Norfolk Know-How
The wool trade made medieval Norfolk the most prosperous and populous county in England, which allowed for the construction of more than 1,000 churches across the county and ensured that Norwich was the nation’s second largest city for 700 years. Today, the county has 659 medieval churches, the highest concentration found anywhere in the world. Of these, 125 possess round towers, which is more than any other county in the UK.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Cromer has the tallest tower (160ft) in the county and, at 23,000 sq ft, the Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth is the largest parish church in England.
The Norfolk Broads are not a natural phenomenon, but the result of flooded medieval peat excavations – work was undertaken by local monasteries. At one point Norwich Cathedral took 320,000 tons of peat a year. It was not until the 1950s that the true nature of the Broads was uncovered.
Norfolk is the driest county in the UK. Norwich is the UK’s most easterly city.
There are two place names in Norfolk with only three letters, Oby and Hoe. And there are two villages beginning with Q: Quidenham and Quarles.
The Norfolk coast was the first part of Britain settled by early man – at that time the area was connected by a land bridge to mainland Europe.
In 2000, a local man walking his dog by the sea came across a hand axe in the mud. Now known as the Happisburgh axe, it was made 700,000 years ago, some 200,000 years earlier than any previously discovered artefact. Within England, Norfolk is numbered among the very few counties that do not contain any stretches of motorway. In fact, before the advent of the railway, it took less time to travel from Norwich to Amsterdam by sea than it did to London by road.
The Black Death had a massive effect upon the county. In 1579, an outbreak killed a third of Norwich’s population. Norfolk is one of the very few counties in which the population is lower today than it was in the early 14th century.
At 315ft high, the spire of Norwich Cathedral is second only to that of Salisbury. As most of the county consists of either fenland or chalk, the stone required for construction was unavailable locally. However, medieval, wool-rich Norwich was able to foot the cost of importing honey-coloured Caen limestone from Normandy.
The Norfolk accent is, while famous, possessed of a number of nuances that trip up all but a native speaker. FOND (Friends Of Norfolk Dialect) was created in 1999 to record the county’s old words and expressions. Norfolkese, as it is sometimes known, is notable for its rich vocabulary of animal names, including pishmire (ant), bishy-barneybee (ladybird), jasper (wasp) and hamser (heron). The words kewter (money), pingle (to play with your food), chimbley (chimney) and raw (angry) are also part of the Norfolk dialect.
The northern pool frog, England’s rarest amphibian, possesses, quite bizarrely, a uniquely Norfolk-accented croak. A native of the Fens, it was driven to extinction in the 1990s, but was reintroduced into Norfolk in 2005 from Sweden, after recordings of mating frogs were analysed and scientists identified a distinctive Norfolk inflection.
It is from Norfolk that the eponymous terrier originates, although its name went through a number of permutations. It was known originally as the Cantab Terrier, when it became fashionable among students to keep the breed in their rooms at Cambridge University. They were later referred to as Trumpington Terriers, named for the street in which the breed was further developed, before being registered as the Norwich Terrier by the English Kennel Club in 1932. Finally, in 1964, the dropear variety was reclassified as its own breed: the Norfolk Terrier.
The title Duke of Norfolk confers upon the incumbent the status of premier duke and, as the title is inherited alongside the earldom of Arundel, the location of the family’s residence in West Sussex, also that of premier earl. The current Duke is Edward Fitzalan-Howard. The Howards’ lineage can be traced back to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The Dukes of Norfolk have historically been Catholic, which has seen them labelled recusants at certain points in English history.
A number of grand historical homes, gardens and houses are to be found in Norfolk, such as Houghton Hall, a magnificent country house built in grand Palladian style for Sir Robert Walpole, officially the first prime minister in English history. Other notable sites and good homes include Walsingham Abbey grounds, Hindringham Hall, Raveningham Hall, Raynham Hall, Bylaugh Hall and Mannington Gardens.
Norfolk’s famous sons and daughters
- Boudicca, Iceni Queen
- Anne Boleyn, Queen of England
- Lord Horatio Nelson, Vice-Admiral
- Edith Cavell, First World War nurse
- Philip Pullman, author
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Sir John Mills, actor
- Rupert Everett, actor
- Olivia Colman, actress
- Abraham Lincoln had familial roots in Norfolk, while Arthur Conan Doyle is thought to have been inspired to write The Hound Of The Baskervilles when a guest at Cromer Hall.
