167-543: Norwich ( / ˈ n ɒr ɪ dʒ , - ɪ tʃ / ) is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk , England, of which it is the county town . It lies by the River Wensum , about 100 mi (160 km) north-east of London, 40 mi (64 km) north of Ipswich and 65 mi (105 km) east of Peterborough . The population of the Norwich City Council local authority area
334-517: A bishopric, and the creation of a new see neither constitutes the town concerned a city nor gives it any claim to the grant of letters patent creating it a city. In 1928, Plymouth submitted an application for city status. As the borough had more inhabitants than Portsmouth and had absorbed Devonport and East Stonehouse , the King agreed to the request. However, he indicated that he had "come to an end of city making", and Southampton's application in
501-422: A collegial dialogue, seeking common ground and reinforcing the well-mannered civic tradition of earlier periods. In 1797 Thomas Bignold , a 36-year-old wine merchant and banker founded the first Norwich Union Society . 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. With the entrepreneurial thought that nothing
668-437: A fly-over and a Brutalist concrete shopping centre – Anglia Square – as well as office blocks such as an HMSO building, Sovereign House. Other areas affected were Grapes Hill, a once narrow lane lined with 19th-century Georgian cottages, which was cleared and widened into a dual carriageway leading to a roundabout. Shortly before construction of the roundabout, the city's old Drill Hall was demolished, along with sections of
835-471: A great body, went through several parts of this city, in a riotous manner, cursing and abusing such as they knew to be friends of the government." However the Whigs gradually gained control and by the 1720s they had successfully petitioned Parliament to allow all adult males working in the textile industry to take up the freedom, on the correct assumption that they would vote Whig. But it had the effect of boosting
1002-825: A large Victorian manor house off Old Palace Road was also demolished in 1963, to build Dolphin Grove flats, which housed many Norwich families displaced by slum clearance . Other housing developments in the private and public sector took place after the Second World War, partly to accommodate the growing population of the city and to replace condemned and bomb-damaged areas, such as the Heigham Grove district between Barn Road and Old Palace Road, where some 200 terraced houses, shops and pubs were all flattened. Only St Barnabas church and one public house, The West End Retreat, now remain. Another central street bulldozed during
1169-461: A marker of prestige and confer local pride. The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criterion, though until 1889 in England and Wales it was limited to towns with diocesan cathedrals . This association between having an Anglican cathedral and being called a city was established in the early 1540s when King Henry VIII founded dioceses (each having a cathedral in
1336-632: A movement towards religious reform and radical politics in the city. By contrast, after being persecuted by the Anglican church for his Puritan beliefs, Michael Metcalf , a 17th-century Norwich weaver, fled the city and settled in Dedham, Massachusetts . The Norwich Canary was first introduced into England by Flemings fleeing from Spanish persecution in the 16th century. Along with their advanced techniques in textile working, they brought pet canaries, which they began to breed locally, eventually becoming in
1503-551: A number of applications, but in 1955 the borough's town clerk was told not to pursue the matter any further. Outside the boundaries of the county, the County Borough of Croydon made three applications, all of which were dismissed as it was not seen as being sufficiently separate from London. When the successor London Borough of Croydon applied in 1965 the Assistant Under Secretary of State summarised
1670-409: A number of local government districts which are not themselves towns. Each includes a number of towns and villages outside the urban area from which the district takes its name. In some of these cases city status was awarded to districts where the largest settlement had city status before 1974. In other cases a borough was formed to govern an area covering several towns and then city status was granted to
1837-720: A number of other boroughs, but only Cardiff was successful in being designated a city in 1905 and granted a Lord Mayoralty as "the Metropolis of Wales". The London Government Act 1899 abolished the existing local authorities within the County of London and replaced them with 28 metropolitan boroughs . Among the bodies to be dissolved was the Court of Burgesses of the City of Westminster . William Burdett-Coutts , one of Westminster's members of parliament, brought forward an amendment at
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#17327648692532004-494: A political continuum of three centuries. The first is a dichotomous power balance. From at least the time of the Reformation, Norwich was recorded as a "two-party city". In the mid-16th century, the weaving parishes fell under the control of opposition forces, as Kett's rebels held the north of the river, in support of poor clothworkers. Indeed there seems to be a case for saying that with this tradition of two-sided disputation,
2171-534: 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 . In the middle of political disorders of the late 18th century, Norwich intellectual life flourished. Harriet Martineau wrote of the city's literati of
2338-507: A shrine at the Cathedral (largely finished by 1140) up to the 16th century, but the records suggest there were few of them. In 1174, Norwich was sacked by the Flemings . In February 1190, all the Jews of Norwich were massacred except for a few who found refuge in the castle. At the site of a medieval well, the bones of 17 individuals, including 11 children, were found in 2004 by workers preparing
2505-565: A sophisticated system of poor relief , and a large influx of foreign refugees. Despite severe outbreaks of plague, the city had a population of almost 30,000. This made Norwich unique in England, although there were some 50 cities of similar size in Europe. 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
2672-543: A substantial Flemish and Walloon community of Protestant weavers to Norwich, where they are said to have been made welcome. The merchant's house which was their earliest base in the city — now a museum — is still known as Strangers' Hall . It seems that the strangers integrated into the local community without much animosity, at least among the business fraternity, who had the most to gain from their skills. Their arrival in Norwich boosted trade with mainland Europe and fostered
2839-529: A system of districts created. The four districts of Aberdeen , Edinburgh , Dundee and Glasgow had City included in their titles by the Act. The 1975 districts were replaced with the present council areas in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 , and the same four cities were designated. Since the 1996 reorganisation, four more Scottish cities have been designated: Inverness as part of
3006-498: A variety of criteria, including population size. The abolition of some corporate bodies as part of successive local-government reforms, beginning with the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 , has deprived some ancient cities of their status. However, letters patent have been issued for most of the affected cities to ensure the continuation or restoration of their status. At present, Rochester and Elgin are
3173-710: A walled city, which was named "Londonderry" in recognition of the London Guilds that established the Society. In 1887, the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated, and the Borough of Belfast submitted a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland seeking city status. Belfast based its claim on its similarity to two English boroughs that had received the honour—the seaport of Liverpool and
3340-878: Is now a multi-storey car park, the Grosvenor Rooms and Electric Theatre in Prince of Wales Road) The Norwich Corn Exchange in Exchange Street (built 1861, demolished 1964), the Free Library in Duke Street (built 1857, demolished 1963) and the Great Eastern Hotel, which faced Norwich Station. Two large churches, the Chapel Field East Congregational church (built 1858, demolished 1972) was pulled down, as well as
3507-530: Is possible that three separate early Anglo-Saxon settlements, one north of the river and two either side on the south, joined as they grew; or that a single Anglo-Saxon settlement, north of the river, emerged in the mid-7th century after the abandonment of the previous three. The ancient city was a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 when it was raided and burnt by Swein Forkbeard ,
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#17327648692533674-549: Is present throughout the entire early medieval period, two major concentrations of Scandinavian settlement are evident: the creation of the Danelaw during the mid-ninth century, and the conquest of Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut in the 1010s. There are a number of artefact types that appear only within Scandinavian-occupied England, and thus appear to be exclusively 'Anglo-Scandinavian'. Norse bells, like
