Rotary Pub Walk

Last night went on v. interesting pub history walk with Blackfriars Rotary, led by one of the Rotarians who is an official Norwich Blue Badge Tour Guide!

Unfortunately, have not got pictures, as was not good light, but perhaps shall make effort to go back and document later on a sunny day. Clever persons will be able to follow the route with Google maps, perhaps, should they be curious :)

We started out at The Ribs of Beef, which is on the River Wensum at the Fye Bridge, and about 5 minutes from my house. It is thought to be the oldest river crossing in Norwich, possibly used by the Romans. At the heyday of Norwich pubs, in the 19th century, there were between 700 and 800 pubs in the city! Today, there are about 100, although the tourist slogan from the 1930s still is common -- 'A pub for every day of the year, and a church for every week of the year.' Awwwww.

There was really quite too much information, and I didn't take notes as would have been in danger of skinning my knee. This is my attempt to remember as much as possible. Here is a fascinating article about Norwich brewing history!

Ale was first brewed by the Romans (although have found an article crediting the Sumerians) and is a mixture of malted barley, boiling water and yeast. The barley was dampened and then put in a drying rack of sorts and allowed to germinate, after which it was roasted. During early periods, this was done over a wood fire, resulting in a darker colour to the resulting liquid. Beer was created later by the Belgians with the addition of hops to the mixture, leading to a more bitter taste. Paler colours result when the germinated barley is roasted over coke fire.

Most pubs brewed their own ales and beers, and this was mostly done by women, the process being seen as a part of cookery, i.e., woman's work. Some people even sold beer out of their homes in an unofficial sort of Beer House setup -- this was an easier licensing to have. And churches made annual 'Church Ales', which were sold for a bit of fundraising (Lovely Mr. Murderous Cromwell put an end to this foolishness). This situation of everyone brewing their own was common practice until the 17th century (I think), when the process became a bit more scientific.

It should be pointed out that ales and beers were significantly lower in alcohol content, only about 2%. And it was fairly difficult to obtain water, esp. clean water. Generally, parish wells were located... NEXT TO THE GRAVEYARD (!); this allowed cholera to spread quite frequently. Rivers were sewers, and in my area by the River Wensum were where wool dying works were. Used dyes were therefore dumped in the river, too. Our guide told us that there were sayings about whether red or blue river water made better tea... (yum). Additionally, should one actually get some clean water, tea and coffee were quite expensive. So, really ale was about the safest and most dependable way to hydrate.

Because most of the population was illiterate, illustrated beer signs were made compulsory by Richard II in 1393. Later, these also served to identify ale houses to the official Ale Taster. Official ale tasters, or 'conners' (from 'con', to know), wore leather breeches. Pubs had to be certified that they were serving quality (although this may be a very relative term) and true ales; Shakespeare's father was, at one point, a beer conner.

So, the conner would come in and the tender or owner would pour a pint of beer onto a wooden bench and the conner sat in it for a period of time (cannot remember if it was an hour?). When he tried to stand up, if it was easy to get straight up, the ale was rubbish and the brewer could be fined. If he had difficulty getting up (from his breeches sticking to the bench, not from being tipsy), then the ale was quality. This seems initially a bit dodgy on the science front (and E thinks the story is bollocks), but perhaps someone is able to verify?

Anyhoo, back to the walk. Walking up Magdalen Street, we looked at a several more, two of which are still pubs. One, The King's Head, was originally a brewery owned by Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs Crown brewery, and was voted CAMRA pub of the year in 2005 or soemthing. I walk past it all the time! (It is also across the road from a wool shoppe!) And now, I know what the crown emblem over the doorway means and the ornate 'YCY' in the spandrel over the arched windows.

Cutting down Golden Dog Lane, we went past Doughty's Hospital, which was founded for 25 elderly men and 8 women in 1687, from a bequest of £6,000 (I think), which was a fortune indeed. It is still a charity today.