The Queen and Sandringham
Sandringham has been a residence of the British monarchy since 1860, when it was bought by Edward VII, then Prince of Wales. His grandson George VI, father of the current Queen, was both born and died within the estate. Like Balmoral, Sandringham is not part of the Crown Estate, but rather the private property of the Royal Family. Anmer Hall is situated on the Sandringham Estate and in 2013 was allocated to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as a home in which to raise their young family.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Cromer has the tallest tower (160ft) in the county and, at 23,000 sq ft, the Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth is the largest parish church in England.
The Norfolk Broads are not a natural phenomenon, but the result of flooded medieval peat excavations – work was undertaken by local monasteries. At one point Norwich Cathedral took 320,000 tons of peat a year. It was not until the 1950s that the true nature of the Broads was uncovered.
Norfolk is the driest county in the UK. Norwich is the UK’s most easterly city.
There are two place names in Norfolk with only three letters, Oby and Hoe. And there are two villages beginning with Q: Quidenham and Quarles.
The Norfolk coast was the first part of Britain settled by early man – at that time the area was connected by a land bridge to mainland Europe.
In 2000, a local man walking his dog by the sea came across a hand axe in the mud. Now known as the Happisburgh axe, it was made 700,000 years ago, some 200,000 years earlier than any previously discovered artefact. Within England, Norfolk is numbered among the very few counties that do not contain any stretches of motorway. In fact, before the advent of the railway, it took less time to travel from Norwich to Amsterdam by sea than it did to London by road.
The Black Death had a massive effect upon the county. In 1579, an outbreak killed a third of Norwich’s population. Norfolk is one of the very few counties in which the population is lower today than it was in the early 14th century.
At 315ft high, the spire of Norwich Cathedral is second only to that of Salisbury. As most of the county consists of either fenland or chalk, the stone required for construction was unavailable locally. However, medieval, wool-rich Norwich was able to foot the cost of importing honey-coloured Caen limestone from Normandy.
The Norfolk accent is, while famous, possessed of a number of nuances that trip up all but a native speaker. FOND (Friends Of Norfolk Dialect) was created in 1999 to record the county’s old words and expressions. Norfolkese, as it is sometimes known, is notable for its rich vocabulary of animal names, including pishmire (ant), bishy-barneybee (ladybird), jasper (wasp) and hamser (heron). The words kewter (money), pingle (to play with your food), chimbley (chimney) and raw (angry) are also part of the Norfolk dialect.
The northern pool frog, England’s rarest amphibian, possesses, quite bizarrely, a uniquely Norfolk-accented croak. A native of the Fens, it was driven to extinction in the 1990s, but was reintroduced into Norfolk in 2005 from Sweden, after recordings of mating frogs were analysed and scientists identified a distinctive Norfolk inflection.
It is from Norfolk that the eponymous terrier originates, although its name went through a number of permutations. It was known originally as the Cantab Terrier, when it became fashionable among students to keep the breed in their rooms at Cambridge University. They were later referred to as Trumpington Terriers, named for the street in which the breed was further developed, before being registered as the Norwich Terrier by the English Kennel Club in 1932. Finally, in 1964, the dropear variety was reclassified as its own breed: the Norfolk Terrier.
The title Duke of Norfolk confers upon the incumbent the status of premier duke and, as the title is inherited alongside the earldom of Arundel, the location of the family’s residence in West Sussex, also that of premier earl. The current Duke is Edward Fitzalan-Howard. The Howards’ lineage can be traced back to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The Dukes of Norfolk have historically been Catholic, which has seen them labelled recusants at certain points in English history.
A number of grand historical homes, gardens and houses are to be found in Norfolk, such as Houghton Hall, a magnificent country house built in grand Palladian style for Sir Robert Walpole, officially the first prime minister in English history. Other notable sites and good homes include Walsingham Abbey grounds, Hindringham Hall, Raveningham Hall, Raynham Hall, Bylaugh Hall and Mannington Gardens.
Norfolk’s famous sons and daughters
- Boudicca, Iceni Queen
- Anne Boleyn, Queen of England
- Lord Horatio Nelson, Vice-Admiral
- Edith Cavell, First World War nurse
- Philip Pullman, author
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Sir John Mills, actor
- Rupert Everett, actor
- Olivia Colman, actress
- Abraham Lincoln had familial roots in Norfolk, while Arthur Conan Doyle is thought to have been inspired to write The Hound Of The Baskervilles when a guest at Cromer Hall.
The Queen and Sandringham
Sandringham has been a residence of the British monarchy since 1860, when it was bought by Edward VII, then Prince of Wales. His grandson George VI, father of the current Queen, was both born and died within the estate. Like Balmoral, Sandringham is not part of the Crown Estate, but rather the private property of the Royal Family. Anmer Hall is situated on the Sandringham Estate and in 2013 was allocated to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as a home in which to raise their young family.