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| Norwich is a city in East Anglia, in Eastern England.
It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk.
The suburban area expands beyond its boundary, with extensive suburban
areas outside the city on the western, northern and eastern sides,
including Thorpe St. Andrew on the eastern side. The Parliamentary
seats cross over into adjacent local government districts. 129,500
(est 2006) people live in the Norwich City Council area. Norwich is
the fourth most densely populated Local Authority District within
the Eastern Region with 3,319 people per square kilometre (8,592 per
square mile). |
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| There are two suggested models of development for Norwich.
It is possible that three separate early Anglo-Saxon settlements,
one on the north of the river and two either side on the south, joined
together as they grew or that one Anglo-Saxon settlement, on the north
of the river, emerged in the mid 7th century after the abandonment
of the previous three. The ancient city was a thriving centre for
trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 AD when it was raided and
burnt by Swein Forkbeard the Viking. Mercian coins and shards of pottery
from the Rhineland dating to the 8th century suggest that long distance
trade was happening long before this. Between 924-939 AD Norwich became
fully established as a town due to the fact that it had its own mint.
The word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this
period, in the reign of King |
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| Athelstan. The Vikings were a strong cultural influence
in Norwich for 40-50 years at the end of the 9th century, setting
up an Anglo-Scandinavian district towards the north end of present
day King Street. At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one
of the largest in England. The Domesday Book states that it had approximately
twenty-five churches and a population of between five and ten thousand.
It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the
site of the Saxon market place and the later Norman cathedral. Norwich
continued to be a major centre for trade, the River Wensum being a
convenient export route to the sea. Quern stones, and other artifacts,
from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations
in Norwich city centre which date from the 11th century onwards. The
main area of Saxon settlement south of the Wensum was destroyed by
the construction of the Norman castle during the 1070s. The Normans
established a new focus of settlement around the Castle and the area
to the west of it: this became known as the "New" or "French" borough,
centred on the Norman''''s own Market Place which survives to the present
day as the City''''s Provision Market. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, then
Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral. The chief
building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen
in Normandy. To transport the building stone to the cathedral site,
a canal was cut from the river (from the site of present-day Pulls
Ferry), all the way up to the east wall. Herbert de Losinga then moved
his See there to what became the cathedral church for the Diocese
of Norwich. The bishop of Norwich still signs himself Norvic. |
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| By the middle of the 14th century the city
walls, about two and a half miles (4 km) long, had been completed.
These, along with the river, enclosed a larger area than that of the
City of London. However, when the city walls were constructed it was
made illegal to build outside them, inhibiting expansion of the city.[citation
needed] In 1144, the Jews of Norwich were accused of ritual murder
after a boy (William of Norwich) was found dead with stab wounds.
This was the first incidence of blood libel in England. The story
was turned into a cult, William acquiring the status of martyr and
William was subsequently canonized. The cult of St. William attracted
large numbers of pilgrims, bringing wealth to the local church. On
February 6, 1190, all the Jews of Norwich were massacred except for
a few who found refuge in the castle. The wealth generated by |
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| the wool trade throughout the Middle Ages financed the
construction of many fine churches and Norwich still has more medieval
churches than any other city in Western Europe north of the Alps.
Throughout this period Norwich established wide-ranging trading links
with other parts of Europe, its markets stretching from Scandinavia
to Spain. Around this time, the city was made a county corporate and
became capital of one of the most densely populated and prosperous
counties of England. The great immigration of 1567 brought a substantial
Walloon community of weavers to Norwich. Norwich has been the home
of various dissident minorities, notably the French Huguenot and the
Belgian Walloon communities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
These immigrants were known locally as ''''Strangers''''. The merchant''''s
house - now a museum - which was their earliest base in the city is
still known as ''''Strangers'''' Hall''''. It seems that the Strangers were
integrated into the local community without a great deal of animosity,
at least among the business fraternity who had the most to gain from
their skills. The arrival of the Strangers in Norwich bolstered trade
with mainland Europe, fostering a movement toward religious reform
and radical politics in the city. |
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| The eastern counties were profoundly Parliamentarian
in nature and Norwich followed suit, at the cost of some discomfort
to the Lord Mayor, a Royalist, and the bishop, Joseph Hall, a moderate
but targeted because of his position. The Norwich Canary was first
introduced into England by Flemish refugees fleeing from Spanish persecution
in the 1500s. They brought with them not only advanced techniques
in textile working but also their pet canaries, which they began to
breed locally. The canary is the emblem of the city''''s football team,
Norwich City F.C., nicknamed "The Canaries". In 1797 Thomas Bignold,
a 36-year-old wine merchant and banker, founded the first Norwich
Union Society. Some years earlier, when he moved from Kent to Norwich,
Bignold had been unable to find anyone willing to insure him against
the threat from highwaymen. With the entrepreneurial |
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| thought that nothing was impossible, and aware that
in a city built largely of wood the threat of fire was uppermost in
people''''s minds, Bignold formed the "Norwich Union Society for the
Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire". The new business,
which became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office, was
a "mutual" enterprise. Norwich Union was later to become the country''''s
largest insurance giant. Until the industrial revolution, as the capital
of England''''s most populous and prosperous county, Norwich vied with
Bristol as England''''s second city. Norwich''''s geographical isolation
was such that until 1845 when a railway connection was established,
it was often quicker to travel to Amsterdam by boat than to London.