Then we wound through an office/apartment complex of buildings (some are part of an 18th or 19th century shoe factory) to find, hidden all by itself off Kings Head Lane, William Watts' cottage, which was built in 1640. He was a wool merchant, and his stone wattled + brick tile accented house proved that he was a man of substance.

Down Muspole Street ('muspole' is thought to be a derivation meaning 'mushy pool' or a marshy area), many of the buildings were courts, which were kind of tenements. A lot of them have been restored, but some were either demolished, destroyed by fires, or bombed. Norwich was very heavily bombed in 1942. Usually, these courts had one toilet for all the residents. There was a pub for these poor souls on the corner of Duke Street and Muspole, called the 'Whip and Nag'; earlier, though, it had been called the 'Whip and Egg', referencing a lovely combination of brandy and raw egg we know as eggnog! The pub is now a lovely tiny flat :)

Crossing the street (Duke Street) to St. Mary's Plain. Norwich Central Baptist Church is on the south side, and is built on the site of an earlier church destroyed by fire. It is quite modern. But, on the opposite side of the street is St. Mary Coslany, which was sadly one of the first churches to become redundant in Norwich in the 1930s. It it the round tower that my basil plant looks at all day from the kitchen window, and is the oldest Saxon tower in Norwich! The round towers from Saxon times were not (probably) built as parts of churches but were watchtowers. Churches were added later and in different stages and styles. So many churches are kind of a hodge-podge stretching over several centuries.

Pickerell's House, on the corner of St. Mary's Plain and Rosemary Lane, was a pub as well (cannot remember name) and stands next to the Zoar Strict and Particular Baptist Chapel. Zoar is the place where Lot went when he left Sodom and Gomorrah. Pickerell's House is one of 6 thatched-roof buildings still left in Norwich. After the fire of 1507, roofs were mandated to be made of either slate or tile.

Between St. Crispin's Road (the inner ring road) and St. Miles Bridge, there were 30 pubs on Oak Street! This is about maybe four blocks. Cannot remember any of the names but The Dolphin. Apparently, there were several brewers in the area as well: Norwich Brewers:Oak Street. St. Miles School is now private house(s). When education for children up to age 10 was decreed, churches were very involved in setting up schools.

Past St. Miles, or St. Michael Coslany :) The flushwork of specially crafted flint is some of the best anywhere. This church building is also apparently a hodge-podge of design and period.

To the Bullard and Sons' Brewery, which I cycle or walk past most every morning. This is right on the southeast side of St. Miles Bridge (Oak Street has become Coslany Street at this point). Coslany is thought to be a Viking word meaning, 'island bridge in the middle of the reeds'. Whether this is true and refers indeed to a little island that you could use to hop across the River Wensum's reed beds is up to readers to decide :)

Up the right-hand side of St. Laurence (or St. Lawrence), where the guide pointed out the carvings of two martyrs in the spandrils of the West door. St Laurence is, with St. Andrew's, second in size to St. Peter Mancroft. It is only open on Tuesday afternoons.... :(

Some more pubs on St. Benedict's, several of which are music stores, several of which are no more, due to demolition to make way for tram lines. Names by this point were starting to run together :) -- and not because of any beer... we did not stop at a single pub until getting back to the Ribs of Beef for sausages and mash.

Blah, blah, blah -- people were starting to lag by this point :) Walked past Briton's Arms, on Elm Hill, which is another thatch roof. Really pretty tea room on ground floor -- have had great plans to go for a while -- and someone was practicing violin through open window upstairs. Lovely. Through the car park towards the river, where I have never ventured before, but it is really interesting to see the back architecture of the buildings of Elm Hill.

And we ended up where a little alley runs next to the Ribs of Beef -- and it was time for some Adnams and food! Hoorah!

There were lots of places along the route where pubs and churches used to stand, but for numerous reasons are no more. It was really fascinating, more than just going on a tour, but learning about things you see every day and noticing little things you might miss -- like St. Edmund and St. Laurence in the doorway in St. Laurence's Passage, and the twined monograms of 17th century brewers.