Forgotten Heritage: the Landscape History of the Norwich Suburbs

Forgotten Heritage: the landscape history of the Norwich suburbs A pilot study. Rik Hoggett and Tom Williamson, Landscape Group, School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich. This project was commissioned by the Norwich Heritage, Economic and Regeneration Trust and supported by the East of England Development Agency 1 Introduction Over recent decades, English Heritage and other government bodies have become increasingly concerned with the cultural and historical importance of the ordinary, ‘everyday’ landscape. There has been a growing awareness that the pattern of fields, roads and settlements is as much a part of our heritage as particular archaeological sites, such as ancient barrows or medieval abbeys. The urban landscape of places like Norwich has also begun to be considered as a whole, rather than as a collection of individual buildings, by planning authorities and others. However, little attention has been afforded in such approaches to the kinds of normal, suburban landscapes in which the majority of the British population actually live, areas which remained as countryside until the end of the nineteenth century but which were then progressively built over. For most people, ‘History’ resides in the countryside, or in our ancient towns and cities, not in the streets of suburbia. The landscape history of these ordinary places deserves more attention. Even relatively recent housing developments have a history – are important social documents. But in addition, these developments were not imposed on a blank slate, but on a rural landscape which was in some respects preserved and fossilised by urbanisation: woods, hedges and trees were often retained in some numbers, and their disposition in many cases influenced the layout of the new roads and boundaries; while earlier buildings from the agricultural landscape usually survived. Moreover, fashionable cities like Norwich were often fringed by concentrations of country houses and landscape parks, elements of which were also often retained when areas were developed. What is particularly interesting is that elements of the old agricultural landscape were often preserved in suburban areas better than in the ‘real’ countryside, especially in intensively arable areas like Norfolk, where hedges, trees and woods were often removed wholesale in the second half of the twentieth century. Raising public awareness of the historical importance of these ‘ordinary’ landscapes is important for a number of reasons. It helps foster a sense of place; it adds a layer of interest and social value to the environment experienced by the majority of the population; and it encourages the preservation of historically important but otherwise neglected historical features. In the case of Norwich, such ‘suburban’ areas are extensive, occupying the space between the medieval city walls and the open countryside. The following pages describe some aspects of the landscape history and archaeology of an area of west Earlham, on the western 2 fringes of Norfolk. This project was commissioned by the Norwich Heritage, Economic and Regeneration Trust and supported by the East of England Development Agency. It is not intended as a complete study: had time and resources been available, more attention would have been paid to the character and significance of the streets and houses constructed here in the course of the twentieth century. But this pilot project does give some indication of how a larger study might approach the landscape history of superficially uninteresting pieces of suburbia. 3 Figure 1. The Study Area, showing West Earlham to the north and UEA to the south. 4 The Study Area As can be seen in Figure 1, the study area embraces a substantial area of Earlham parish. Beginning in the north, its boundary is defined by the line of Bowthorpe Road as it runs south-east to join the Five Ways roundabout. It then follows Bluebell Road southwards until it meets the south-western extent of the grounds of the University of East Anglia. The boundary then turns west, to follow the line of the River Yare upstream towards the north-west, under the Earlham Road bridge, before turning north again along the line of the Earlham parish boundary, back to the Bowthorpe Road. The area so defined encompasses the UEA campus, Earlham Park, several patches of marshland, areas of woodland and a large amount of post- war council housing. Within the study area there are a number of significant standing buildings, ranging from the medieval church, through Earlham Hall, to the buildings of the UEA itself. There is also an assortment of surviving earthworks, particularly within Earlham Park. There has never been any significant archaeological work conducted here, although a number of discoveries have been made by chance and reported to the authorities. Now a predominantly urban suburb of Norwich, the study area was very well mapped from the