Earlham Road
Earlham Road By St Giles’ Gate in
the district of Heigham stood the Grapes Hotel
(right), a late Georgian house that had undergone various
alterations at different times. Perhaps the most drastic
was the insertion of shop fronts on either side of the
original pillared doorway.During the raids of the 27th-29th April 1942, the upper floors of the building were gutted, but the ground floor was saved and continued in use until a few years after the war, when a new building (not a hotel) was built. A small lead plate transferred from the old house and dated 1811 marked the boundary of the then parish of Heigham St Bartholomew. It carries the initials “H.B.” and the saint’s symbol of a knife, with which he is said to have been flayed alive. The plate is unique in being the only one of its kind marking a parish outside the city walls. The post-war building was itself replaced in 2006. The tall building to the left of the Grapes dated from late Victorian times. While the half occupied by the Midland Bank was not greatly damaged in the raids, the other half, then occupied by Yaxley’s wireless shop but previously by the West End Grocery Stores, was burned down completely. My photograph was taken on Sunday morning, 8th October 1933, when workmen were renewing the tram track, unaware that the whole system was to be abandoned little more than two years later. |
 At the other and of
Earlham Road in 1937 I photographed Earlham Bridge
Cottages (left), a pair of semi-detached dwellings
picturesquely situated in a corner of Earlham Park
opposite St Mary’s church. Of modest size, they
consisted mainly of ground-floor accommodation, with
additional rooms in the roof space lit by two small
dormers on the south side and a window in each gable end.
Today they would be called chalet bungalows. The windows
and doors on the north side had pointed arches in
“Churchwarden Gothic” style - a popular feature
during the first half of the nineteenth century - while
the tall central chimneystack had shafts of moulded brick
such as might have come from the Costessey brickfields.At the time of my photograph the Norwich Society was expressing the hope that the cottages might be made fit by careful conservation and the addition of modern amenities, but the idea was not taken up and demolition eventually followed. Although for much of its length to the south and west of Norwich the River Yare forms the boundary between city and county, here at Earlham the city encroaches for some yards beyond the bridge, perhaps because the river has taken a different course at this point since the boundary was fixed. Nevertheless, under the Tonnage Act of 1726 the county undertook to see to the maintenance and repair of the bridge here, along with those at Cringleford, Harford and Old Lakenham. Later on the railway company took over Old Lakenham Bridge, after raising the road to make a better approach to their adjoining bridge over the Norwich-Ely-Peterborough line. |
 Of Earlham Bridge,
the historian Francis Blomefield had this to say, that
it:was
built of Stone in 1502, by the Will of Tho. Bachcroft of
Little Melton, who gave his Estate to be sold for that
Purpose, and to make a Stone Cross by it, and put on it a
Scripture, desiring the Passengers to pray for his Soul,
and the Souls of Margaret his Wife, his Father’s and
Mother’s, and of Tho. Northwold and Margaret his
Wife. It was rebuilt in 1579, and now again in 1744. An even earlier bridge here is mentioned by name in 1461 in the draft of a charter setting forth the city boundaries. The 1744 bridge comprised a single arch of stone, with the road sloping gently down from east to west. By 1961 its narrow width had rendered it quite inadequate to take the considerable increase in road traffic, and plans were drawn up to replace it. The new bridge, with both a wider carriageway and increased river span, was completed and opened to traffic by the beginning of 1964; the old bridge, which remained standing a few yards to the north, was fenced off, but it was not to remain so for long. Because of vandalism and natural deterioration, as well as the high cost of maintenance that its retention would have entailed, it fell beneath the combined onslaught of a dragline and ball and chain in August 1971. Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2004 Full
Earlham Road photo archive |