East Anglia and was ruled by the Anglo-Saxon Wuffing

Wuffing

The Wuffingas were the ruling dynasty of the kingdom of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Wuffingas took their name from Wuffa, an early East Anglian king. It has been argued that the Wuffingas may have originated...

dynasty. Our knowledge of several Wuffings is scant, as few historical documents of the period have survived.

Under the Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

, Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

emerged as the hub of the region. With steady growth and strong overseas links it became an important mediaeval city, but it suffered from internal tensions, insanitary conditions and disastrous fires. Mediaeval Norfolk was the mostly densely populated and the most productive agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

region in the country. Land

Arable land

In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...

was cultivated intensively and the wool trade

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

was sustained by huge flocks. Other industries such as peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

extraction were important. Norfolk was a prosperous county and possessed a wealth of monastic establishments

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

and parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

es.

Etymology

The name "Norfolk" derives from terms which meant "the northern people". It is first mentioned in Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

wills dating from 1043–5 and later as Norðfolc in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

(written in 1075) and as Nordfolc in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

Paleolithic to Chalcolithic

Lower Paleolithic
(2,500,000 to 300,000 BCE)

In 2005 it was discovered that Norfolk contained one of the earliest finds of European man. The find revealed flint tools on the coast at Pakefield

Pakefield

Pakefield is a suburb of the town of Lowestoft in the Waveney District of the English county of Suffolk. Pakefield is located around 2 miles south of the centre of the town. Although today it forms a suburb of the urban area of Lowestoft, it was until 1934 a village and parish in its own right....

which was dated at around 668,000 BCE and a find at Happisburgh

Happisburgh

Happisburgh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated off the B1159 coast road from Ingham to Bacton.The civil parish has an area of , although this is declining due to cliff erosion. In the 2001 census, before the creation of Walcott parish, it had a...

in the "Cromer Forest Bed
Cromer Forest Bed
The Cromer Forest Bed formation is exposed at intervals along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, from Weybourne to Kessingland. The forest bed was formed in the Quaternary Period and dates to between 780,000 to 450,000 years ago, within the Cromerian Stage of the Pleistocene...

" has been dated as being 550,000 years old and has given us flints, bones and the oldest hand axe to be found in north-west Europe.

Middle Paleolithic
(300,000 to 30,000 BCE)

In 2002 there was a major discovery of one of the most important sites of Neanderthal

Neanderthal

The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...

man, dated to around 58,000 BCE, in the Thetford Forest

Thetford Forest

Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain, Thetford Forest Park is located in a region straddling the north of Suffolk and the south of Norfolk in England...

at Lynford

Lynford

Lynford is a village situated in the Breckland District of Norfolk and covers an area of with a population of 157 in 81 households as of the UK census 2001. Lynford lies north east of Brandon and between Mundford, to the north west, and Thetford, to the south east, on the A134...

. David Miles the chief archaeologist at English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

said: "It is extremely rare to find any evidence of Neanderthals and even rarer to find it in association with mammoth remains. We may have discovered a butchery site, or what would be even more exciting, first evidence in Britain of a Neanderthal hunting site which would tell us much about their organisational and social abilities."

The site was found to contain organic material and a Mousterian

Mousterian

Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age.-Naming:...

hand axe

Hand axe

A hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool typical of the lower and middle Palaeolithic , and is the longest-used tool of human history.-Distribution:...

was found in a good state of preservation. A further 30 Mousterian hand axes were found along with reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

bones covered in cut marks. The animal remains have revealed the presence of woolly mammoth

Woolly mammoth

The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...

s, woolly rhinoceros

Woolly Rhinoceros

The woolly rhinoceros is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived the last glacial period. The genus name Coelodonta means "cavity tooth"...

, brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

s, spotted hyena

Spotted Hyena

The spotted hyena also known as laughing hyena, is a carnivorous mammal of the family Hyaenidae, of which it is the largest extant member. Though the species' prehistoric range included Eurasia extending from Atlantic Europe to China, it now only occurs in all of Africa south of the Sahara save...

s and other smaller remains such as fish jaws, frog bones and several types of mollusc. Although the site contains such exotic animals the temperatures were still below those felt today as Norfolk was still in the clutches of the remnants of an Ice-Age. The average temperature in July has been estimated as 13°C and the area would have been below freezing for most of the winter months. From plant and insect remains it has been deduced that the area was marshy and covered with small areas of open still water similar to the modern day broads.

Upper Paleolithic
(40,000 to 10,000 BCE)

Neolithic and Chalcolithic
(9500 to 3000 BCE)

This period covers the stages of change from the pottery of the stoneage into the age of metals. The Chalcolithic Age is the start of the Copper Age and marks the end of the time when people could only work mainly single element metals such as silver, tin, copper and gold. The Copper Age precedes the Bronze Age when metallurgy developed into a science capable of amalgamating metals into bronze and other compounds.

