Norwich, Norfolk, England
1895 - Norwich

Norwich, nor'rij (anc. Wen'ta Iceno'rum), a city of England, capital of the co, of Norfolk, on the Yare and Wensum Rivers, 2 miles above their junction, and at a railway junction, 98 miles N.N.E. of London. It was formerly surrounded by walls, fragments of which still exist, flanked with numerous towers, and entered by 12 gates, but the modern city and suburbs extend much beyond the ancient walls. Not a few of its streets are narrow, winding, and either unpaved or paved badly; and the houses, with their rude pointed gables, are far more remark able for their antiquity than for the merits of their architecture. The market-place is one of the largest and finest in the kingdom. The cathedral, founded in 1094, is a cruciform structure, with a tower and spire rising to the height of 315 feet. Around it are the cloisters, bishop's palace, deanery, &c. Besides the cathedral, Norwich possesses about 40 other churches, and many chapels. The other principal buildings are the castle, a noble feudal relic, founded in 575, now used as a jail; the guild hall, partly fitted up as a court-house; and St. Andrew's Hall, originally the nave of the church of the Black Friars' Convent, adorned with a large collection of portraits. Among the institutions may be mentioned the jail and house of correction, the workhouse (originally the choir of the Black Friars' Church), the corn exchange, the cavalry barracks, the theatre and assembly-rooms, the training college of school-mistresses, the diocesan training institution, the grammar-school, situated within the precincts of the cathedral, the government school for modelling and design, the children's hospital, Norman's Charity, city charity, British and foreign, national, infant, and various other schools, St. Giles's, Doughty's, Cook's, and the Norfolk and Norwich Hospitals, the lunatic and blind asylums, and the infirmary. he literary and scientific institutions include a public library, a mechanics' institute, a young man's institute, a people's college, and a museum, possessed of several valuable collections.

The principal manufactures of Norwich at present are shawls, crapes, bombazines, mousseline-de-laine, imitation French fabrics, light cotton goods, damask, camlets, gros de Naples, and bandana handkerchiefs and Paramatta cloth. The looms employed in the town and neighborhood are estimated at upwards of 14,000. The other industrial establishments include worsted-factories, silk-mills, dye works, corn-mills, vinegar-works, breweries, iron-foundries, oil-mills, boot- and shoe-factories, &c. In carrying on this trade, facilities are afforded by railways, by the river, navigated chiefly by wherries of from 15 to 40 tons and by regular steamers to Yarmouth, and by the Norwich and Lowestoft navigation, by means of which vessels of small tonnage have direct access to the town from the sea.

Norwich appears to have been founded by the Romans in 446. It was afterwards seized by the Saxons, and in 575 had risen to be the capital of the kingdom of East Anglia. In 1002 it was captured by the Danish fleet and laid in ashes. In 1328 it was made a staple town for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk by Edward III., and ultimately be came a famous manufacturing town. It sends two members to Parliament. Pop, in 1881, 87,842; in 1891, 100,964.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

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