16 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014 Evening News

Your city. Go to eveningnews24.co.uk Your stories. Freeview FEATURE to watch local news videos channel 8 DerekJames email: [email protected] How amazing will helped so many

I Pupils and staff of the Norman School, pictured just before it closed in July 1934. Headmaster John William Howes is pictured with his assistant Miss Bowyer. Pupil Arthur ‘Snowball’ Mann is to his right.

n of 300 years ago 1724 leaving his will for others to and houses in King Street not became a cinema and then a a shield bearing three leopards’ there was a mayor by the ponder over and act upon. making enough money, but the day warehouse before being demolished heads name of John Norman, quite A will which turned out to give school at Cowgate did go ahead. in the 1960s. By the 1930s the writing was on an extraordinary man who, tens of thousands of young people The school finally opened in 1839 At the beginning of 1935 Mile the wall for the little school which when he died, left a will like an education, and a chance to better and this photograph was taken just Cross School was renamed Norman had no sporting facilities. no other. themselves. before it closed in July of 1934. School to perpetuate his memory. Miss Bowyer, then living at the IThe chances are you will have As for the school, John wrote Here we have the headmaster for One of the lads in the picture was Hawthorns Nursing Home in heard of his name. There is a down how it should be built, what 36 years John William Howes with Arthur Mann. They called him Unthank Road, Norwich, said in Norman Road, a Norman Centre the pupils should wear and what his assistant Miss Bowyer. He was Snowball and he is behind the 1984 that she enjoyed teaching at the and there was a unique Alderman they should eat. He had planned for headmaster on his right. school adding: “It was noted for its Norman’s Endowed School, known a boarding school where the diet He told us back in 1984: “I was a copperplate writing and as “Norman’s Will.” would include 1lb of roast beef for I remember an pupil there between 1928 and 1934 as businessmen would inquire if Mr It stood in Cowgate near the Sunday dinner, with 12oz of were my uncle and grandfather Howes had a boy leaving soon, and junction with Magdalen Street and “plumb” pudding for supper and incident when the before me. if so would reserve a place for him.” was unique because, to some extent, eight quarts of beer weekly to be headmaster hit out “I remember an incident when the Another pupil in the picture when all its pupils were related to each brewed with “five pecks of malt to headmaster hit out with a brand- it was published in the Evening other and each could produce a the barrel.” with a brand-new new blackboard ruler at an News 30 years ago was Wally “pedigree” proving an ancestry John wanted the headmaster of inattentive boy. He missed, it hit the Durrant, who said: “We never had going back three centuries. the school to be an MA: Latin and blackboard ruler at an desk and snapped six inches of the playtime. Instead we had Thursday Back then education was a rare Greek would be taught and up to inattentive boy. end of the ruler. He was so taken afternoons off school. We found a privilege, denied to most, but John one in 15 of the pupils would go to aback by this that the best he could game of football somewhere and Norman had a dream of endowing a Cambridge University. muster was, an outraged, ‘look what several of us went on to play for the school for his descendants and those His will also stated that the you’ve made me do boy!’” schools we were sent to when it of his relatives and in-laws... and his incumbents of and St also honorary secretary of Norwich “My uncle remarked that the boy closed.” will was more like a small book Peter Parmentergate churches were City Football Club and closely was lucky. In his day the same In common with several other running to more than 10,000 words. to receive 20 shillings for preaching associated with St Paul’s Church for headmaster had thrown a slate at pupils, he walked from his home in He was a man with a vision. a sermon on alternative years on many years. him which fortunately only cut his Lakenham to the school each day John was born in 1657, owned land the Sunday nearest the anniversary His retirement at the age of 70 was lip. ‘He must have mellowed,’ added with his brother. He paid tribute to in , Catton, of his funeral. The clerk, if in one of the reasons for the school’s uncle.” the teachers saying: “They don’t and in Kent. He also had a brewery attendance, was given half-a-crown closure and also because, as a Arthur recalled that Mr Howes, make them like those two in St Peter Parmentergate. An – both goodly sums in those days. private school, the pupils were at a both respected and feared, and Miss any more.” astute businessman with a warm His plans for a boarding school disadvantage regarding secondary Bowyer taught seven grades, aged These boys left the school with heart, he did much to help others. and university places proved too education. seven to 13, up to 70 boys all in the happy memories 80 years ago... Elected Sheriff in 1705 he became ambitious with the sale of farms at The 63 boys were dispersed to same room. The school cap badge thanks to the remarkable John Mayor in 1714 and then he died in Great Witchingham and Old Catton other schools and the building bore John Norman’s coat of arms – Norman, a true man of the people.