Bronze Age

(3000 to 600 BCE)
Norfolk was a centre of metalworking and by the Late Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

northern Norfolk had developed into a major area of production. There were also throwbacks to the earlier ages and one such type were the monuments. A significant find was discovered in 1998 between the high and low tidal limits off the north west coast of Norfolk at Holme-next-the-Sea

Holme-next-the-Sea

Holme-next-the-Sea is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north Norfolk coast some 5 km north-east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, 30 km north of the town of King's Lynn and 70 km north-west of the city of Norwich.The civil...

. A ring of timbers was found and within it an upturned tree stump with its roots above the sand. The remains were excavated in 1999 and the samples taken dated it to 2049 BCE.

A find at Sutton (near Stalham

Stalham

Stalham is a market town on the River Ant in the English county of Norfolk, in East Anglia. It covers an area of and had a population of 2,951 in 1,333 households as of the 2001 census. It lies within the Norfolk Broads, about north-east of Norwich on the A149 road.For the purposes of local...

) on 7 July 1875 revealed a copper alloy shield buried under peat lying on, and covered by, white sand. There have been numerous finds from all periods of the Bronze Age but amongst the most notable were a find of 141 axes heads at Foulsham

Foulsham

This article is about the place. For the publishing company see W. Foulsham & Company Limited.Foulsham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The Village is miles west south west of Cromer, miles north west of Norwich and miles north east of London. The village lies...

and pottery including collared urns from the Witton Wood barrow.

Grimes Graves

Grimes Graves

Grime's Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between around circa 3000 BC and circa 1900 BC, although production may have continued well into the Bronze and Iron Ages owing to the low cost of flint...

is a large and well-preserved group of Neolithic flint mines at a site near Brandon

Brandon, Suffolk

Brandon is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the Forest Heath local government district.Brandon is located in the Breckland area on the border of Suffolk with the adjoining county of Norfolk...

, consisting of 400 pits. It was first named Grim’s Graves by the Anglo-Saxons and was first excavated in 1870 when the pits were first identified as mines dug over 5,000 years ago.

Iron Age

There is evidence that much of Norfolk was intensively farmed by people during the Late Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

. The Cenimagni tribe who submitted to Caesar in 54 BCE were settled in both lowland and upland Norfolk by this time. They may have been centred in north-west Norfolk, where hoards of coins and torc

Torc

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large, usually rigid, neck ring typically made from strands of metal twisted together. The great majority are open-ended at the front, although many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Smaller torcs worn around...

s have been discovered such as that found at Snettisham

Snettisham Hoard

The Snettisham Hoard, Snettisham Treasure or Snettisham Torc, is a series of discoveries of Iron Age precious metal, found in the Snettisham area of the English county of Norfolk between 1948 and 1973....

. Coins found in the south of the county indicate that the Iceni tribe may have been centred around Thetford by the mid 1st century AD.

Roman Norfolk

Norfolk's coastline is markedly different from the coastline that existed when the Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

first occupied what is now the county of Norfolk. The northern coast of Norfolk has eroded over the last two millennia, parts of it perhaps having retreated by up to 2 kilometres (1.2 mi). The eastern coast was dominated by an enormous estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

, the island of Flegg and a peninsular (modern Lothingland

Lothingland

Lothingland is an area in East Anglia, situated on the North Sea coast. It is bound by Breydon Water to the north, the River Waveney to the west and Oulton Broad to the south, and includes Lowestoft....

). The Wash

The Wash

The Wash is the square-mouthed bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in the United Kingdom...

was much larger in size and the area now known as the Fens

The Fens

The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....

was impenetrable marsh containing isolated islands surrounded by water. The River Waveney

River Waveney

The Waveney is a river which forms the border between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads.-Course:The source of the River Waveney is a ditch on the east side of the B1113 road between the villages of Redgrave, Suffolk and South Lopham, Norfolk...

between Norfolk and Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

was at that time a substantial feature.
After the Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD forts and roads were constructed around Norfolk as the Roman army became established. Major Roman roads in the county included the Peddars Way

Peddars Way

The Peddars Way is a long distance footpath in Norfolk, England. It is 46 miles long and follows the route of a Roman road. It has been suggested by more than one writer that it was not created by the Romans but was an ancient trackway, a branch or extension of the Icknield Way, used and...

and Pye Road

Pye Road

Pye Road is a Roman road running from Camulodunum to Venta Icenorum -Route:The road runs from Camulodunum to Venta Icenorum partly sharing a route with the A140 road.-References:...

