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Pre
1066
Prior to the Doomsday Book and the Norman conquest of
1066 Norfolk history is in the main uncharted. There is however ample
evidence of Roman occupation in the area, such as the flint workings at Grimes
Graves, the Roman camps at Brancaster and Castle Rising, numerous
“straight as an arrow” Roman roads like Peddars
Way and
Watling Street and remains of forts at Thetford and else where.
There is also much evidence of the Danes occupation of the area with many
towns and villages bearing names that have Danish origins. Horning, Holt,
Darum - Dereham, Kjelling – Kelling, Horsted – Horstead to name
but a few.
1066-
the middle ages
The
Domesday book lists many towns, villages and small settlements in Norfolk
and an unusual number of “free men” who were independent land owners
and small freeholders..
Norfolk
was divided up amongst William the Conquerors followers. In all, the 1.4
million acres that make up the county were divided roughly into, on
average, manors of 800 acres. The Normans built themselves substantial
fortified homes and castles in the area, the most famous and important
being Norwich Castle, built
by Ralph de Guader, the Earl of the East, on the site of an original
built by Canute. It was built at such speed, that by 1074 he defended it
in a rebellion against the king. He, not surprisingly, lost albeit
honorably and the castle passed in to the hands of Robert Bigod. Another
large Castle was built, by William de Warren, at Castle
Acre near Swaffham and its ruins are
still to be seen to this day. Many of the other castles built over the
following centuries also have remains that are worth a visit, in
particular Caister Castle circa 1415, Baconsthorpe Castle, and the manor
houses of East Barsham and Outwell.
From 1066 to the 1300’s the rich and pious in Norfolk helped build and
financed many monasteries in the area. Nearly every great family founded
at least one. This swelled the numbers of those already existing before the
Norman invasion. By the 13th century there were around 80
monastic establishments in Norfolk alone. The monastery at Walsingham
can trace its origins to 1061 and St
Benets Abbey near Ludham is believed
to have been founded by Canute around 645 ad. Sadly nothing is now left of
this except some rather forlorn walls and an arch. But in its time the
monks were all-powerful in the area and ran amongst other things, all the
peat diggings in Broadland and they oversaw and profited from the farming
and other industry for a large area around the abbey.
Norfolk also has more than its fair share of churches dating back to the
middle ages. In fact there are over 700 churches and parishes and this
equates to one every 2.7 sq miles compared with the national average of
1 to every 5.1 sq miles. The reason why is not altogether clear,
but the result is that Norfolk has an unusual number of very fine
buildings. Particular mention should be made of the church at Salle
near Reepham. It’s the largest and most splendid parish church in the
county yet is in one of the smallest villages! Others, such as Worstead,
built between 1379 and 1450, owe
their size to the wool trade and wealth of their benefactors.
After the rebellion in Norwich in 1074 Norfolk, apart from building and
towns expanding, remained fairly quiet until the mid 13th
century and the persecution of the Jews, and in 1272 a riot by the monks
and citizens of the area. From here we travel to the mid 1300’s when the
black death made its first of two appearances in Norfolk killing a large
percentage of the population. Wat Tyler led the rebellion of 1381 (The
Peasants Revolt) which was caused by the taxes levied at the time and in
particular the Poll tax. The
rebellion caused widespread unrest in Norfolk, although short lived. The
rebels gathered at Thetford collecting together men from Brandon and Diss
before moving across Breckland towards Norwich where they assembled on Mousehold
Heath and then onward into the city
where they killed Sir Reginald Eccles, a JP and Sir Robert de Salle. They
then moved on to Great Yarmouth plundering and burning as they went.
Within 2 weeks the uprising was fragmented and largely confined to the
north east of the county. The rebellion was finally quashed in Norfolk a
few days later near North Walsham
and the leader Geoffrey Lister was tried and executed.
16th
century
By
the 16th century Norwich
was second only to London in size and wealth. In 1520 it had a population
of around 8500 and by the 1570’s it had swelled to 15,000. The plague
however took its toll in 1579-1580 killing around 5500 people and the
cities population then remained constant at around 11,000 for the next
century. At around the same time Great Yarmouth had a population of over
4000, as did Kings Lynn.