3841-649: Is supposed to represent Norwich Castle and the lion, taken from the Royal Arms of England , may have been granted by King Edward III . In the English Civil War , across the Eastern Counties, Oliver Cromwell 's powerful Eastern Association was eventually dominant. 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
4008-602: The Norwich Post , appeared in 1701. By 1726 there were rival Whig and Tory presses, and as early as mid-century, three-quarters of the males in some parishes were literate. The Norwich municipal library claims an excellent collection of these newspapers, also a folio collection of scrapbooks on 18th-century Norwich politics, which Knights says are "valuable and important". Norwich alehouses had 281 clubs and societies meeting in them in 1701, and at least 138 more were formed before 1758. The Theatre Royal opened in 1758, alongside
4175-480: The Greater London area have been granted city status. The Home Office had a policy of resisting any attempt by metropolitan boroughs to become cities even when their populations, and other proposed claims as qualifying criteria, might otherwise have made them eligible. It was felt that such a grant would undermine the status of the two existing cities in the capital. The Metropolitan Borough of Southwark made
4342-569: The Industrial Revolution —notably Wells (population about 10,000) and St Davids (population about 2,000). After the 16th century, no new dioceses (and no new cities) were created until the 19th century in England ( a further city was created in Ireland during the rule of King James I in the 17th century). A long-awaited resumption of creating dioceses began in 1836 with Ripon . Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated
4509-585: The Lord Chancellor , who makes recommendations to the sovereign. Competitions for new grants of city status have been held to mark special events, such as coronations , royal jubilees or the Millennium . Some cities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have the further distinction of having a lord mayor rather than just a mayor – in Scotland, the equivalent is the lord provost. Lord mayors have
4676-457: The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 . The only historic city with a charter in present-day Northern Ireland is Derry . The garrison town of Derry was attacked and destroyed by Cahir O'Doherty in 1608. The present city status is the result of a Royal Charter granted in 1615 to The Honourable The Irish Society as part of the Plantation of Ulster , providing for the building of
4843-619: The Royal Commission on Local Government in England in 1966, city grants were again in abeyance in England. Attempts by Derby , Teesside and Wolverhampton to become cities were not proceeded with. In Wales, Swansea campaigned for city status throughout the 1960s. The campaign came to a successful conclusion in 1969, in conjunction with the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales . The Local Government Act 1972 abolished all existing local authorities outside London (other than parish councils ) in England and Wales. This meant that
5010-561: The Viking king of Denmark. Mercian coins and shards of pottery from the Rhineland dating from the 8th century suggest that long-distance trade was happening long before this. Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, with its own mint. The word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this period, in the reign of King Athelstan . The Vikings were a strong cultural influence in Norwich for 40 to 50 years at
5177-414: The city walls were built. At around 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi (4.0 km), these walls, along with the river, enclosed a larger area than that of the City of London . However, when the city walls were constructed it was made illegal to build outside them, inhibiting the expansion of the city. Part of these walls remains standing today. Around this time, the city was made a county corporate and became
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5344-470: The committee stage to rename the proposed borough of Greater Westminster to ' City of Westminster '. This was intended to give "recognition to the title which the area ... had possessed for over three and a half centuries". He felt that if the status was not retained for the new borough it "must necessarily disappear altogether". The amendment was rejected by the committee, however, with the First Lord of
5511-414: The see city ) in six English towns and granted them city status by issuing letters patent . A city with a cathedral is often termed a cathedral city . City status in Ireland was granted to far fewer communities than in England and Wales, and there are only two pre-19th-century cities in present-day Northern Ireland . In Scotland, city status did not explicitly receive any recognition by the state until
5678-477: The 100-foot (30 m) tall Presbyterian church in Theatre Street, built in 1874 and designed by local architect Edward Boardman . It has been said that more of Norwich's architecture was destroyed by the council in post-war redevelopment schemes than during the Second World War. In 1976 the city's pioneering spirit was on show when Motum Road in Norwich, allegedly the scene of "a number of accidents over
5845-681: The 1665 letters patent provided for the Lord Mayor to hold the formal title of Right Honourable, this was repealed in 2001. There is also a Lord Mayor of Cork , a title granted in 1900 when Cork was part of the (then) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In modern practice, competitions are held for cities that wish to gain the distinction of a lord mayor. The 2002 competition was entered by Bath , Cambridge , Carlisle , Chichester , Derby , Exeter , Gloucester , Lancaster , Lincoln , St Albans , St Davids , Salford , Southampton , Sunderland , Truro , Wolverhampton and Worcester ;
6012-608: The 1960s was St Stephens Street. It was widened, clearing away many historically significant buildings in the process, firstly for Norwich Union's new office blocks and shortly after with new buildings, after it suffered damage during the Baedeker raids. In Surrey Street, several grand six-storey Georgian townhouses were demolished to make way for Norwich Union's office. Other notable buildings that were lost were three theatres (the Norwich Hippodrome on St Giles Street, which
6179-415: The 19th century. At that time, a revival of grants of city status took place, first in England, where the grants were accompanied by the establishment of new cathedrals, and later in Scotland and Ireland. In the 20th century, it was explicitly recognised that the status of city in England and Wales would no longer be bound to the presence of a cathedral, and grants made since have been awarded to communities on
6346-440: The 20th century a mascot of the city and the emblem of its football club, Norwich City F.C. : "The Canaries". Printing was introduced to the city in 1567 by Anthony de Solempne, one of the strangers, but it did not take root and had died out by about 1572. Norwich's coat of arms was first recorded in 1562. It is described as: Gules a Castle triple-towered and domed Argent in base a Lion passant guardant [or Leopard] Or. The castle
6513-561: The Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy. To transport the building stone to the site, a canal was cut from the river (from the site of present-day Pulls Ferry) up to the east wall. Herbert de Losinga then moved his See there, to what became the cathedral church for the Diocese of Norwich . The Bishop of Norwich still signs himself Norvic . Norwich received a royal charter from Henry II in 1158, and another from Richard
6680-685: The Catholics and eventually numbering as many as one-third of the city's population. Large numbers of such exiles came to the city, especially Flemish Protestants from the Westkwartier ("Western Quarter"), a region in the Southern Netherlands where the first Calvinist fires of the Dutch Revolt had spread. Inhabitants of Ypres , in particular, chose Norwich above other destinations. Perhaps in response to Kett, Norwich became
6847-535: The Chief Constable informed the Licensing Justices that only 355 licences were still operative, with the number still shrinking: over 25 had closed in the last decade. In 2018, about 100 pubs remained open around the city centre. Norwich suffered extensive bomb damage during World War II , affecting large parts of the old city centre and Victorian terrace housing around the centre. Industry and
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7014-530: The Hill", was condemned as slums and many residents were forced to leave by compulsory purchase orders on the old terraces and lanes. The whole borough demolished consisted of some 56 acres of existing streets, including 833 dwellings (612 classed as unfit for human habitation), 42 shops, four offices, 22 public houses and two schools. Communities were moved to high-rise buildings such as Normandie Tower and new housing estates such as Tuckswood, which were being built at