. After a minor rebellion by the Iceni in 47 AD king Prasutagus

Prasutagus

Prasutagus was king of a British Celtic tribe called the Iceni, who inhabited roughly what is now Norfolk, in the 1st century AD. He is best known as the husband of Boudica....

was allowed to rule independently as a client king

Client state

Client state is one of several terms used to describe the economic, political and/or military subordination of one state to a more powerful state in international affairs...

. On his death in 60 AD Roman rule was imposed on the territory and his widow Boudica

Boudica

Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....

was not allowed to succeed him as Roman law only allowed male heirs to claim a client king's title. After Boudica was humiliated and her daughters raped she led a rebellion in which the towns of Colchester (Camulodunum
Camulodunum
Camulodunum is the Roman name for the ancient settlement which is today's Colchester, a town in Essex, England. Camulodunum is claimed to be the oldest town in Britain as recorded by the Romans, existing as a Celtic settlement before the Roman conquest, when it became the first Roman town, and...

), London (Londinium) and St. Albans (Verulamium
Verulamium
Verulamium was an ancient town in Roman Britain. It was sited in the southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, Great Britain. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon...

) were sacked.

Following the defeat of Boudicca the Romans restored order on the region by establishing an administrative centre at Venta Icenorum
Venta Icenorum
Venta Icenorum, probably meaning "Market Town of the Iceni", located at modern-day Caistor St Edmund in the English county of Norfolk, was the civitas or capital of the Iceni tribe, who inhabited the flatlands and marshes of that county and earned immortality for their revolt against Roman rule...

(the present Caistor St. Edmund

Caistor St. Edmund

Caistor St Edmund is a village on the River Tas, near Norwich, Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 270 in 116 households at the 2001 census....

), a small town built at Brampton

Brampton, Norfolk

Brampton is a small village and parish in the county of Norfolk, England, in the Bure Valley, east of Aylsham.Brampton station is an intermediate halt on the Bure Valley Railway.Its church, St Peter, is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk...

and other settlements which were developed at river crossings or road junctions. The mostly rural population lived in scattered homesteads, villages or more affluent Roman villas. The level of the sea fell during Roman times and the swamps in the west of Norfolk slowly dried out. The land was then able to be converted into fertile farmland where sheep-rearing

Sheep husbandry

Sheep husbandry is a subcategory of animal husbandry specifically dealing with the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. Sheep farming is primarily based on raising lambs for meat, or raising sheep for wool. Sheep may also be raised for milk or to sell to other farmers.-Shelter and...

and salt production could be established.

The Saxon Shore

Saxon Shore

Saxon Shore could refer to one of the following:* Saxon Shore, a military command of the Late Roman Empire, encompassing southern Britain and the coasts of northern France...

forts were built by the Romans in the 3rd century AD as a defence against overseas raiders. In Norfolk the ruins of the forts built at Burgh Castle

Burgh Castle Roman Site

Burgh Castle is the site of one of several Roman shore forts constructed around the 3rd Century AD, to hold cavalry as a defence against Saxon raids up the rivers of the east and south coasts of southern Britain; and is located on the summit of ground sloping steeply towards the estuary of the...

(Roman Gariannonum
Gariannonum
Gariannonum, or Gariannum, was a Saxon Shore fort in Norfolk, England. The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman Army “order of battle” from about AD 400, lists nine forts of the Saxon Shore in south and east England, among which one was called Gariannonor...

), guarding the estuary across from the island of Flegg, still exist, but there is now little remaining of the forts at Brancaster (Branodunum
Branodunum
Branodunum was the name of an ancient Roman fort in the modern English village of Brancaster in Norfolk. Its Roman name derives from the local Celtic language, and means "fort of Bran".- History :...

) built on the north coast, and at Caister-on-Sea

Caister Roman Site

Caister Roman Site is a Roman Saxon Shore fort, located in Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk. It was constructed around AD 200 for a unit of the Roman army and navy and occupied until around 370-390 AD...

, on the east coast and near Burgh Castle. After the last of the armies of Rome had left in 410 AD most of the visible remains of Roman Britain slowly disappeared.

Occupation and settlement

After 410 AD, tribes arrived from north-west Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

and intermingled with the Romano-Britons already living in the Norfolk region. The new culture of the Anglo-Saxons replaced the culture of the Romans and ancient Britons (so that for instance there are now few place-names in Norfolk that pre-date the Anglo-Saxon period). The first written record of most of the place names in the county is the 11th century Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

, but these names will have existed much earlier. Places with names ending in -ham in Norfolk (but not those ending -ingham) are generally sited favourably by rivers or near fertile soil and grew in importance from large vill

Vill

Vill is a term used in English history to describe a land unit which might otherwise be described as a parish, manor or tithing.The term is used in the period immediately after the Norman conquest and into the late medieval. Land units in Domesday are frequently referred to as vills, although the...

s into the county's modern market towns. Comparitavely less important settlements tended to end with the suffixes -ton, -wick or -stead.

