St Vedast Street
St Vedast Street
There have been several changes of street name in the area. St Vedast Street was formerly Cathedral Street South and Mountergate is shown on Hochstetter’s Map of the City, dated 1789, as part of St Faith’s Lane. How it came to be so called is explained by Hudson as follows: In
Norwich the name Vaast (the original form of Vedast)
being locally pronounced Vaist, or Faist, became confused
with Faith, owing to the familiarity of the people with
the name of St Faith through the popular horse and cattle
fair at Horsham St Faith’s, near Norwich, called St
Faith’s Fair. Until quite recent times the name continued to be perpetuated in Mountergate by the St Faith’s Tavern, which stood at the corner of this and Synagogue Street. As to the name “Mountergate” this derives from the parish in which it is situated, long known as St Peter Permountergate, but now more correctly as Parmentergate after the leatherdressers, skinners or parchment makers who traded there. Not until 1860 was Prince of Wales Road constructed as a grand approach to Thorpe Station. Running southeast from Bank Plain and Castle Meadow, it was built over land once occupied by the monastery of the Greyfriars, of which nothing now remains except a length of the precinct wall along the upper part of St Faith’s Lane. An ancient stone bridge that straddled a dyke adjacent to the Horse Fair Green was destroyed early in the twentieth century; it was considered to have been the work of the Greyfriars when they built their wall. Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2004 |
A plaque in St Vedast Street at the
southern end of Rose Lane marks the site of the
pre-Conquest church of that name. Here, built into the
angle of a house, was discovered a large stone of
apparent antiquity. In 1896 the house was pulled down to
widen the street, and the opportunity was then taken to
investigate the stone. After the removal of several coats
of whitewash and paint, long-hidden designs were
partially revealed on two of its sides. Dr Browne, then
Bishop of Stepney and a leading authority on such
matters, happened to be in Norwich at this time and he
considered it to be probably a portion of a churchyard
cross of Scandinavian type of about 920 AD. An
illustrated paper on the subject by the Rev William
Hudson was published in Norfolk Archaeology Volume
13; the stone itself was presented to the Norwich Castle
museum by its purchaser Mr F. B. Crowe.