7181-485: The Home Office identified nine candidates for city status: Blackburn , Brighton , Croydon , Derby , Dudley , Newport , Sandwell , Sunderland and Wolverhampton . Ultimately, Derby received the award as the largest non-metropolitan district not already designated a city. In April 1980 a parish council was created for Lichfield, and the charter trustees established six years earlier were dissolved. City status
7348-493: The Iceni". This fell into disuse about 450 CE. The Anglo-Saxons settled the site of the modern city some time between the 5th and 7th centuries, founding the towns of Northwic ("North Farm"), from which Norwich takes its name, and Westwic (at Norwich-over-the-Water ) 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. It
7515-563: The Lionheart in 1194. After a riot in the city in 1274, Norwich has the distinction of being the only complete English city to be excommunicated by the Pope. The first recorded presence of Jews in Norwich is 1134. In 1144, the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy ( William of Norwich ) was found dead with stab wounds. William acquired the status of martyr and was subsequently canonised . Pilgrims made offerings to
7682-862: The Millennium celebrations, the new cities were Brighton and Hove and Wolverhampton ; in 2002 for the Queen's Golden Jubilee it was Preston and Newport , and in 2012 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee it was Chelmsford and St Asaph . From June 2021, submissions for city status were invited to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2022. Places submitting bids (some for a second or subsequent time) included Bangor (Northern Ireland), Bournemouth , Doncaster , Dunfermline , Dudley , Marazion , Middlesbrough , Milton Keynes , Reading , St Andrews and Wrexham . Bids were also accepted from overseas territories and crown dependencies for
7849-489: The Ministers unless they changed their policy, deserved to have their heads brought to the block; – and if there was a people still in England, the event might turn out to be so." Hayes says that "the outbreak of war, in bringing the worsted manufacture almost to a standstill and so plunging the mass of the Norwich weavers into sudden distress made it almost inevitable that a crude appeal to working-class resentment should take
8016-466: The Norwich Brewery. Despite takeovers and consolidation in the 1950s and 1960s, only the Norwich Brewery (owned by Watney Mann and on the site of Morgans) remained by the 1970s. That too closed in 1985 and was then demolished. Only microbreweries remain today. It was stated by Walter Wicks in his book that Norwich once had "a pub for every day of the year and a church for every Sunday". This
8183-517: The Queen had accepted the advice of the Home Secretary to raise the London borough to the title and dignity of city. This example, of a successor local authority to a merged local government entity taking on that former entity's city status, was to be replicated in many instances as a result of the 1972/74 local government reforms across England and Wales (see below). With the establishment of
8350-565: The Treasury , Arthur Balfour , believing it would be "an anomaly which, I think, would be not unnaturally resented by other districts which are as large in point of population as Westminster, although doubtless not so rich in historical associations". The government eventually relented, with Balfour stating that "as soon as the necessary arrangements under the London Government Act have been completed, there will be conferred on
8517-481: The Tudor period, it appears to have been Protestant in nature. For several weeks, rebels led by Robert Kett camped outside Norwich on Mousehold Heath and took control of the city on 29 July 1549 with the support of many of its poorer inhabitants. Kett's Rebellion was particularly in response to the enclosure of land by landlords, leaving peasants with nowhere to graze their animals, and the general abuses of power by
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#17327648692538684-490: The UK, moved most of its operations from London to Norwich in the 1970s. It occupied the purpose-built 1968 Sovereign House building, near Anglia Square, which in 2017 stood empty and due for demolition if a long-postponed redevelopment of Anglia Square went ahead. Jarrolds , established in 1810, was a nationally well-known printer and publisher. In 2004, after nearly 200 years, the printing and publishing businesses were sold. Today,
8851-761: The UK: 52 cities (23 lord mayoralties) in England, six cities (two lord mayoralties) in Wales, seven cities (four lord provostships) in Scotland and five cities (two lord mayoralties) in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland , the ceremonial head of the city government of Dublin is the Lord Mayor of Dublin . This title was granted by Charles II in 1665 when Dublin was part of the Kingdom of Ireland . Whilst
9018-652: The United Kingdom is granted by the monarch of the United Kingdom to specific centres of population, which might or might not meet the generally accepted definition of cities . As of 22 November 2022 , there are 76 cities in the United Kingdom —55 in England , seven in Wales , eight in Scotland , and six in Northern Ireland . Although it carries no special rights, the status of city can be
9185-645: The United Kingdom, but Gibraltar and St Helena remain British Overseas Territories . This practice ended in 1865, and led to legal disputes about whether these letters patent were valid or not in territories with responsible government (primarily those in present day Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa). Goulburn in Australia for example found itself declared a city twice – once by letters patent in 1863 and once by law in 1885 after doubts arose to its status. Hamilton, Bermuda
9352-462: The article). This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established when Henry VIII founded new dioceses (each having a cathedral in the see city ) in six English towns and also granted them city status by issuing letters patent , demonstrating these were discrete procedures. Some cities today are very small because they were granted city status in or before the 16th century, then were unaffected by population growth during
9519-407: The borough of Westminster, as constituted under the Act, the title of city, originally conferred in the time of Henry VIII". Letters patent were duly issued granting the title of "city" to the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Westminster . In 1907, the Home Office and King Edward VII agreed on a policy that future applicants would have to meet certain criteria. This policy, which was not at
9686-420: The borough's first charter of incorporation. It was anticipated that the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 would lead to the creation of a city, and Wolverhampton , Preston and Southampton made approaches; the only civic honour given was that of a lord mayoralty to Coventry . Croydon applied in 1954, but failed as it was felt not to have a sufficient identity apart from Greater London , and reports on
9853-413: The borough. The largest "city" district in terms of area was until 1 April 2023 the City of Carlisle , which covered some 400 square miles (1,000 km ) of mostly rural landscape in the north of England, and was larger than smaller counties such as Merseyside or Rutland . (The largest now is the City of Winchester at 250 square miles (650 km ).) Such cities include: There are some cities where
10020-446: The boroughs of Derby and Nottingham were disappointed that they would not be able to claim the title of city. The link with Anglican dioceses was broken within England in 1889 when Birmingham successfully petitioned for city status (it was pre-empted in Ireland by Belfast in 1888) on the grounds of its large population and history of good local government. At the time of the grant, Birmingham lacked an Anglican cathedral, although
10187-440: The cabinet makers and furniture retailer Arthur Brett and Sons , which continues in business in the 21st century), structural engineering, and aircraft design and manufacture. Notable employers included Boulton & Paul , Barnards (iron founders and inventors of machine-produced wire netting ), and the electrical engineers Laurence Scott and Electromotors. Norwich also has a long association with chocolate making, mainly through
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#173276486925310354-490: The case against Croydon: "...whatever its past history, it is now just part of the London conurbation and almost indistinguishable from many of the other Greater London boroughs". The same objections were made when the London Boroughs of Croydon and Southwark unsuccessfully entered the competition for city status to mark the millennium: Croydon was said to have "no particular identity of its own" while Southwark
