69 Facts About Norwich

Norwich is a city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town.

Norwich is by the River Wensum, about 100 miles north-east of London, 40 miles north of Ipswich and 65 miles east of Peterborough.

In May 2012, Norwich was designated England's first UNESCO City of Literature.

Anglo-Saxons settled the site of the modern city sometime between the 5th and 7th centuries, founding the towns of Northwic, from which Norwich takes its name, and Westwic and a lesser settlement at Thorpe.

Norwich became settled as a town in the 10th century and then became a prominent centre of East Anglian trade and commerce.

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Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, with its own mint.

Norwich continued to be a major centre for trade, described officially as the Port of Norwich.

Norwich received a royal charter from Henry II in 1158, and another from Richard the Lionheart in 1194.

The wealth generated by the wool trade throughout the Middle Ages financed the construction of many fine churches, so that Norwich still has more medieval churches than any other city in Western Europe north of the Alps.

The magistracy in Tudor Norwich unusually found ways of managing religious discord whilst maintaining civic harmony.

Norwich has traditionally been the home of various minorities, notably Flemish and Belgian Walloon communities in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Norwich Canary was first introduced into England by Flemings fleeing from Spanish persecution in the 16th century.

However, to begin with, there had been a large element of Royalist sympathy within Norwich, which seems to have experienced a continuity of its two-sided political tradition throughout the period.

Norwich was marked in the period after the Restoration of 1660 and the ensuing century by a golden age of its cloth industry, comparable only to those in the West Country and Yorkshire, but unlike other cloth-manufacturing regions, Norwich weaving brought greater urbanisation, mainly concentrated in the surrounds of the city itself, creating an urban society, with features such as leisure time, alehouses and other public forums of debate and argument.

Norwich was the wealthiest town in England, with a sophisticated system of poor relief, and a large influx of foreign refugees.

In some, like Lyon and Dresden, this was, as in the case of Norwich, linked to an important proto-industry, such as textiles or china pottery, in some, such as Vienna, Madrid and Dublin, to the city's status as an administrative capital, and in some such as Antwerp, Marseilles and Cologne to a position on an important maritime or river trade route.

Norwich alehouses had 281 clubs and societies meeting in them in 1701, and at least 138 more were formed before 1758.

In Norwich, he says, a powerful Anglican establishment, symbolised by the Cathedral and the great church of St Peter Mancroft was matched by scarcely less powerful congeries of Dissenters headed by the wealthy literate body [of Unitarians] worshipping at the Octagon Chapel.

Some years earlier, when he moved from Kent to Norwich, Bignold had been unable to find anyone willing to insure him against the threat from highwaymen.

The new business, which became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office, was a "mutual" enterprise.

Examples of Norwich shawls are now sought after by collectors of textiles.

From 1808 to 1814, Norwich had a station in the shutter telegraph chain that connected the Admiralty in London to its naval ships in the port of Great Yarmouth.

Norwich has a long association with chocolate making, mainly through the local firm of Caley's, which began as a manufacturer and bottler of mineral water and later diversified into chocolate and Christmas crackers.

Norwich is active in property development in Norwich and has a business training division.

Norwich suffered extensive bomb damage during World War II, affecting large parts of the old city centre and Victorian terrace housing around the centre.

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Norwich has been governed by two tiers of local government since the implementation of the Local Government Act 1972.

Norwich submitted its proposal in January 2007, which was rejected in December 2007, as it did not meet all the rigorous criteria for acceptance.

In February 2008, the Boundary Committee for England, was asked to consider alternative proposals for the whole or part of Norfolk, including whether Norwich should become a unitary authority, separate from Norfolk County Council.

Since 1298 Norwich has returned two members of Parliament to the House of Commons.

Former Norwich High School for Boys in Upper St Giles Street has a blue plaque commemorating Sir John Mills, who was a pupil there.

Norwich has two universities: the University of East Anglia and Norwich University of the Arts.

City College Norwich, situated on Ipswich Road, was founded in 1891 and is one of the largest such colleges in the country.

The Norwich Post was the first provincial newspaper outside London, founded in 1701.