Excavations and place-name evidence indicates that the early Anglo-Saxons (pre-800 AD) seem to have occupied the south and south-west of Norfolk most densely, with settlements concentrated along river systems. A settlement and a cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

at Spong Hill

Spong Hill

Spong Hill is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery site located at North Elmham in Norfolk, England. The largest Early Anglo-Saxon burial site ever excavated, it contains within it 2259 cremations and 57 inhumations. The site at Spong Hill consisted of two cemeteries, a large cremation cemetery and a smaller,...

, containing both graves and inhumation pots, is an example of one of the few early Saxon sites to have been found in Norfolk. During the 7th century East Anglia adopted Christianity and the custom of burying grave goods

Grave goods

Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods are a type of votive deposit...

, found at numerous sites, eventually ceased. Evidence of early Anglo-Saxon settlement exists in the form of Ipswich ware pottery and coins (sceattas) that are unique to the period.
The Saxons eventually settled evenly over the uplands and lowlands of Norfolk. By 850 AD the majority of the county's current pre-Danish placenames had been created, although only two names – Deorham (modern West Dereham

West Dereham

West Dereham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 440 in 176 households as of the 2001 census....

) and Cnobheresburgh (the site of an unidentified monastery on the east coast) – exist in early Anglo-Saxon documents, Evidence of the importance of the emerging trade settlements of Thetford and Norwich is still being discovered. Numerous other sites in the county have revealed evidence of Saxon settlement, for instance at North Elmham

North Elmham

North Elmham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 1,428 in 624 households as of the 2001 census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Breckland....

(where there is evidence of timber buildings and roadways), or at Bawsey

Bawsey

Bawsey is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is about 4 miles east of the town of King's Lynn and 40 miles west of the city of Norwich...

(with finds of pottery, coins and metalwork). Six late Anglo-Saxon silver brooch

Brooch

A brooch ; also known in ancient times as a fibula; is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold but sometimes bronze or some other material...

es were discovered at Pentney

Pentney

Pentney is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, located about south east of Kings Lynn placing it about halfway between Kings Lynn and Swaffham on the A47 road....

in 1978, that may have belonged to a local maker or dealer.

The kingdom of the East Angles

Norfolk was part of the kingdom of the East Angles

Kingdom of the East Angles

The Kingdom of East Anglia, also known as the Kingdom of the East Angles , was a small independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom that comprised what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens...

during much of the Anglo-Saxon period. Its history is largely obscure: much information is based on mediaeval chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...

s and often cannot be verified. The history of Norfolk, the northern half of the kingdom, cannot be distinguished from the rest of East Anglia during this period.

East Anglia was first ruled by semi-historical kings from the Wuffings dynasty, who, according to the 9th century Historia Brittonum of Nennius

Nennius

Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....

, descended to Wuffa of East Anglia

Wuffa of East Anglia

Wuffa is supposed to have ruled the East Angles from c. 571 to c. 578. East Anglia was a long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk....

from Wōden

Woden

Woden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....

. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most important historical source for the Anglo-Saxon period, only Rædwald of East Anglia and his successors Eorpwald

Eorpwald of East Anglia

Eorpwald; also Erpenwald or Earpwald, , succeeded his father Rædwald as ruler of the independent Kingdom of the East Angles...

, Anna

Anna of East Anglia

Anna was King of East Anglia from the early 640s until his death. Anna was a member of the Wuffingas family, the ruling dynasty of the East Angles. He was one of the three sons of Eni who ruled East Anglia, succeeding some time after Ecgric was killed in battle by Penda of Mercia...

, Æthelberht

Alberht of East Anglia

Alberht, Ethælbert or Æthelberht was an eighth century ruler of East Anglia, who shared the kingdom with Beorna and possibly with a ruler named Hun in 749. He may still have been ruling c...

and Edmund the Martyr

Edmund the Martyr

St Edmund the Martyr was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.D'Evelyn, Charlotte, and Mill, Anna J., , 1956. Reprinted 1967...

are mentioned. An important source of information is Bede's

Bede

Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...

Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...

, which describes events during the reigns of several East Anglian kings, including Raedwald, the first king who is known by more than a name.

The only surviving lists of the kings of East Anglia are those written by mediaeval sources, such as William of Malmesbury

William of Malmesbury

William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...