10521-536: The castle. The Normans established a new focus of settlement around the Castle and the area to the west of it: this became known as the "New" or "French" borough, centred on the Normans' own market place, which survives today as Norwich Market, the largest permanent undercover market in Europe. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga , Bishop of Thetford , began construction of Norwich Cathedral . The chief building material for
10688-523: The city are located in East Dunbartonshire , East Renfrewshire , North Lanarkshire , Renfrewshire , South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire . Anglo-Scandinavian Anglo-Scandinavian is an academic term referring to the hybridisation between Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures in Britain during the early medieval period. It remains a term and concept often used by historians and archaeologists, and in linguistic spheres. Although evidence for interconnection between Scandinavia and England
10855-436: The city had steadily developed an infrastructure, evident in its many cultural and institutional networks of politics, religion, society, news media and the arts, whereby argument could be managed short of outright confrontation. Indeed, at a time of hunger and tension on the Norwich streets, with alehouse crowds ready to have "a Minister's head brought to the block", the Anglican and Dissenting clergy exerted themselves to conduct
11022-428: The city's popular Jacobitism , says Knights, and contests of the kind described continued in Norwich well into a period in which political stability had been discerned at a national level. The city's Jacobitism perhaps only ended with 1745, well after it had ceased to be a significant movement outside Scotland. Despite the Highlanders reaching Derby and Norwich citizens mustering themselves into an association to protect
11189-425: The city's stage productions in inns and puppet shows in rowdy alehouses. In 1750 Norwich could boast nine booksellers and after 1780 a "growing number of circulating and subscription libraries". Knights 2004 says: "[All this] made for a lively political culture, in which independence from governmental lines was particularly strong, evident in campaigns against the war with America and for reform... in which trade and
11356-437: 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. In 1716, at a play at the New Inn , the Pretender was cheered and the audience booed and hissed every time King George 's name was mentioned. In 1722 supporters of the king were said to be "hiss'd at and curst as they go in the streets," and in 1731 "a Tory mobb, in
11523-417: The city, some Tories refused to join in, and the vestry of St Peter Mancroft resolved that it would not ring its bells to summon the defence. Still, it was the end of the road for Norwich Jacobites, and the Whigs organised a notable celebration after the Battle of Culloden . The events of this period illustrate how Norwich had a strong tradition of popular protest favouring Church and Stuarts and attached to
11690-529: The city. During the British Empire , the Colonial Office had the power to declare cities in Crown colonies by letters patent when appointing bishops. When the Bishop of Guyana was created in 1842, Georgetown (then part of British Guiana ) was officially declared the "City of Georgetown". The same process was followed for Gibraltar , Jamestown, St Helena , Bridgetown, Barbados , St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda , Victoria, Hong Kong and Nassau, Bahamas . Most of these have since gained independence from
11857-453: The company remains privately owned and the Jarrold name is best recognised as being that of Norwich's only independent department store . The company is also active in property development in Norwich and has a business training division. The city had a long tradition of brewing. Several large breweries continued into the second half of the 20th century, notably Morgans, Steward & Patteson , Youngs Crawshay and Youngs, Bullard and Son, and
12024-495: The conduct of local government in the town were unfavourable. Derby and Southwark made unsuccessful applications in 1955. The planned reorganisations by the Local Government Commissions for England and Wales from 1958 effectively blocked new city grants. Southampton lodged a petition in 1958. Initially refused in 1959, pending the decision of the commission, it was eventually allowed in 1964. In
12191-595: 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 . Throughout this period Norwich established wide-ranging trading links with other parts of Europe, its markets stretching from Scandinavia to Spain and the city housing a Hanseatic warehouse. To organise and control its exports to the Low Countries , Great Yarmouth, as
12358-421: The disorder and violence that was such a common feature of Norwich election campaigns, it was only by the narrowest margin that the radical Bartlett Gurney ("Peace and Gurney – No More War – No more Barley Bread") failed to unseat him. Though informed by issues of recent national importance, the bipartisan political culture of Norwich in the 1790s cannot be divorced from local tradition. Two features stand out from
12525-585: The end of the 9th century, setting up an Anglo-Scandinavian district near the north end of present-day King Street. At the time of the Norman Conquest , the city was one of the largest in England. The Domesday Book states that it had approximately 25 churches and a population of between 5,000 and 10,000. It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the site of the Saxon market place and
12692-569: The event it survived unscathed. Significant targets hit included the Morgan's Brewery building, Colman's Wincarnis works, City Station , the Mackintosh chocolate factory, and shopping areas including St Stephen's St and St Benedict's St, the site of Bond's department store (now John Lewis ) and Curl's (later Debenhams) department store. 229 citizens were killed in the two Baedeker raids with 1,000 others injured, and 340 by bombing throughout
12859-844: The examples found at Cottam B, are found nowhere in Scandinavia and only within Norse colonies. The hogback form of stone grave markers is unattested in the rest of the Scandinavian world. An argument for hybridity has also been constructed from the varying range of burial practices evident within the Danelaw, rather than the more standardised diagnostic patterns of burial we see in Scandinavia: Richards has suggested that 'rather than searching for burial-types that can be matched in Scandinavia we should therefore be looking for
13026-669: The experimental devices would be removed not more than one year after installation. From 1980 to 1985 the city became a frequent focus of national media due to squatting in Argyle Street , a Victorian street that was demolished in 1986, despite being the last street to survive the Richmond Hill redevelopment. On 23 November 1981, a minor F0/T1 tornado struck Norwich as part of a record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak, causing minor damage in Norwich city centre and surrounding suburbs. Cathedral city City status in
13193-413: The first provincial city to initiate compulsory payments for a civic scheme of poor relief, which it has been claimed led to its wider introduction, forming the basis of the later Elizabethan Poor Law of 1597–1598. Norwich has traditionally been the home of various minorities, notably Flemish and Belgian Walloon communities in the 16th and 17th centuries. The great "stranger" immigration of 1567 brought
13360-596: The first time. The applicants were George Town (in the Cayman Islands ), Gibraltar , Stanley (in the Falkland Islands ), Douglas and Peel (both in the Isle of Man ). It was later discovered that Gibraltar had been previously named a city, researchers at The National Archives confirming that Gibraltar's city status was still in effect, with the territory missing from the official list of cities for
13527-625: The first time. The competition closed on 8 December 2021 with 39 locations on the shortlist, and the winners were to be announced in June 2022. On 18 October 2021, the Prime Minister announced in Parliament that the Queen, in advance of the closing date, would accord city status to one of the applicants, Southend-on-Sea . This was in memory of Sir David Amess , the town's MP who was murdered three days earlier and had long pressed for
13694-424: The following year was turned down. In 1932 Sunderland 's petition to gain city status was turned down, as was Derby 's in 1935. The next city to be created was Lancaster in 1937 as part of the celebrations of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth . With a population of a little over 50,000, Lancaster was stated to be an exception due to the town's "long association with the crown" and because it
13861-691: The fortified settlements organised by the Romans as the capitals of the Celtic tribes under Roman rule . The British clerics of the early Middle Ages later preserved a traditional list of the " 28 Cities " ( Old Welsh : cair ) which was mentioned by Gildas and listed by Nennius . In the 16th century, a town was recognised as a city by the English Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits, for which 22 dioceses existed in England & Wales (see City status conferment further in