In 1549 Robert Kett a landowner and of some wealth led an uprising against
enclosures and the unreasonable demands made by lords of manors who were
enforcing fees out of their tenants and retaining bondmen rather than
allowing them freedom.
This is now know as Kett's
Rebellion
The
rebellion made up of over 10,000 men camped on Mousehold Heath just
outside Norwich and blockaded the city . During July and August Kett and
his men took the city and successfully defended it against the Marquis of
Northampton and the Kings army. However the Earl of Warwick with more of
the King’s army and several thousand mercenaries arrived outside
Norwich. Fighting continued for many days and after a battle at Dussindale
(Thorpe St Andrew). Kett was finally captured. He was executed in the
December at Norwich Castle.
To
this day an Oak tree stands on the old A11 at Wymondham
believed to be where Kett and his
followers from surrounding towns and villages met and swore an oath.
1500 - 1750
By
the 1500’s Norfolk was divisible into 5 regions so far as population and
industry were concerned.
The area to the west (later to become the fens) was still mainly marshland
and was less populated. Some of the area was grassland and supported the
grazing of bullocks and sheep
To the north the area was mainly heathland and today there are still large
areas of heath at Kelling and else where. However the land varied in the
region and crops were grown and were rotated between corn and grass, which
supported sheep. Much of the area was enclosed (fenced).
To the south was Breckland, a poor sandy area that supported sheep and
some cropping
The North East area
was more highly populated the land was fertile producing high quality
grain and good beef cattle. The long established and wealthy weaving towns
of Worsted, Aylsham
and Cawston
were in the area together with the City of Norwich and the port of Great
Yarmouth
The south east from
Great Yarmouth and inland to Diss was known for its rural textile industry
and dairy farming.
Many foreign immigrants settled in Norfolk during the period most of whom
were Dutch and some French all driven out of their homeland, the Low
Counties, by the Duke of Alva.
The fortifications
along the Norfolk coast were strengthened with a fortress near Kings Lynn
and additional fortifications at Weybourne,
Sheringham, Mundesley, Winterton,
and Yarmouth. Most of this strengthening was in preparation of the Spanish
Armada fleet, which was defeated long before it reached Norfolk’s coast.
Many of Norfolk’s great houses were built or extended during this period
financed by new found wealth due to increasing trade and industry and the
redistribution of monastic lands.
Many were built of brick such as the halls at Great Witchingham ( now the
home to Bernard Matthews turkeys) Great Melton, and Barnham Broom,
other superb 17th century homes include Blickling
Hall circa 1620
and Holkham Hall
circa 1750.
Formal education began to
become more popular towards the end of the 18th century
although it was mostly for boys with girls receiving little or no
education in the 3 r’s. It was mainly on a fee paying basis although
some free education was given in some schools. And some charity schools
were founded..
1750
– 1900
By now
Norfolk was well established as a farming county. Most of the land
was owned and farmed by the aristocracy and their tenants. Indeed the
Holkham estate alone covered in excess of 43,000 acres. Holkham together
with the other large estates began a policy of rebuilding and
refurbishing. Whole new farms complete with outbuildings were built in a
more substantial manner than before. Even new villages with churches and
schools sprang up to house the farm staff. This was truly the hey-day of
the big estates. By now virtually all the land in Norfolk had been
enclosed and was farmed for arable crops or was fenced for grazing.
Roads rather than tracks and cartways began to radiate from the towns and
towards the end of the1700’s the tarmacadam road began to appear
although anything other than the roads between main towns were still cart
tracks.
During the early1800’s the textile industry in Norfolk began to dwindle
and with the dawning of the industrial revolution the major industrial
towns where in the
country. These new populated areas needed feeding and Norfolk with its
fertile soils was ideal for growing the ever increasing amounts of wheat
and barley
It was not until the 1850’s that the majority of Norfolk saw the age of
the train and being one of the last counties to benefit from this new mode
of transport the network was not completed until 1906.
The rail network enabled market towns to become the centres for maltings,
iron foundries and feed mills from them flour and Norfolk’s agricultural
products were distributed throughout the country and machinery needed to
tend the land was brought into the county.