. Nothing is known about any of the kings from 664 to 747, after which the succession and geneaology of the kings of East Anglia after this time is uncertain. The Vikings attacked Norfolk in 865 and four years later killed Edmund, the last king of the East Angles

Edmund the Martyr

. Villages on the former island of Flegg with names such as Scratby, Hemsby

Hemsby

Hemsby is a village, civil parish and seaside resort in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some north of the town of Great Yarmouth....

and Filby

Filby

Filby is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 740 in 308 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Great Yarmouth....

provide evidence of Viking settlement: other place-names of Viking origin are scattered around Norfolk. Viking settlement is thought to have stimulated the growth of towns such as Norwich and Thetford. After Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...

conquered East Anglia and ended Viking domination in c.917, the region was absorbed into the kingdom of England.

Mediæval Norfolk

At the time of the Norman Conquest, Norfolk formed part of the earldom of Harold I of England and offered no active resistance to William the Conqueror, who bestowed the earldom of East Anglia on Ralph de Gael. After the Revolt of the Earls

Revolt of the Earls

The Revolt of the Earls in 1075 was a rebellion of three earls against William I of England . It was the last serious act of resistance against William in the Norman Conquest.-Course:...

in 1075, Earl Ralph's estates were forfeited and passed to Roger Bigod

Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk

Roger Bigod was a Norman knight who came to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were Earl of Norfolk. He was also known as Roger Bigot, appearing as such as a witness to the Charter of Liberties of Henry I of England.-Biography:Roger came...

Mediaeval Norwich

The arrival of the Normans in 1066 led to the destruction of much of Anglo-Saxon Norwich

Norwich

. After Ralph de Gael rebelled against the king, a large part of the town was burned by the Normans in retribution. They then started to develop Norwich into a properous international port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

and a centre of Norman power. Norwich Castle

Norwich Castle

Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...

was built by 1075. It was of a motte and bailey type and was rebuilt in stone before 1200. Work on the cathedral

Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....

precinct started in 1096. Within it was built a cathedral church

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

, a fortified bishop's palace

Palace

A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...

and other monastic buildings

Monastery

. The formation of the precinct turned a large part of the town into an unpopulated area of quarry

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

pits and building yards.
Early mediaeval Norwich grew into a cosmopolitan city and expanded around the waterfront and westwards along St. Benedict's Street. During the 12th century there was a thriving Jewish community, but it was unpopular with the Christian population. In 1144 the Jews were accused of the ritual murder of a young boy named William

William of Norwich

William of Norwich was an English boy whose death was, at the time, attributed to the Jewish community of Norwich. It is the first known medieval accusation of ritual murder against Jews....

, who was subsequently canonized

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

. Their synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

was destroyed in 1286 and four years later all the Jews in England were expelled from the country (see Edict of Expulsion
Edict of Expulsion
In 1290, King Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England. Lasting for the rest of the Middle Ages, it would be over 350 years until it was formally overturned in 1656...

).

Tensions between the cathedral priory and the citizens of Norwich (in part over the jurisdiction of land in the city) culminated in the Riot of 1272, in which thirteen members of the priory were murdered and the precinct gates and St. Ethelbert's Church were destroyed. As punishment, the main anarchists were put to death and the city lost its liberties and was forced to pay for the building of a new gate for the priory.

Between 1297 and 1344 a new defensive wall

Defensive wall

A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...

was constructed on the huge banks that surrounded the city, replacing the earlier palisade

Palisade

A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...

and gates

City gate

A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. Other terms include port.-Uses:City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods and animals...

. The area enclosed was the largest for any city in England, although inside was a considerable amount of pasture land, which was slowly absorbed as new monastic settlements, houses, markets and industrial sites appeared. By 1400 Norwich had grown to become a major city of perhaps 10,000 inhabitants.

The Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

may have killed two fifths of the population of the city. It led to efforts to improve the insanitory conditions, but these had little impact. Immigration from the surrounding countryside soon restored pre-plague numbers, partly as a result of the growing textiles industry. Growing civic wealth and pride was reflected in new large buildings such as the Guildhall, built from 1407–1453. During the later mediaeval period, Norwich's fortunes declined. Both the fires of 1412 and 1413 (which destroyed many of the city's buildings) and the Wars of the Roses

Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...

, contributed to its decline. The period is characterised by a growing gap between the wealthy and the poor of Norwich.

Rural Norfolk during the Middle Ages

In the 14th century Norfolk was the most densely populated and most intensively farmed region in England. The land was predominatly arable

Arable land

, much more so than in previous centuries. Where land could not be plough

Plough

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

ed easily, it was managed as pasture

Pasture

Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...

. The woodlands of much of Norfolk were cleared during mediaeval times. The soils of the county were variously light, heavy and – most valuably – moderate. The moderately heavy soils were concentrated in central and eastern parts. Crops grown included barley

Barley

Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...