14028-501: The ground for construction of a Norwich shopping centre. The remains were determined by forensic scientists to be most probably the remains of such murdered Jews, and a DNA expert determined that the victims were all related so that they probably came from one Ashkenazi Jewish family. The study of the remains featured in an episode of the BBC television documentary series History Cold Case . A research paper from 30 August 2022 confirmed
14195-492: The grounds that there is no corporate body or legal persona to whom arms can be granted. City status in Ireland tended historically to be granted by royal charter. There are many towns in Ireland with Church of Ireland cathedrals that have never been called cities. In spite of this, Armagh was considered a city, by virtue of its being the seat of the Primate of All Ireland , until the abolition of Armagh's city corporation by
14362-448: The impact of war with Revolutionary France were key ingredients. The open and contestable structure of local government, the press, the clubs and societies, and dissent all ensured that politics overlapped with communities bound by economics, religion, ideology and print in a world in which public opinion could not be ignored." Amid this metropolitan culture, the city burghers had built a sophisticated political structure. Freemen, who had
14529-478: The landlord of Fowler's alehouse "with a glass of beer in hand, went down on his knees and drank a health to James the third, wishing the Crowne [sic] well and settled on his head." Writing of the early 18th century, Pound describes the city's rich cultural life, the winter theatre season, the festivities accompanying the summer assizes, and other popular entertainments. Norwich was the wealthiest town in England, with
14696-406: The late 17th century was riven politically. Churchman Humphrey Prideaux described "two factions, Whig and Tory , and both contend for their way with the utmost violence." Nor did the city accept the outcome of the 1688 Glorious Revolution with a unified voice. The pre-eminent citizen, Bishop William Lloyd, would not take the oaths of allegiance to the new monarchs. One report has it that in 1704
14863-614: The later Norman cathedral . Norwich continued to be a major centre for trade, described officially as the Port of Norwich . Quern stones and other artefacts from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations in Norwich city centre. These date from the 11th century onwards. Norwich Castle was founded soon after the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book records that 98 Saxon homes were demolished to make way for
15030-405: The leaflet were likely to be aware of [the] official definition of a city". Scotland had no cities by royal charter or letters patent before 1889. The nearest equivalent in pre-Union Scotland was the royal burgh . The term city was not always consistently applied, and there were doubts over the number of officially designated cities. The royal burghs of Edinburgh and Perth anciently used
15197-476: The local firm of Caley's, which began as a manufacturer and bottler of mineral water and later diversified into chocolate and Christmas crackers . The Caley's cracker-manufacturing business was taken over by Tom Smith in 1953, and the Norwich factory in Salhouse Road closed in 1998. Caley's was acquired by Mackintosh in the 1930s and merged with Rowntree's in 1969 to become Rowntree-Mackintosh. Finally, it
15364-484: The local government district is in fact smaller than the historical or natural boundaries of the city. Examples include: Manchester , where the traditional area associated includes areas of the neighbouring authorities of Trafford , Tameside , Oldham , Bury and the City of Salford ; Kingston upon Hull , where surrounding areas and villages that are effectively suburbs, such as Cottingham , come under East Riding of Yorkshire Council ; Glasgow , where suburban areas of
15531-416: The loss of continental markets after Britain went to war with France in 1793. The early 19th century saw de-industrialisation accompanied by bitter squabbles. The 1820s were marked by wage cuts and personal recrimination against owners. So amid the rich commercial and cultural heritage of its recent past, Norwich suffered in the 1790s from incipient decline exacerbated by a serious trade recession. As early in
15698-488: The meantime, the administration of London was reformed under the London Government Act 1963 . While the City of London was permitted to continue in existence largely unchanged, Westminster was merged with two neighbouring authorities to form a new London borough from 1 April 1965. In December 1963 it was announced that a charter was to be granted incorporating the new authority as "Westminster", and that
15865-539: The millennium celebrations, Stirling in 2002 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee , Perth in 2012 to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Dunfermline in 2022 to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. In the case of these four cities, there are no city councils and no formal boundaries. In January 2008, a petition to matriculate armorial bearings for the City of Inverness was refused by Lord Lyon King of Arms on
16032-466: The minimum population which should ordinarily, in connexion with other considerations, be regarded as qualifying a borough for that higher status. Following the First World War , the King made an official visit to Leicester in 1919 to commemorate its contributions to the military victory. The borough council had made several applications for city status since 1889, and took the opportunity of
16199-477: The new City Library in 1961. This burnt down on 1 August 1994 and was replaced in 2001 by The Forum . A controversial plan was implemented for Norwich's inner ring-road in the late 1960s. In 1931, the city architect Robert Atkinson, referring to the City Wall, remarked that "in almost every position are slum dwellings put up during the last 50 years. It would be a great adventure to clear them all out and open up
16366-431: The nobility. The uprising ended on 27 August when the rebels were defeated by an army. Kett was convicted of treason and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle. Unusually in England, the rebellion divided the city and appears to have linked Protestantism with the plight of the urban poor. In the case of Norwich, this process was underscored later by the arrival of Dutch and Flemish " Strangers " fleeing persecution from
16533-420: The only former cities in the United Kingdom. The name "City" does not, in itself, denote city status; it may be appended to place names for historic association (e.g. White City ) or for marketing or disambiguation (e.g. Stratford City ). A number of large towns (such as those with over 200,000 residents) in the UK are bigger than some small cities. The initial cities ( Latin : civitas ) of Britain were
16700-463: The original city wall and other large townhouses along the start of Unthank Road (named after the Unthank family, local landowners). The roundabout also required the north-west corner of Chapelfield Gardens to be demolished. About a mile of Georgian and Victorian terrace houses along Chapelfield Road and Queens Road, including many houses built into the city walls, was bulldozed in 1964. This included
16867-450: The parish church later became a cathedral in 1905. This new precedent was followed by other large municipalities: Leeds and Sheffield became cities in 1893, and Bradford , Kingston upon Hull and Nottingham were honoured on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The last three had been the largest county boroughs outside the London area without city status. Between 1897 and 1914, applications were received from
17034-462: The past 140 years. Stanley and Douglas were later granted the honour, and after confirmations this will take the overseas total to five cities . According to a Memorandum from the Home Office issued in 1927, If a town wishes to obtain the title of a city the proper method of procedure is to address a petition to the King through the Home Office. It is the duty of the Home Secretary to submit such petitions to his Majesty and to advise his Majesty to
17201-567: The period, including such people as William Taylor , one of England's first scholars of German. The city "boasted of her intellectual supper-parties, where, amidst a pedantry which would now make laughter hold both his sides, there was much that was pleasant and salutary: and finally she called herself The Athens of England ." Despite Norwich's longstanding industrial prosperity, by the 1790s its wool trade had begun facing intense competition, at first from Yorkshire woollens and then, increasingly, from Lancashire cotton. The effects were aggravated by
17368-405: The period. Bishop Matthew Wren was a forceful supporter of Charles I . Nonetheless, Parliamentary recruitment took hold. The strong Royalist party was stifled by a lack of commitment from the aldermen and isolation from Royalist-held regions. Serious inter-factional disturbances culminated in "The Great Blow" of 1648 when Parliamentary forces tried to quell a Royalist riot. The latter's gunpowder
