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Designed & Maintained By Carol Gingell

Postcards Of The Norfolk Broads

Norwich

Cottages at Lakenham  which were heavily damaged during the floods of August 26th 1912.

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Two unidentified trading wherries, photographed at Norwich Riverside c1910-20. Bishops Bridge can be seen in the background.

Rowing on the Wensum, postmarked to 1912, with Riverside Road seen in the background. I know very little about this card, but what intrigued me was the rather sorry looking wherry behind the rowers.

Foundry Bridge, decorated for the visit of the newly crowned King George V who was attending the Royal Agricultural Show in June 1911. The show was held in a different county each year and Norfolk had been selected to host the event which was held at Crown Point in Norwich. The King, who had been crowned just a week before, arrived by train at Thorpe Station. In the background on the right is the Norfolk Railway House pub which had originally been the toll house for Foundry Bridge. The name survived up until it closed for refurbishment in 1973, reopening the following year as The Complete Angler.

Carrow Road Bridge pictured in the 1920s, possibly during the latter stages of it’s construction in 1923. The original Carrow Bridge had crossed the river a little further downstream, but as the Colman factory expanded either side of it, the new bridge was constructed here instead. It was designed by the Norwich City Engineer A.E.Collins, the construction costs were partially funded by Colmans and Boulton & Paul and it was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in June 1923.

Moving away from the riverside, I thought it might be of interest to include a few early 20th century postcards of the city centre itself. The scene above shows the market place with the church of St. Peter Mancroft in the background and dates from around 1910. The market was established here after the Norman invasion of 1066, eventually taking over from what had been the original market place in Tombland. Norwich was one largest and most important cities in England during the medieval era and the market at that time covered a much larger area than that which we know today. The church was built over a 25 year period between 1430 and 1455. Many of the buildings which now surround the market, including the shops which form Gentleman’s Walk, were built during the 19th century.  

Another view of the market place which also dates from c1910. In the 1930s the area was redeveloped, the range of buildings on the left were demolished to make way for the new City Hall and the war memorial and remembrance gardens were constructed. The market itself also underwent a forced revamp when the council decided that the stalls should have a more uniform appearance and it was in 1938, when the new City hall opened, that the colourful, striped awnings first appeared. The market had another facelift in 2005 when new stalls were built and, although initial plans proved to be rather controversial, the final result kept the character of the originals by retaining the familiar stripes!

The northern end of Norwich market place with the Guildhall in the background. Work on building the Guildhall, which replaced an earlier Norman toll house, began in 1407 and over the years it has had a variety of uses including being a court house, a prison and was apparently the home the city’s horse-drawn fire engine for a while. The stables for the horses were situated in the nearby Labour in Vain yard.

Another view of the River Wensum in Norwich, looking upstream towards Bishops Bridge, postmarked to 1911. The building beyond the bridge, on the left, is the Red Lion public house. Bishops Bridge is the only surviving medieval bridge in Norwich, dating to c1340, it originally formed part of the city walls and had a large gatehouse at the western end. The bridge and gatehouse were besieged by Robert Kett and his men in 1549 who stormed the city in protest against the enclosure of common land and the poverty amongst the peasantry. The gatehouse and city walls were taken down in the late 18th century and the bridge itself was nearly demolished in the 1920s as part of a scheme of redevelopment until the Norwich Society successfully campaigned to have it saved.