The story of Norfolk and its people began almost a million years ago on the foreshore at Happisburgh. It has a history stretching back into the dimmest mists of time, across whose soil some of our most celebrated national fi gures have walked – from Boudica, to Mary Tudor and Elizabeth, Nelson and Turnip Townshend, Elizabeth Fry and Edith Cavell. Everywhere bears the imprint of that past and every chapter in its history is fascinating. It is a county of great houses, of sweeping parks and large estates, but there are many smaller and no less attractive manor houses and Georgian rectories, often circled by moats or set in intimate parklands of their own. It is a county of small, twisting roads, of lost railways and of reedy waterways plied by pleasure boats. Norfolk has several hundred small villages set amid a scatter of often beautiful and always historically rich market towns. At the centre is Norwich, one of the great historic cities of Europe, with a remarkable heritage of medieval churches, monastic buildings, cathedrals, a great castle, and a glorious assemblage of domestic and commercial architecture. Historian Chris Barringer lost his heart to Norfolk when he moved there in 1966. He became passionate about its landscapes and its extraordinarily rich history, and A History of Norfolk brings together half a lifetime’s experience of walking the fields, exploring the towns and villages, researching a treasury of archives, and absorbing the unique magic of this wonderful county.

Table of Contents:
Foreword ix Preface xi Introduction 1 The setting 2 The human story 6 The early settlement of Norfolk 11 The Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) 12 The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) 15 The Neolithic (New Stone Age) 16 The Bronze and Iron Ages in Norfolk 23 The Iron Age 26 Roman Norfolk 35 The Roman conquest and its background 35 Material evidence of the Roman presence in Norfolk 37 The road network and the countryside 39 Caistor by Norwich and other towns 43 Forts 47 Norfolk under the Anglo Saxons and Vikings 51 Place-names as a guide to settlement 59 The local Church, 500 to 1066 60 The Viking period 64 Towns in Norfolk 65 A summary of Dark Age Norfolk 69 The Norman Conquest and its aftermath 70 Norwich: the new capital of East Anglia 77 The other towns of post-Conquest Norfolk 85 The Norman Church in Norfolk 97 Early medieval Norfolk 105 Breckland 111 The Fens 114 The Broads 116 Woodland 117 The Black Death (1349) 118 The towns between 1150 and 1350 120 Wool, sheep and textiles 133 The evolution of Norwich stuffs 141 Churches and parishes 145 From Black Death to Reformation 165 The land, 1330 to 1550 166 The Rising of 1381 in Norfolk 168 Monastic houses as landowners 170 Some major families 172 Boroughs, markets and guilds 178 The lives of the `middling sort’ 182 The Dissolution 184 Kett’s Rebellion of 1549 187 The Fens 191 The new farming 201 Norfolk from 1550 to 1750 205 Faith and belief 207 The impact of the Dissolution 212 The views of visitors 216 The social structure of the county 219 The land 222 New estates and new farming 223 The yeomen 228 Matters of faith: challenge and dissent 229 The Civil Wars and Commonwealth 231 The Nonconformist churches 234 The survival of Catholicism 236 Schools 238 The poor 240 Architecture and buildings 244 Francis Blomefield (1705–1752) 248 Norfolk from 1750 to 1830 249 Parliamentary enclosure 254 Church and chapel 260 Social issues and rural discontent 264 Rivers and roads 267 Changing towns 272 The Broads 289 The impact of man in Broadland 291 Early tourism 294 The grazing marshes and coastal protection 296 Conservation and management 298 Commerce and tourism 301 Vernacular architecture in Norfolk 303 Stylistic changes 317 Estate maps 318 Farm buildings 318 The towns 321 Three case studies 325 Conclusion 327 Norfolk from 1830 to 1914 329 Churches, chapels and schools 330 The New Poor Law 336 Social change 340 The towns 344 `Poppyland’ and the Railway Coast 363 The great estates 371 The nineteenth century in Norfolk: a summary 375 Norfolk from 1914 to 1945 377 The First World War 378 The county between the wars 380 Norwich and the towns 385 The Second World War 391 After the Two Wars 397 Movement 399 Social provision 403 Changing agriculture 405 Building conservation 408 Nature conservation 412 The towns 414 Conclusion 430 Conclusion 433 Agricultural terms used in Norfolk 435 References 436 Index 445