17535-550: The place of a temperate process of education which the earliest reformers had intended." At this period opposition to Pitt 's government and their war came – in their case almost unanimously – from a circle of radical Dissenting intellectuals of interest in their own right. They included the Rigby, Taylor, Aitkin, Barbold, and Alderson families – all Unitarians - and some of the Quaker Gurneys (one of whose girls, Elizabeth ,
17702-464: The political centres where the Jacobin propaganda had penetrated most deeply only Norwich and Nottingham had a franchise deep enough to allow radicals to make use of the electoral process." "Apart from London, Norwich was probably still the largest of those boroughs which were democratically governed," says Jewson 1975 , describing other towns under the control of a single fiefdom . In Norwich, he says,
17869-656: The port for Norwich, was designated one of the staple ports under the terms of the 1353 Statute of the Staple . Hand-in-hand with the wool industry, this key religious centre experienced a Reformation significantly different from that in other parts of England. The magistracy in Tudor Norwich unusually found ways of managing religious discord whilst maintaining civic harmony. The summer of 1549 saw an unprecedented rebellion in Norfolk. Unlike popular challenges elsewhere in
18036-575: The rail infrastructure also suffered. The heaviest raids occurred on the nights of 27/28 and 29/30 April 1942; as part of the Baedeker raids (so-called because Baedeker's series of tourist guides to the British Isles were used to select propaganda-rich targets of cultural and historic significance rather than strategic importance). Lord Haw-Haw made reference to the imminent destruction of Norwich's new City Hall (completed in 1938), although in
18203-432: The recipients of the honour. Dunfermline, a previous royal capital of Scotland, was granted the privilege. Bangor in Northern Ireland was also a recipient, and the title in Wales was granted to Wrexham. These awards increased the number of official mainland cities to 76, with 55 in England, eight in Scotland, seven in Wales, six in Northern Ireland. Other than the cities of London and Westminster , no local authorities in
18370-516: The remains were most likely Ashkenazi Jews. The paper found that many of the victims had certain medical disorders most often seen in Ashkenazi communities, suggesting that a population bottleneck had occurred among Ashkenazim before the 12th century. This challenged traditional views among historians that the bottleneck had happened between the 14th and 16th centuries. In 1216, the castle fell to Louis, Dauphin of France, and Hildebrand's Hospital
18537-423: The reply to be returned. It is a well-established principle that the grant of the title is only recommended in the case of towns of the first rank in population, size and importance, and having a distinctive character and identity of their own. At the present day, therefore, it is only rarely and in exceptional circumstances that the title is given. A town can now apply for city status by submitting an application to
18704-501: The restoration of the dignity to St David's , historic see of a bishop. Since 2000, city status has been awarded to towns or local government districts by competition on special occasions. A large number of towns have applied for the honour in recent decades including Blackpool , Colchester , Croydon , Gateshead , Ipswich , Middlesbrough , Milton Keynes , Reading , Swindon and Warrington . Four successful applicants in England have become cities, as well as two in Wales; in 2000 for
18871-579: The right to be styled "The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor". The lord mayors and provosts of Belfast , Cardiff , Edinburgh , Glasgow , the City of London and York have the further right to be styled " The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor" (or Provost), although they are not members of the Privy Council as this style usually indicates. The style is associated with the office, not the person holding it. There are currently 70 recognised cities (including 31 lord mayoralties or lord provostships) in
19038-405: The right to trade and to vote at elections, numbered about 2,000 in 1690, rising to over 3,300 by the mid-1730s. With growth partly the result of political manipulation, their numbers did at one point reach one-third of the adult male population. This was notoriously the age of "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs and Norwich was unusual in having such a high proportion of its citizens able to vote. "Of
19205-474: The road following the wall which has always been a natural highway. Do this, and you will have a wonderful circulating boulevard all around the city and its cost would be comparatively nothing." To accommodate the road, many more buildings were demolished, including an ancient road junction – Stump Cross. Magdalen Street, Botolph Street, St George's Street, Calvert Street and notably Pitt Street, all lined with Tudor and Georgian buildings, were cleared to make way for
19372-497: The said city". The city was unique, as it had no council or charter trustees and no mayor or civic head. In 1979, the Borough of Medway was renamed as Rochester-upon-Medway , and in 1982 further letters patent transferred the city status to the entire borough. On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham were abolished and became the new unitary authority of Medway . Since it
19539-533: The seat of one of the most densely populated and prosperous counties of England. The engine of trade was wool from Norfolk's sheepwalks . Wool made England rich, and the staple port of Norwich "in her state doth stand With towns of high'st regard the fourth of all the land", as Michael Drayton noted in Poly-Olbion (1612). The wealth generated by the wool trade throughout the Middle Ages financed
19706-462: The status of the borough in respect of local government and confers no powers or privileges. At the present time and for several centuries past the title has been obtained only by an express grant from the Sovereign effected by letters patent; but a certain number of cities possess the title by very ancient prescriptive right. There is no necessary connexion between the title of a city and the seat of
19873-425: The status. City status was officially granted by letters patent dated 26 January 2022. They were presented to Southend Borough Council by Charles, Prince of Wales , on 1 March 2022. An announcement on 20 May 2022 declared that eight new cities were to be created from the shortlist, with at least one in every UK country as well as in overseas locations . In England, Milton Keynes, Colchester and Doncaster were to be
20040-579: The street and alehouse. Knights tells how in 1716 the mayoral election had ended in a riot, with both sides throwing "brick-ends and great paving stones" at each other. A renowned Jacobite watering-hole, the Blue Bell Inn (nowadays The Bell Hotel ), owned in the early 18th century by the high-church Helwys family, became the central rendezvous of the Norwich Revolution Society in the 1790s. Britain's first provincial newspaper,
20207-517: The successful candidate was Exeter . In 2012 a further competition was held, as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, with Armagh receiving the distinction. Other than Armagh, eleven cities had entered the contest in 2012, namely: Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Lancaster, Newport , Peterborough , Salford, Southampton, St Albans, Sunderland, and Wakefield . Since local government reorganisation in 1974 city status has been awarded to
20374-757: The surrounding district off Vauxhall Street, consisting of swathes of terrace housing that were condemned as slums. This also included the whole West Pottergate district, which contained a mix of 18th and 19th-century cottages and terraced housing, pubs and shops. Post-war housing and maisonettes flats now stand where the Rookery slums once did. Some aspects of The '45 Plan were put into action, which saw large three-story Edwardian houses in Grove Avenue and Grove Road, and other large properties on Southwell Road, demolished in 1962 to make way for flat-roofed single-story style maisonettes that still stand today. Heigham Hall,
20541-433: The textile centre of Manchester —and the fact that it had (at the time) a larger population than the City of Dublin . Following some legal debate, city status was conferred in 1888. The grant of the honour on the grounds of being a large industrial town, rather than a diocesan centre, was unprecedented. Belfast's example was soon followed by Birmingham in England and Dundee in Scotland. In 1994, Armagh's city status
20708-508: The time made public, had the effect of stemming the number of city creations. The 1907 policy contained three criteria: However, well into the 20th century it was often assumed that the presence of a cathedral was sufficient to elevate a town to city status, and that for cathedral cities the city charters were recognising its city status rather than granting it. On this basis, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica said that Southwell and St Asaph were cities. The policy laid down by Edward VII
