Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Ninth - Prison and Reform - Chapter I

Here come the Hanoverians: George, George, George and George, the third of whom spent much of the time believing that he was a penguin and made of glass.

Under his rule, our American Colonies declared themselves independent and stated that all men are created equal … though it turned out that some were more equal than others …

Norwich Castle sadly sans battlements. Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

Under Queen Anne the gaping cracks in the external keep walls at Norwich Castle had been patched up using stone taken from the battlements, the inside faces of the now roofless ruin being reinforced with cheap brickwork. Now, as shown above, bushes sprouted from the unprotected tops of the walls and rain fell onto the timber and brick shacks and lean-to buildings housing the prisoners. The insides of the walls were blackened with soot, much of which remains to this day. We are leaving it as it is to help tell the story of the keep.

The Norwich Worsted weavers were under pressure again, this time from cheap cotton calico imported by the East India Company. In 1719 and 1720 the weavers of Spitalfields and Norwich fought back.

Blomefield: "In 1720, on the 20th day of Sept, a great riot happened, under pretence of destroying callicoes, as pernicious to the trade of Norwich Stuffs; the rabble cutting several gowns in pieces on women's backs, entering shops to seize all callicoes found there &c. and beating the constables that endeavoured to apprehend them, opposing the sheriff's power to such a degree, that the artillery company was forced to be raised, upon the approach of which they instantly dispersed."

Not the Calico Riots but fun nonetheless from that inexhaustible source of mirth the interweb.

In the Spitalfields riots, the Huguenot silk-weavers had been similarly put out of work by the cheap calicos and one Dorothy Orwell claimed "she was assaulted by a multitude of weavers in Red-Lion-Fields in Hoxton, who tore, cut and pull'd off her gown and petticoat by violence, threatened her with vile language and left her naked in the fields."

Things continued to escalate until in 1721 the Calico Act was passed, banning men and women from wearing and using calico for clothing and in household interiors. Five-pound fines for wearing calico and twenty-pound fines for selling it were strictly enforced. For once in our history, people power forced the government to act against unfettered free trade and the greed of the East India Company. Hasn't happened since, mind you …

While George the First spent most of his time at home in Hanover and George the Second concentrated on tupping a monstrous menagerie of mistresses, the Whig parliament got on with running the country and generally made a pretty decent shot of it.

While George the Second was otherwise occupied further repairs were made to Norwich Castle in 1746 through 1749, stitching breaches in the west and north walls of the keep. As part of these works one Matthew Brettingham replaced the missing battlements in the style of the originals.

Anyhoo, in 1760 along came George the Penguin who refused to pay for sufficient repairs to maintain the castle as a viable prison, so in 1780 Norwich Castle and its remaining grounds were purchased from the Mad King by the County. In 1788 one Thomas Dove was tasked with carrying out a survey of the rotting remains prior to some proper investment.

The east elevation from Dove's survey, showing the covered stair to the Bigod Tower in front of the keep and the Shire Hall to the right, rebuilt over Edward the First's palace.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

The ground floor plan from Dove's survey, showing the chapel (top-left), the felons' yard in the centre of the keep and the debtors' yard to the south of the skewed wall.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

 

At this point we must bid a fond farewell to our constant companion and guide through the centuries, the wonderful Francis Blomefield, he 'of the many commas' as we whizz by in our time machine, watching him dwindle into the past as he publishes his great work between 1753 and 1775.

Fortunately for us, in 1758, the publisher Robert Dodsley signed the great Enlightenment intellectual Edmund Burke to write and edit the Annual Register, which covers parliamentary debates, state papers, news, reviews, poetry and general gossip, from the salacious to the horrific to the downright strange for each year from then until now (it's still going strong).

 

 The first printed and published copy of the Declaration of Colonial Uppitiness.

From the State Papers in the Annual Register of 1776.

Above it is the 1775 Declaration that got the Tories in such a tizz that they lost us America.

Courtesy Old Dive.

 

I'm an avid … okay, "obsessive" … collector of the Annual Register and have dozens of tatty and coverless old reading copies from the first hundred years or so purchased for a pittance. My favourite years I get professionally re-bound in mottled calf with hand-marbled endpapers in 18th century style, being a pretentious git. They shall replace Blomefield as my primary historical source from here on in.

Beware, however, should you wish to get hold of a copy with the Declaration of Independence in it.  Due to its popularity across the Pond it has become wildly expensive. I was fortunate enough to find a disbound copy held together with … er … duct tape (see "Pimp My Uppity Colonials"). The amount of restoration work and rebinding was still waaaay cheaper than buying a decent copy.

Anyhoo … back to the castle next time.

Sources:

The Annual Register: A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year: Edmund Burke (ed) and successors: 1758 to Present.

For the final time, alas: Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: published 1753 to 1775 

Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002 

Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996

Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004 

Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981

Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983

The Oxford History of England: Volume X "The Later Stuarts: 1660-1714 " Basil Williams (ed): 1939

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XI "The Whig Supremacy: 1714 - 1760" Sir George Clark (ed): 1934 

 

The Oxford History of England: Volume XII "The Reign of George III: 1760 - 1815" J. Steven-Watson (ed): 1960