late nineteenth century onwards, and some earlier maps also survive. History in the Garden People usually think of archaeological artefacts as things which are found on excavations, or which might be recovered from the surface of fields in the open countryside, through metal detecting or ‘fieldwalking’ – the process of carefully examining the surface of the ploughsoil to recover pottery and other debris indicating the sites of early settlement. But finds of prehistoric flint or pottery can also be made in the suburbs, and gardens have yielded important finds. A search of the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (HER) – the official archaeological archive for the county - reveals that a number of important finds have been made in the study area. Yet only one piece of deliberate archaeological work has been conducted here: a ‘watching brief’ carried out in 1993 in the area of Earlham Lodge, which revealed Post- Medieval tile and very little else (NHER 29915). All of the other archaeological finds discussed below have been discovered accidentally, suggesting that the potential for archaeological discoveries within the study area is very high, and that by raising awareness of the kinds of artefacts likely to turn up in gardens a great deal of important archaeological evidence could be recovered. 5 Figure 2. The locations of the HER entries discussed in the text. 6 Figure 3. The Neolithic flint axehead from UEA (NHER 9321). 1:1. Four axeheads from the Neolithic period (the ‘new stone age’, the period between around 4000 and 2300 BC) have been found. In 1950 a flint axehead was discovered in the garden of 7 Hanbury Close (NHER 9320) and was subsequently donated to Norwich Castle Museum (NCM108.950). Similarly, the cutting end of a polished flint axe was discovered in the garden of 25 Wycliffe Road in 1958 (NHER 9319). A chipped flint axehead was discovered protruding from the footpath near to the UEA Broad in 1988 (NHER 24993). Another, partly-polished flint axe was handed in by workmen during the construction of a new road at UEA in 1992 and is illustrated in Figure 3 (NHER 9321). That four such axes should have been discovered within such a small study area, none of them the result of deliberate archaeological activity, is clearly indicative of a high level of activity within the area during the 7 Neolithic period. These finds are paralleled by numerous other discoveries from the surrounding area, all pointing towards an extensive Neolithic occupation of the river valley. The discovery of polished examples is suggestive of a relatively high-status presence, further strengthened by the discovery during the construction of the UEA Broad in 1977 of a perforated stone mace-head of Neolithic or possible Bronze Age date, illustrated in Figure 4 (NHER 13215). Evidence of Neolithic activity within the study area has been discovered at six other sites. A flint borer was found in the woods adjacent to Bluebell Road in 1974 (NHER 9378) and an awl was found in an area of redeposited rubbish in 1975, although only its very general location was noted (NHER 9402). A flint scatter including cores and scrapers was found on the surface at the Bluebell Road Nurseries in 1977 (NHER 13410), the material was subsequently lodged with Norwich Castle Museum (NCM98.987). Further flints, including cores, scrapers and worked flakes were discovered nearby in the spoil thrown up while digging the UEA Broad in 1977 (NHER 13411), these too are now in Norwich Castle Museum (NCM94.978). A number of other worked flints discovered on the UEA site were reported in 1981, including a core, scraper and worked flakes, although their precise locations and dates of discovery are unknown (NHER 17457). Finally, a broken flint core was reported from the area in 2001, although again the circumstances and date of its discovery are unknown (NHER 36575). It is also possible that the giant deer antlers discovered under six feet of peat while sewers were being dug at UEA in 1990 are also prehistoric; they were reported as such in the local press at the time (Eastern Daily Press 21/11/1990), but the find does not appear to have been followed up by any of the archaeological authorities (NHER 25913). 8 Figure 4. The perforated stone mace-head from the UEA Broad (NHER 13215). 1:1. The Bronze Age – the period between c.2300 and 700 BC – is also represented within the study area, although to a much lesser extent that the Neolithic. Two tanged and barbed flint arrowheads have been discovered. The first was discovered 1969 in a sandpit (or possibly a golf course bunker) in the UEA area (NHER 9321) and is now in Norwich Castle Museum (NCM363.969). The second was found in a flowerbed in 1997, although it is not very precisely located (NHER 33057). An 8cm long Late Bronze Age copper spearhead was discovered in the garden of 21 Wakefield Road in 1958 (NHER 9322): it too is now in Norwich Castle Museum (NCM109.958).

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