20875-401: The time. A new road, Rouen Road, was developed instead, consisting mainly of light industrial units and council flats. Ber Street , a once historic main road into the city, had its whole eastern side demolished. About this time, the final part of St Peters Street, opposite St Peter Mancroft Church, were demolished along with large Georgian townhouses at the top of Bethel Street, to make way for
21042-412: The title city for any other burgh. In 1969, the Home Secretary, James Callaghan , stated that there were six cities in Scotland (without naming them) and Aberdeen , Dundee , Edinburgh , Elgin , Glasgow and Perth were the only burghs listed as cities in 1972. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 completely reorganised Scotland's local administration in 1975. All burghs were abolished, and
21209-421: The title civitas , but the term city does not seem to have been used before the 15th century. Unlike the situation in England, in Scotland there was no link between the presence of a cathedral and the title of city . Aberdeen , Glasgow and Edinburgh were accepted as cities by ancient usage by the 18th century, while Perth and Elgin also used the title. In 1856, the burgh of Dunfermline resolved to use
21376-401: The title of city in all official documents in the future, based on long usage and its former status as a royal capital. The status was not officially recognised until 2022. In 1889, Dundee was granted city status by letters patent. The grant by formal document led to doubts about the use of the title city by other burghs. In 1891, the city status of Aberdeen was confirmed when the burgh
21543-441: The title of Royal Borough in 2012. Rochester was recognised as a city from 1211 to 1998. On 1 April 1974, the city council was abolished, becoming part of the Borough of Medway , a local government district in the county of Kent . However, under letters patent the former city council area was to continue to be styled the "City of Rochester" to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of
21710-498: The town to the rank of a city, and started referring to itself as the City and Borough of Ripon . The next diocese formed was Manchester and its Borough Council began informally to use the title city . When Queen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851, widespread doubts surrounding its status were raised. The pretension was ended when the borough petitioned for city status, which was granted by letters patent in 1853. This eventually forced Ripon to regularise its position; its city status
21877-490: The urban areas, for example the cities of Bradford , Leeds and Winchester . Three non-local authority preservations arose: here charter trustees were established for the cities of Lichfield and Salisbury (or New Sarum) being neither districts nor civil parishes, and special letters patent for a time preserved the city of Rochester . In 1977, as part of the celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II ,
22044-416: The various local authorities that held city status ceased to exist on 1 April 1974. To preserve city status new letters patent were issued to the most relevant metropolitan borough , non-metropolitan district or successor parish councils created by the Act. Some of these came to cover local government districts many times wider than the previous city, even taking in many square miles of rural land outside
22211-418: The visit to renew its request. Leicester had a population of approximately 230,000 at the previous census, but its petition was granted as an exception to the policy, as it was officially a restoration of a dignity lost in the past. When the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent applied for city status in 1925, it was initially refused as it had only 294,000 inhabitants. The decision was overturned, however, as it
22378-420: The war as 1793, a major city manufacturer and government supporter, Robert Harvey, complained of low order books, languid trade and doubling of the poor rate. Like many of their Norwich forebears, the hungry poor took their complaints onto the streets. Hayes describes a meeting of 200 people in a Norwich public house, where "Citizen Stanhope" spoke. The gathering "[roared its] applause at Stanhope's declaration that
22545-467: The war — giving Norwich the highest air raid casualties in Eastern England. Out of the 35,000 domestic dwellings in Norwich, 2,000 were destroyed, and another 27,000 suffered some damage. In 1945 the city was also the intended target of a brief V-2 rocket campaign, though all these missed the city itself. As the war ended, the city council revealed what it had been working on before the war. It
22712-427: The winding River Wensum that flows through the city centre towards Norwich Castle . In May 2012, Norwich was designated England's first UNESCO City of Literature . One of the UK's popular tourist destinations, it was voted by The Guardian in 2016 as the "happiest city to work in the UK" and in 2013 as one of the best small cities in the world by The Times Good University Guide . In 2018, 2019 and 2020, Norwich
22879-491: The years", became the third road in Britain to be equipped with sleeping policemen , intended to encourage adherence to the road's 30 mph (48 km/h) speed limit. The bumps, installed at intervals of 50 and 150 yards (46 and 137 m), stretched 12 feet (3.7 m) across the width of the road and their curved profile was, at its highest point, 4 in (10 cm) high. The responsible quango gave an assurance that
23046-552: Was second only to London. Today, it is the largest settlement in East Anglia . Norwich claims to be the most complete medieval city in the United Kingdom. It includes cobbled streets such as Elm Hill , Timber Hill and Tombland; ancient buildings such as St Andrew's Hall ; half-timbered houses such as Dragon Hall , The Guildhall and Strangers' Hall ; the Art Nouveau of the 1899 Royal Arcade ; many medieval lanes; and
23213-569: Was "part of London with little individual identity". When the competition was held to mark the Golden Jubilee of 2002, Croydon made a sixth application, again unsuccessful. It was joined by the London Borough of Greenwich , which emphasised its royal and maritime connections, while claiming to be "to London what Versailles is to Paris". In this vein Greenwich joined Kingston-upon-Thames and Kensington and Chelsea in London in having
23380-465: Was "the county town of the King's Duchy of Lancaster". Following the Second World War , members of Cambridge Borough Council made contact with Lancaster officials for assistance in their application. Cambridge became a city in 1951, again for "exceptional" reasons, as the only ancient seat of learning in the kingdom not a city or royal burgh and to coincide with the 750th anniversary of
23547-577: Was a textile centre. In the 1780s the manufacture of Norwich shawls became an important industry and remained so for nearly a hundred years. The shawls were a high-quality fashion product and rivalled those of other towns such as Paisley , which had entered shawl manufacturing in about 1805, some 20 or more years after Norwich. With changes in women's fashion in the later Victorian period , the popularity of shawls declined and eventually manufacture ceased. Examples of Norwich shawls are now sought after by collectors of textiles. Norwich's geographical isolation
23714-572: Was bought by Nestlé and closed in 1996, with all operations moving to York after a Norwich association of 120 years. The demolished factory stood where the Chapelfield development is now. Caley's chocolate has since reappeared as a brand in the city, though it is no longer made there. HMSO , once the official publishing and stationery arm of the British government and one of the largest print buyers, printers and suppliers of office equipment in
23881-412: Was considered favourably by the Home Secretary, William Joynson-Hicks , who had once been a Member of Parliament (MP) for a neighbouring constituency of Manchester North West . Following protests from Portsmouth , which felt it had better credentials as a larger town and as the "first Naval Port of the kingdom", both applications were approved in 1926. In 1927, a Royal Commission on Local Government
24048-536: Was continued by his successor, George V , who ascended the throne in 1910. In 1911, an application for city status by Portsmouth was refused. Explaining the Home Secretary 's reason for not recommending the King to approve the petition, the Lord Advocate stated: ...during the reign of his late Majesty it was found necessary, in order to maintain the value of the distinction, to lay down a rule as to
24215-495: Was enlarged by local Act of Parliament. The Royal Burgh of Inverness applied for promotion to a city as part of the Jubilee honours in 1897. The request was not granted, partly because it would draw attention to the lack of any charter granting the title to existing cities. Aberdeen , Dundee , Edinburgh and Glasgow were constituted "counties of cities" by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 . The Act made no statement on