During the first half of
the 19th century Norfolk’s farmers became more and more
prosperous however this was not to last. In the second half of the century
cheaper grain began to be imported from America and Norfolk’s farmers
began to suffer. People began to leave the country in favour of the towns
and industrial areas. Except for the best-run estates farming went in to
decline and became less intensive and the fields and hedgerows became
overgrown and neglected.
The coastal
towns of Great Yarmouth, Wells
and Kings Lynn flourished as fishing
ports, the herring industry at Great Yarmouth grew to enormous proportions
and all the coastal towns had their own fleets of inshore vessels fishing
for crabs, cockles, mussels, lobsters and shrimps. The boats were built
locally and the shipbuilding yards in the towns and coastal villages
expanded.
The “holiday maker” industry began to come to the forefront with the
coming of the railways. Until then the resorts could only be reached by
sea or road.
The Norfolk Broads too became a
popular holiday destination.
1900
- 1920
Agriculture
in Norfolk had a temporary reprieve at the onset of war in 1914 but this
was short lived and immediately after the Great War many of the estates
and other land changed hands.
When war was declared Norfolk found itself very vulnerable both to attack
and bombardment from the sea and from invasion. Most of the coastal
defences built in the preceding centuries had been demolished and after
the German navy attacked Great Yarmouth there was a sudden flurry of gun
battery building and trench digging all along the coastline. Concrete
“pillboxes” were built both on the coast and inland to defend the
county against invasion.
1921
– 1939
The
period between the two wars saw major changes to Norfolk’s agriculture.
Sugar beet became a major crop and was grown under contract to the new
sugar beet factory built at Cantley.
Sheep farming declined and was replaced by dairy farming; by 1939 the
county was a major milk producing area.
The military defences
of the First World War had been comprehensibly dismantled and only the
pill boxes remained when on 3rd September 1939 war was
declared.
1939
–1945
War
again made enormous changes to the face of Norfolk. The county was to
become known as “The flight deck of Britain”. RAF stations and
concrete runways appeared throughout the county. By the end of the war
there were some 37 active airfields in the county. Many remain in some
form to this day others have been returned to farmland. Some, such as RAF
Coltishall, are still very active and
the airfield of Horsham St Faiths is now Norwich International Airport.
Extensive defences
were constructed both all along the coast and inland. Not only was it
necessary to protect against invasion but also attack from the air. Some
14 coastal batteries were installed armed with searchlights and 6-inch
guns.
Norfolk received its fair share of raids during the war and very few
places escaped damage in some form or other by 1945
Arable production was increased, every bit of land not used for other war
purposes was put under the plough and Norfolk was farmed more intensively
than ever before.
1946
–1970
Investment
and grants meant that with peace came prosperity to Norfolk’s farming
community and with modern tools and artificial fertilisers farming by the
early 1950 was again a very profitable way of life. However modern methods
meant that less manual workers were required. In little more than 10 years
the numbers halved.
In 1953 on The 31st January flooding extensively damaged the Norfolk
coast. The county had been subjected to flooding many times before over
the centuries but never on such a scale. Force 10 winds and exceptionally
high spring tides resulted in the sea defences all along the coast being
breached and villages such as Salthouse
and Cley were under several feet of
water and apart from property damage large areas of
grazing were flooded. 
In the Heacham area 65 people were
drowned. At Kings Lynn much of the town was flooded and 15 died the
picture was repeated all along the coast.
The coastal defences of Norfolk although repaired and reinforced are still
vulnerable to attack and in
many places remain very weak, shingle banks and decaying wooden groyns
are all that protects much of the coast line.
1970
–on
From the
1970’s Britain including Norfolk suddenly woke up to the fact that
unless measures were taken to protect our historical sites, buildings and
our unique flora and fauna much of it would be lost forever. In 1970 there
were some 5,000 listed buildings in Norfolk by the mid 80’s there in
excess of 10,000. In recent years the unique Norfolk broads have been
declared Britain’s newest National Park.
Norfolk
now has numerous stately homes open to the public. Beautiful broads and
rivers that are beginning to recover from the onslaught of tourism and are
looked after by the Broads Authority.
Picturesque villages that through strict planning regulations will remain
typical Norfolk villages
It is a county steeped in history that has managed, just in time in many
cases, and sadly to late in others to save enough of its heritage to be
well worth a visit.
Please
also visit:
www.norfolkancestors.org
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