New for 2021
Military Connections - a self-guided trail around the Rosary Cemetery
New publications in 2020
Under the Griffin's wing
Thorpe Hamlet and the Second World War
The Thorpe Hamlet History Group has produced "Thorpe Hamlet and the Second World War" as its fourth Occasional Paper. This explores the effect of World War II on life in Thorpe Hamlet, with many air raids, danger, damage and loss of life, together with the commemoration in Thorpe Hamlet of those whose lives were lost both locally and elsewhere in the world. 56pp A4, ISBN 978-0-9955487-3-2, £5.
It can be obtained from City Bookshop in Davey Place or Jarrolds in Exchange Street or online from their websites.
A guide to the Rosary Cemetery
The Friends of the Rosary Cemetery (link) have published "A guide to the Rosary Cemetery, Norwich", 112pp, price £8.50, ISBN 978-0-9559320-6-9.
A plan of the Cemetery and details of its location can be downloaded here.
About Thorpe Hamlet
Thorpe Hamlet is on the east side of Norwich city centre, on the highest land in Norwich. For the purposes of this website, its boundaries are the river to the west and south, Harvey Lane and Heartsease lane to the east, and Gurney Road running through Mousehold Heath to the north.
If you have travelled through Norwich railway station, been to watch the Canaries at Carrow Road or visited Norwich prison, you have been to Thorpe Hamlet.
Ten features of Thorpe Hamlet's history
- It was the first place in Britain where the post was sorted using postcodes
- The line of a Roman road ran through Thorpe Hamlet
- It has an ancient wood that can be traced back to Domesday Book
- It had a site where those judged to be religious heretics were put to death
- It is where thousands of rebels gathered in 1549 to lay siege to the city's defences
- It is where a major factory built parts for the R101 airship and much else
- It once had a tower that formed part of a system for sending text messages from London to Great Yarmouth (on clear days)
- It is where the first non-denominational cemetery was opened
- Its football ground is the only one where a reigning monarch has watched a Football League match
- It has Norwich's only surviving medieval bridge