(for making beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

), rye

Rye

Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...

, oats

OATS

OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...

and peas

PEAS

P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....

. Horses were introduced sooner in Norfolk than elsewhere and crop rotation

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...

helped to intensify cultivation. Manorial records show that the types of crops cultivated and animals stocked depended on access to markets, labour supply, freedom from communal controls and transport costs, as well as soil type

Soil type

In terms of soil texture, soil type usually refers to the different sizes of mineral particles in a particular sample. Soil is made up in part of finely ground rock particles, grouped according to size as sand, silt and clay...

. In comparison to its arable land, Norfolk's pastures and meadows were less productive.

As with the rest of the country, the Church was central to mediaeval life in Norfolk. Far more mediaeval parish churches were built than in any other county in England – Norwich alone once had sixty-two churches. Over time the numbers have slowly declined, due to depopulation, competition or local reorganisation. Many new monastic communities were established during the Middle Ages. Extensive remains of several religious houses can be seen around Norfolk, such as at North Creake

Creake Abbey

Creake Abbey is a ruined abbey in Norfolk, England, situated alongside the River Burn and a mile to the north of the village of North Creake. The abbey church was dedicated to Saint Mary....

, Binham

Binham Priory

St Mary's Priory, Binham, or Binham Priory, is a ruined Benedictine priory located in the village of Binham in the English county of Norfolk. Today the nave of the much larger priory church has become the Church of St. Mary and the Holy Cross and is still used as a place of worship...

, Little Walsingham, Castle Acre

Castle Acre Priory

Castle Acre Priory, in the village of Castle Acre, Norfolk, England, is thought to have been founded in 1089 by William de Warenne the son the 1st Earl of Surrey who had founded England's first Cluniac priory at Lewes in 1077. The order originated from Burgundy...

and Thetford Priory

Thetford Priory

Thetford Priory is a Cluniac Priory located at Thetford, Norfolk, England.One of the most important East Anglian monasteries, it was founded in 1103 by Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk and dedicated to Our Lady....

.
Over twenty castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

s were built in Norfolk during the Middle Ages, the most impressive being Norwich Castle

Norwich Castle

, built soon after the Norman Conquest. Many castles, such as those at Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...

and Lynn

Lynn

Lynn commonly refers to:* Lynn , a given name* Lynn , a surnameLynn may also refer to- Places :United States* Lynn, Alabama* Lynn, Arkansas* Lynn, California* Lynn, Indiana* Lynn, Massachusetts** Lynn...

, no longer exist: most early castles were small in size and would have been timber-built. The remains of stone castles in Norfolk include those at Castle Rising, Castle Acre

Castle Acre Castle

Castle Acre Castle is the remains of a motte-and-bailey castle, with extensive earthworks, at Castle Acre, in the English county of Norfolk . It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a Grade I listed building....

and Buckenham

Buckenham Castle

At Buckenham, Norfolk there are the remains of two castles: .-Old castle:All that remains today of what was a Norman castle are the remnants of the earthworks and some traces of a stone curtain wall...

: numerous examples of earthwork remains still exist.
The Norfolk Broads

The Broads

The Broads are a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Broads, and some surrounding land were constituted as a special area with a level of protection similar to a UK National Park by The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act of 1988...

owe their existence to the large-scale extraction of peat

Peat

and clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

during the Middle Ages. They were once deep pits, up to 15 feet (4.6 m) in depth, from which an enormous amount of peat was dug over a period of centuries. Peat extraction may have begun during the Anglo-Saxon period, but the first evidence of the industry in Norfolk is from mediaeval abbey records. John of Oxnead is the first chronicler to record the major floods that recurred during this period, as the sea breached the vulnerable east coast and devastated the land. As a result of flooding, the extraction of peat declined and the records change from peat-digging accounts to descriptions of fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

, marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

, fisheries

Fishery

Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...

and the importing of sea-coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

from the north-east of England. Over a long period the battle to obtain peat and clay from the pits was steadily lost, as they become water-logged and then permanently flooded and all memory of the origin of the new 'broads' was lost.

In the wars between King John

John of England

John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

and his barons Roger Bigod garrisoned Norwich Castle

Norwich Castle

against the king, who in 1216 on his retreat from Lynn lost his baggage in The Wash.

Norfolk returned members to parliament in 1290, and in 1298 the county and the boroughs of Kings Lynn, Norwich and Great Yarmouth returned each two members.

The story of Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich is regarded as one of the most important English mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life aside from her writings, including the...

(1342 – c.1429) also dates to this period. She is noted as being the first woman to have written a book in English.