The railway was introduced to Norwich by Morton Peto, who also built
the line to Great Yarmouth. From 1808 to 1814 Norwich hosted a station
in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in London
to its naval ships in the port of Great Yarmouth. |
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| In the early part of the 20th century Norwich still
had several major manufacturing industries. Among these were the manufacture
of shoes (for example the Start-rite brand), clothing, joinery, and
structural engineering as well as aircraft design and manufacture.
Important employers included Boulton & Paul, Barnards (inventors of
machine produced wire netting), and electrical engineers Laurence
Scott and Electromotors. Norwich also has a long association with
chocolate manufacture, primarily through the local firm of Caley''''s,
which began as a manufacturer and bottler of mineral water and later
diversified into making chocolate and Christmas crackers. Caley''''s
was acquired by Mackintosh in the 1930s. It merged with Rowntree''''s
in 1969 to become Rowntree-Mackintosh; it finally was bought by Nestlé
and closed down in 1996 with all operations moved to York, |
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| ending a 120-year association with Norwich. The factory
existed on the site of what is now the Chapelfield development. Caley''''s
chocolate has since made a reappearance as a brand, and is still produced
in Norwich. HMSO, once the official publishing and stationery arm
of the British government and one of the largest print buyers, printers
and suppliers of office equipment in the UK, moved most of its operations
from London to Norwich in the 1970s. Jarrolds, established in 1810,
was a well-known printer and publisher. Norwich suffered extensive
bomb damage during World War II, affecting large parts of the old
city centre and Victorian terrace housing around the centre. Industry
and the rail infrastructure also suffered. The heaviest raids occurred
on the nights of 27/28th and 29/30 April 1942; as part of the Baedeker
raids (so called because Baedeker''''s series of tourist guides to the
British Isles were used to select propaganda rich targets of cultural
and historic significance rather than strategic importance). Lord
Haw-Haw made reference to the imminent destruction of Norwich''''s new
City Hall (completed in 1938), although in the event it survived unscathed.
Significant targets hit included the Morgan''''s Brewery building, Colman''''s
Wincarnis works, City Station, the Mackintosh chocolate factory, and
shopping areas including St. Stephen''''s Street, St. Benedict''''s Street,
the site of Bonds department store and Curls department store (now
Debenhams). |
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| Norwich was the eighth most prosperous shopping destination
in the UK in 2006. Norwich has an ancient market place, established
by the Normans between 1071 and 1074, which is today the largest six-days-a-week
open-air market in England. The Mall Norwich (Castle Mall until 2007),
a shopping mall designed by local practice Lambert, Scott & Innes
and opened in 1993, presents an ingenious solution to the problem
of sensitively accommodating new retail space in a historic city-centre
environment - the building is largely concealed underground and built
into the side of a hill, with a public park created on its roof in
the area south of the Castle. The new Chapelfield shopping mall has
been built on the site where the Caleys (later Rowntree Mackintosh
and Nestlé) chocolate factory once stood. Chapelfield opened in September
2005, and is described as ''''a major new |
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| shopping experience'''', featuring a new flagship department
store House of Fraser. In August 2006 it was reported by the Javelin
Group that Norwich was one of the top five retail destinations in
the UK, and in October 2006 the city centre was voted the best in
the UK, in a shopping satisfaction survey run by Goldfish Credit Card. |
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| The city''''s economy, originally chiefly industrial with
shoemaking a large sector, has changed throughout the eighties and
nineties to a service-based economy. Norwich Union, an Aviva company,
still dominates these, but has been joined by other insurance and
financial services companies. New developments on the former Boulton
and Paul site include the Riverside entertainment complex with nightclubs
and other venues featuring the usual national leisure brands. Nearby,
the football stadium is being upgraded with more residential property
development alongside the river Wensum. Archant, formerly known as
Eastern Counties Newspapers (ECN) is a national publishing group that
has grown out of the city''''s local newspaper, the Norwich Evening News
and the regional Eastern Daily Press (EDP). Norwich has long been
associated with the manufacture of mustard. Colman''''s was founded in
1814 and continues to operate from its factory at Carrow. |
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| The University of East Anglia on the outskirts of Norwich
was one of the New Universities founded in 1963, following the Robbins
Report. UEA adopted the city''''s motto of independence Do different
and is especially well-known for its creative writing programme; established
by Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson, its graduates including Kazuo
Ishiguro and Ian McEwan. The university campus houses the Sainsbury
Centre for Visual Arts. The city also has an art college, the Norwich
School of Art & Design, located in the city centre. Additionally,
the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on the city''''s periphery
at Colney was opened in 2001. Norwich City skylineNorwich Theatre
Royal has been on its present site for nearly 250 years, the Act of
Parliament in the tenth year of the reign of George II having been
rescinded in 1761. The 1300-seat theatre |
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| hosts a mix of national touring productions including
musicals, dance, drama, family shows, stand-up comedians, opera and
pop. Each year the Norfolk and Norwich Festival celebrates the arts,
drawing many visitors into the city from all over eastern England.