24382-526: Was established in the city with the completion of Britannia Barracks in 1897. The Bethel Street and Cattle Market Street drill halls were built around the same time. In the early 20th century, Norwich still had several major manufacturing industries. Among them were the large-scale and bespoke manufacture of shoes (for example the Start-rite and Van Dal brands, Bowhill & Elliott and Cheney & Sons Ltd respectively), clothing, joinery (including
24549-465: Was estimated to be 144,000 in 2021, which was an increase from 143,135 in 2019. The wider built-up area had a population of 213,166 in 2019. As the seat of the See of Norwich, the city has one of the country's largest medieval cathedrals. For much of the second millennium, from medieval to just before industrial times, Norwich was one of the most prosperous and largest towns of England; at one point, it
24716-508: Was examining local council areas and functions in England and Wales. The question arose as to which towns were entitled to be called cities, and the chairman, the Earl of Onslow , wrote to the Home Office to seek clarification. The Home Office replied with a memorandum that read: The title of a city which is borne by certain boroughs is a purely titular distinction. It has no connexion with
24883-409: Was felt to have outstanding importance as the centre of the pottery industry. The effective relaxation of the population rule led to applications from Portsmouth and Salford . The civil servants in the Home Office were minded to refuse both applications. In particular, Salford was felt to be "merely a scratch collection of 240,000 people cut off from Manchester by the river". Salford's case, however,
25050-588: Was founded, followed ten years later by the Franciscan Friary and Dominican Friary. The Great Hospital dates from 1249 and the College of St Mary in the Field from 1250. In 1256, Whitefriars was founded. In 1266 the city was sacked by the "Disinherited". It has the distinction of being the only English city ever to be excommunicated, following a riot between citizens and monks in 1274. From 1280 to 1340
25217-581: Was impossible, and aware that in a city built largely of wood the threat of fire was uppermost in people's minds, Bignold formed the "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire". The new business, which became known as the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Office, was a "mutual" enterprise. Norwich Union would later become the country's largest insurance giant. From earliest times, Norwich
25384-464: Was in fact significantly under the actual amount: the highest number of pubs in the city was in the year 1870, with over 780 beer-houses. A "Drink Map" produced in 1892 by the Norwich and Norfolk Gospel Temperance Union showed 631 pubs in and around the city centre. By 1900, the number had dropped to 441 pubs within the City Walls. The title of a pub for every day of the year survived until 1966, when
25551-438: Was later, under her married name of Fry, to become a noted campaigner for prison reform). Their activities included visits to revolutionary France (before the execution of Louis XVI ), the earliest British research into German literature, studies on medical science, petitioning for parliamentary reform, and publishing a highbrow literary magazine called "The Cabinet", in 1795. Their blend of politics, religion and social campaigning
25718-404: Was named as a city in 1897 as part of the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria . Since the second Millennium, competitions have been arranged by the UK government to grant the status to settlements. In 2021 submissions for city status were invited to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II , with Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories being allowed to take part for
25885-606: Was not just the Norwich rabble who were causing the government concern. In April of that year, the Norwich Patriotic Society was founded, its manifesto declaring "that the great end of civil society was general happiness; that every individual had a right to share in the government." In December the price of bread reached a new peak, and in May 1796, when William Windham was forced to seek re-election after his appointment as war secretary, he only just held his seat. Amid
26052-521: Was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office 's list of cities. The council campaigned unsuccessfully to be one of 2012 Diamond Jubilee cities. The campaign's "City of Medway" logo was used on a council tourism leaflet titled "Historic Rochester and Maritime Chatham " until the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a 2010 complaint that it misleadingly implied Medway had "officially been granted city status" because "readers of
26219-418: Was not without opposition from the Home Office , which dismissed St Albans as "a fourth or fifth rate market town" and objected to Wakefield 's elevation on grounds of population. In one new diocese, Southwell , a city was not created, because it was a village without a borough corporation and therefore could not petition the Queen. The diocese covered the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire , and
26386-501: Was published as a book – The City of Norwich Plan 1945 or commonly known as "The '45 Plan" – a grandiose scheme of massive redevelopment which never properly materialised. However, throughout the 1960s to early 1970, the city was completely altered and large areas of Norwich were cleared to make way for modern redevelopment. In 1960, the inner-city district of Richmond, between Ber Street and King Street, locally known as "the Village on
26553-533: Was recognised by Act of Parliament in 1865. From this year Ripon bore city status whilst the rapidly expanding conurbation of Leeds – in the Ripon diocese – did not. The Manchester case established a precedent that any municipal borough in which an Anglican see was established was entitled to petition for city status. Accordingly, Truro , St Albans , Liverpool , Newcastle upon Tyne and Wakefield were all officially designated as cities between 1877 and 1888. This
26720-453: Was restored. In 2002, Lisburn and Newry were two of the five towns in the UK that were granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Golden Jubilee. In the case of Lisburn , the status extended to the entire local government district. Newry , like Inverness and Stirling in Scotland, has no formal boundaries or city council. The letters patent were presented to representatives of Newry and Mourne District Council on behalf of
26887-477: Was seen by Pitt and Windham as suspicious, prompting Pitt to denounce Norwich as "the Jacobin city". Edmund Burke attacked John Gurney in print for sponsoring anti-war protests. In the 1790s, Norwich was second only to London as an active intellectual centre in England, and that it did not regain that level of prominence until the University of East Anglia was established in the late 20th century. By 1795, it
27054-585: Was set off by accident in the city centre, causing mayhem. According to Hopper, the explosion "ranks among the largest of the century". Stoutly defended though East Anglia was by the Parliamentary army, there were said to have been pubs in Norwich where the king's health was still drunk and the name of the Protector sung to ribald verse. At the cost of some discomfort to the Mayor, the moderate Joseph Hall
27221-484: Was such that until 1845, when a railway link was established, it was often quicker to travel to Amsterdam by boat than to London. The railway was introduced to Norwich by Morton Peto , who also built a line to Great Yarmouth . 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 . A permanent military presence
27388-650: Was targeted because of his position as Bishop of Norwich. 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 in
27555-472: Was temporarily lost until new letters patent were issued in November of the same year. In 1992, on the fortieth anniversary of the monarch's accession, it was announced that another town would be elevated to a city. An innovation on this occasion was that a competition was to be held, and communities would be required to submit applications. Sunderland was the successful applicant. This was followed in 1994 by
27722-519: Was the local government district that officially held city status under the 1982 letters patent, when it was abolished, it also ceased to be a city. Whilst the two other local government districts with city status ( Bath and Hereford ) that were abolished around this time decided to appoint charter trustees to maintain the existence of the city and the mayoralty, Rochester-upon-Medway City Council did not do so. Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, they discovered that Rochester
27889-636: Was voted one of the "Best Places To Live" in the UK by The Sunday Times . The capital of the Iceni tribe was a settlement located near to the village of Caistor St Edmund on the River Tas about 5 mi (8 km) to the south of modern Norwich. After an uprising led by Boudica in about 60 CE, the Caistor area became the Roman capital of East Anglia named Venta Icenorum , literally "marketplace of
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