The Battle of North Walsham

Battle of North Walsham

The Battle of North Walsham was a mediaeval battle fought on 25 or 26 June 1381, near the town of North Walsham in the English county of Norfolk, in which a large group of rebellious local peasants was confronted by the heavily armed forces of Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich...

occurred on June 25 or 26th 1381. It marked the end of military resistance in Norfolk during the Peasants' Revolt

Peasants' Revolt

The Peasants' Revolt, Wat Tyler's Rebellion, or the Great Rising of 1381 was one of a number of popular revolts in late medieval Europe and is a major event in the history of England. Tyler's Rebellion was not only the most extreme and widespread insurrection in English history but also the...

. The rebels led by the 'King of the Commons' Geoffrey Litster were defeated by a force led by Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich

Bishop of Norwich

The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers most of the County of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The see is in the City of Norwich where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided...

: the site is one of only five known battlefields in Norfolk.

Another legend from Norfolk dating to this period is the Pedlar of Swaffham

Pedlar of Swaffham

The Pedlar of Swaffham is an English folktale from Swaffham, Norfolk. The following text is taken from English fairy and other folk tales, 1906, which in turn refers to the Diary of Abraham dela Pryme, 1699:-Source:The Pedlar of Swaffham...

. The legacy of this tale can be seen to this day in the choir area of the church. Here stand two wooden pews. One has the carvings of a pedlar and his dog, the other of a woman looking over the door of a shop.

Ketts Rebellion (1549)

After the enclosures of local landowners around Norfolk were destroyed, thousands of people joined Robert Kett in a march on Norwich, forming a large organised camp at Mousehold Heath

Mousehold Heath

Mousehold Heath is an area of heathland and woodland which lies in north east Norwich, England and a designated Local Nature Reserve . It is now mostly covered by broad-leaf semi-natural woodland, although some areas of heath remain and are actively managed....

. After a failed attempt by the authorities to disperse them on the offer of a general pardon, Norwich's city gates

City Gates

-Track listing:# "Mingus Metamorphosis" 13:20# "Samba For Now" – 8:31# "Thank You Very Much Mr. Monk" – 7:57# "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" – 5:18# "City Gates" – 7:56...

were shut to the rebels, who nevertheless managed to breach the defences and occupy the city. In London, the government responded to the crisis by sending the Marquess of Northampton

William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton

William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr, KG was the son of Sir Thomas Parr and his wife, Maud Green, daughter of Sir Thomas Green, of Broughton and Greens Norton...

to regain Norwich, who initially entered the city unopposed, but was forced by the rebels to withdraw with his army to Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

.

From this point, Kett was less successful. He failed in an attempt to spread the rebellion to Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth

. The Earl of Warwick

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...

reached Norwich and gained entry to the city with a large force. Although outnumbered, Kett's men rejected an offer of pardon and after bloody street fighting they were forced to return to Mousehold Heath. Kett made an attempt to recapture the city, but the arrival of mercenaries

Mercenary

A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...

in support of Warwick forced him to abandon the camp. In a bloody pitched battle outside the city, the rebels were routed and Kett was captured.

Norfolk during the English Civil War

The county supported Parliament during the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, although there was a strong element of Royalist support. The defences of Norwich and the main ports were strengthened and in December 1642 the Eastern Association

Eastern Association

The Eastern Association of counties was a Parliamentarian or 'Roundhead' army during the English Civil War. It was formed from a number of pro-Parliamentary militias in the east of England in 1642, including a troop of cavalry led by Oliver Cromwell...

was formed to place the region on a war footing, but little blood was shed in Norfolk, which was held by Parliament throughout the war. In September 1643, an anti-Papist

Papist

Papist is a term or an anti-Catholic slur, referring to the Roman Catholic Church, its teachings, practices, or adherents. The term was coined during the English Reformation to denote a person whose loyalties were to the Pope, rather than to the Church of England...

mob caused considerable damage to Norwich Cathedral

Norwich Cathedral

, which was occupied by troops the following year. According to Joseph Hall,

"In a kind of sacrilegious and profane procession all the organ pipes, vestments, both copes, together with the wooden cross which had been newly sawn down from over the Green Yard pulpit, and the service books and singing books that could be had, were carried to the fire in the public market place. Near the public cross all these monuments of idolatry must be sacrificed to the fire..."

The only serious fighting in Norfolk during the civil war was at King's Lynn

King's Lynn

King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....

, where Royalist sympathies were strongest. In April 1643 Parliament investigated King's Lynn and ordered the detention of the town's prominent Royalists. That August, on the assurance that Royalist forces would soon arrive, the town declared openly for the King. It was besieged by the Earl of Manchester

Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester

Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.-Life:...

and suffered damage from bombardment, but Parliament's attempts to raise sufficient forces was beset by difficulties and the town surrendered only after Manchester declared that on 16 September he would storm the defences. Any Royalist hopes of assisting the King in Norfolk ended.