The Forum, designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners and opened in
2002 is a building designed to house the Millennium Library, a replacement
for the Norwich Central Library building which burned down in 1994,
and the regional headquarters and television centre for BBC East.
The building provides a venue for exhibitions, concerts and events,
although the city still lacks a dedicated concert venue. The Forum,
housing (among other things) the Millennium Library and the BBC''''s
Eastern England News RoomsThe Millennium Library contains the 2nd
Air Division Memorial Library, a collection of material about American
culture and the American relationship with East Anglia, especially
the role of the United States Air Force on UK air bases throughout
the Second World War and Cold War. Much of the collection was lost
in the 1994 fire, but the collection has been restored by contributions
from many veterans of the war, both European and American. Recent
attempts to shed the backwater image of Norwich and market it as a
popular tourist destination, as well as a centre for science, commerce,
culture and the arts, have included the refurbishment of the Norwich
Castle Museum and the opening of the Forum. The proposed new slogan
for Norwich, England''''s Other City, has been the subject of much discussion
and controversy - and it remains to be seen whether it will be finally
adopted. A number of signs at the approaches to the city still display
the traditional phrase - "Norwich - a fine city." |
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Road
Norwich is connected to Great Yarmouth (to the east) and Kings Lynn
and Peterborough (to the west) by the A47, which bypasses the city.
It is linked to Cambridge via the A11, which leads to the M11 motorway
for London and the M25. It is linked to Ipswich (to the south) by
the A140 and to Lowestoft (to the south-east) by the A146. Norwich
is currently the largest population centre in the UK not to be connected
to any other centre by an unbroken dual carriageway. Norwich is also
the only English city not to feature on a single motorway sign anywhere
in the country.
Rail
Rail links to the rest of the country are via London Liverpool Street
Station and Peterborough. Local lines also run to destinations including
Great Yarmouth, |
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| Lowestoft and Sheringham and Cambridge. Norwich formerly
had three stations running to a number of other local destinations,
but now the rail terminus is at Thorpe Station. |
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Bus and coach
Norwich is served by many bus operators. The main bus operator is
First East Anglia with their Overground network served by low floor
buses and other routes served with a mixture of low floor and standard
floor vehicles. Destinations throughout Norfolk are served and some
beyond including Peterborough, Lowestoft and Thetford. National Express
also run ten coaches a day to Stansted Airport, five a day to London,
and one a day to Birmingham. Most bus and coach services, run from
Norwich bus station in Surrey Street. |
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Park and Ride
As of 2005, Norwich had the biggest Park and Ride operation in the
UK. Run by Norfolk County Council it runs from six purpose-built sites
into Norwich bus station using colour-coded buses. Altogether nearly
5000 parking spaces are provided and in 2006 3.4 million passengers
used the service. Services begin running into the city at 06:40 Monday
to Friday, with the last buses returning from 19:25 (20:30 on Thursday).
Air
Norwich International Airport is a feeder to KLM''''s Schiphol hub. FlyBe,
Air Southwest, Eastern Airways, and Bristow Helicopters all serve
Norwich, in addition to a strong holiday charter flight business.
The airport was originally the RAF airfield at Horsham St Faith. This
was once the home of Air UK, which grew out of Air Anglia and was
then absorbed by the Dutch airline KLM.
Water
The River Yare is navigable from the sea at Great Yarmouth all the
way to Trowse, south of the city. From there the River Wensum is navigable
into Norwich, and is crossed by the Novi Sad Friendship Bridge. Scheduled
trips through the city and out to the nearby Broads are run by City
Boats from outside Norwich Station and also Elm Hill. |
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