In 2006 Norwich became the UK's first City of Refuge, part of the International Cities of Refuge Network which promotes free speech.

Norwich made the shortlist for the first city to be designated UK City of Culture, but in July 2010 it was announced that Derry had been selected.

In May 2012 Norwich was designated as England's first UNESCO City of Literature.

Norwich is one of the UK's top ten shopping destinations, with a mix of chain retailers and independent stores, and Norwich Market as one of the largest outdoor markets in England.

Each year the Norfolk and Norwich Festival celebrates the arts, drawing many visitors into the city from all over eastern England.

Norwich was home to the first arts festival in Britain in 1772.

Norwich Arts Centre is a notable live music venue, concert hall and theatre located in St Benedict's Street.

Norwich has a thriving music scene based around local venues such as the University of East Anglia LCR, Norwich Arts Centre, The Waterfront and Epic Studios.

The Norwich Playhouse, which opened in 1995 and has a seating capacity of 300, is a venue in the heart of the city and one of the most modern performance spaces of its size in East Anglia.

Additionally, the cloisters of Norwich Cathedral are used for open-air performances as part of an annual Shakespeare festival.

Norwich has several museums to reflect the history of the city and of Norfolk, and wider interests.

Formerly known as The John Jarrold Printing Museum, The Norwich Printing Museum covers the history of printing, with examples of printing machinery, presses, books and related equipment considered of national and international importance.

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In 2021, the museum trustees were offered space at Blickling Hall, near Aylsham, and, as "The Norwich Printing Museum", it reopened there as a fully-working museum in July 2021.

Odeon Norwich is located in the Riverside Leisure Centre, Vue inside the Castle Mall and previously the Hollywood Cinema at Anglia Square, north of the city centre.

Norwich is the headquarters of BBC East, its presence in the East of England, and BBC Radio Norfolk, BBC Look East, Inside Out and The Politics Show are broadcast from studios in The Forum.

Norwich is still based in Anglia House, the former Norfolk and Norwich Agricultural Hall, on Agricultural Hall Plain near Prince of Wales Road.

Norwich was England's second city in the medieval and Renaissance periods, it has some little acknowledged, but significant associations with esoteric spirituality.

Norwich was the residence of the physician and hermetic philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, author of The Garden of Cyrus .

Norwich is said to have more standing medieval churches than any city north of the Alps.

However, the major post-war architectural development in Norwich was the opening of the University of East Anglia in 1964.

In 1993, the club eliminated German giants Bayern Munich from the UEFA Cup, in what is to date Norwich City's only season in European competitions; it had qualified for the UEFA Cup three times between 1985 and 1989 but been unable to compete as there was a ban on English clubs in European competitions at the time.

Also in Norwich, there is a veterans-only side, Norwich Exiles.

The Norwich Stars raced in the Northern League of 1946 and the National League Division Two between 1947 and 1951, winning it in 1951.

Norwich has a UK baseball team, the Norwich Iceni, which competes at the Single-A level of the BBF.

Norwich was the second city of England after London for several centuries before industrialisation, which came late to Norwich due to its isolation and lack of raw materials.

Norwich has been the scene of open discussions in public spaces, known as "meet in the street", to cover social and political issues.

Articles in the past suggested that compared with other UK cities, Norwich was top of the league by percentage of population among who use the popular Internet auction site eBay.

Norwich's economy was historically manufacturing-based, including a large shoemaking industry, but it transitioned in the 1980s and 1990s into a service-based economy.

Norwich has long been associated with the making of mustard.

Norwich was the eighth most prosperous shopping destination in the UK in 2006.

Norwich stands north of the A47, which connects it with Great Yarmouth to the east, and King's Lynn and Peterborough to the west.

Norwich is linked to Cambridge via the A11, which leads to the M11 motorway for London and the M25.

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Norwich is the site of Crown Point TMD, a depot that maintains the trains used in the area.

Norwich Airport is a feeder to KLM's Schiphol hub.

Norwich is 100 miles north-east of London, 40 miles north of Ipswich and 65 miles east of Peterborough.

An example of Norwich being afflicted by sea fog is shown in the adjacent image.