The appointment of the royalist John Utting as mayor of Norwich in 1647 angered local Puritans, who managed to obtain orders for him to be detained in London. On 24 April 1648 enfuriated townsfolk in Norwich rioted and attacked the homes of prominent Puritans. The news of the arrival of troops to restore order incensed the people and in their search for arms they stormed the County Committee headquarters. During the struggle, the building blew up, causing immense distruction to the city and great loss of life.

18th century Norfolk

1785 and 1786 saw the first Aviation Activity in the county of Norfolk when several manned gas balloon flights were made from Quantrell's Gardens in Norwich.

19th century Norfolk

In the middle of the nineteenth century, over a hundred Norfolk families owned estates greater than 2000 acre (8.1 km²; 3.1 sq mi) in size, and there were numerous smaller landowners in the county. After 1875, a long depression

Depression (economics)

In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as part of the modern business cycle....

in English agriculture and industry set in, which reduced estate incomes and put severe pressure on their owners, a situation made worse by the accumulation of debts due to family settlements or extravagant expenditure, often sustained over generations, and the introduction of Death Duties

Inheritance Tax (United Kingdom)

In the United Kingdom, Inheritance Tax is a transfer tax. It was introduced with effect from 18 March 1986 replacing Capital Transfer Tax.-History:...

in 1894. Endebted landowners were forced to sell their possessions, let their estates for shooting

Shooting

Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...

, reduce staff levels or take up residence elsewhere. Estates became neglected as their owners strived to save money and many estates disappeared as farms, parks and woodland were sold off and hall

Hall

In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...

s were left to decay. After 1880 many larger estates changed hands, were broken up or reduced in size as land was acquired by farmers and businessmen from outside the county. A housing boon during the 1890s driven by a dramatic increase in Norfolk's population enabled some landowners on the outskirts of towns and coastal resorts

Seaside resort

A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...

to profit from the sale of their land.

20th century Norfolk

The First World War was significant to the county of Norfolk in a number of ways. Large numbers of men of fighting age were called up to join local regiments that were sent to fight in France, virtually every Norfolk village has a war memorial that records the names of those who lost their lives.

The war was the first time that significant aviation activity spread throughout the county with a large number of aerodromes and landing grounds being built. Significantly Pulham Market

Pulham Market

Pulham Market and its sister village Pulham St Mary are situated approximately 9 miles north of Diss in Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 999 in 443 households as of the 2001 census....

in the south of the county was one of the few locations where airships were stationed. Boulton and Paul in Norwich and Savages of Kings Lynn were both involved in aircraft production each company producing many hundreds of aircraft for the war effort, Boulton and Paul exists to the present time as a joinery company and remained in aviation as late as the 1960s.

As well as Boulton and Paul, the firm of Lawrence Scott & Electromotors was also involved in the war effort, providing shells as well as electrical motors and other components for the Navy.

The county was one of the first places on earth bombed from the air when German Zeppelin

Zeppelin

A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...

airships raided the county a number of times. Late in the war Zeppelin L70 was shot down off the Norfolk Coast by Major Egbert Cadbury of the Royal Air Force, onboard the doomed Zeppelin was Fregatenkapitan Peter Strasser

Peter Strasser

Peter Strasser was chief commander of German Imperial Navy Zeppelins during World War I, the main force operating bombing campaigns from 1915 to 1917. He was killed when flying the war's last airship raid over Great Britain....

, commander of the German Naval Airship Service, all on board were killed, a number of the men being buried in churchyards along the coast.

External links

Picture Norfolk - an online archive of images of Norfolk life (Norfolk County Council Library & Information Service) - factsheet
Norfolk Museums - Research – The research section of Norfolk Museums website including articles, collections and related topics, produced by Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service
Eastern Daily Press – Norfolk history pages
Faden's Map of Norfolk (1797), with a digital redrawing by Andrew Macnair
Virtual Norfolk, a searchable teaching and learning web site (containing documentary sources and "interpretations of the county's history")
A history of textiles production by Norwich Textiles

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Etymology

Paleolithic to Chalcolithic

Bronze Age

Iron Age

Roman Norfolk

Occupation and settlement

The kingdom of the East Angles

Mediæval Norfolk

Mediaeval Norwich

Rural Norfolk during the Middle Ages

Ketts Rebellion (1549)

Norfolk during the English Civil War

18th century Norfolk

19th century Norfolk

20th century Norfolk

See also

Early histories of Norfolk and Norwich

External links