Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Many thanks to Sylvia for bringing Ebenezer Cobham Brewer to our attention on Tuesday.  He was born in Norwich and famous for writing, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar and Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.  To find out more please select the following link:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Cobham_Brewer

Maharaja Duleep Singh

There is a statue of Maharaja Duleep Singh on Butten Island in Thetford.  So who is he?  Why is there a Sikh statue in Thetford?  He was the last Sikh ruler, removed by the British and exiled to Britain in 1854.  Where did he live on the Norfolk/Suffolk border?  Which member of the royal family was he a firm favourite of?  The following article talks about his life and the 2022 exhibition at the Norwich Archive centre.  To find out more please select the following link:  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-63225177

Thomas Fowell Buxton

For those that enjoyed last week's talk from Alison Dow and would like to learn a little more about Thomas, here is a related article.  The article is more related to his life in London but hopefully you will find it of interest.  I need to make a note to look out for his grave the next time I am in Overstrand:  

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/thomas-fowell-buxton/

Taverham Mill

I walked over to the Taverham Mill nature reserve the other day and enjoyed some pleasant tea and cake in their cafe.  On the wall was the below picture and some history of Taverham Mill, it must have a been a real hive of activity at it’s peak which is in contrast to the lovely peaceful surroundings of today’s nature reserve.  I thought that a related article would be of interest.  

https://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Watermills/taverham.html

Wanderings of a Fallible Flaneur

Colin has made a recent post to his blog “Wanderings of a Fallible Flaneur” describing his visit to St Margaret’s Stratton Strawless.  Please select the following link to find out more.  You may also wish to explore his blog:  

https://thefallibleflaneur.blogspot.com/2025/02/stratton-strawless-st-margaret-always.html

Augustine Briggs

One of the tokens that Adrian Marsden showed us on Tuesday was issued by Augustine Briggs, a grocer, a Royalist who became Mayor.  Here is an article about Augustine with some contributions from Adrian:  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-67772625

Photos From Guildhall Tour

I attended a tour of the above on Friday and here are some photos that I took.  The first is of some medieval graffiti which are love hearts carved into the crypt where Kett and other prisoners were kept.  These may well have been messages to loved ones in the prisoners' final days.  

Here is some graffiti of a boat from the same crypt.  It doesn’t seem certain whether the boats represented a vocation or whether they were a vessel of travel (e.g. escape or means of travel through purgatory), we will probably never know.  

The final photo is a picture of the wall around Norwich.  We are all aware that the wall didn’t extend to the area behind the cathedral and Bishop’s Bridge but I wasn’t aware that the gap in the wall was so large at St Martin’s Gate (top left in the photo) which in my view would make the city vulnerable to attack.  Obviously the river was the defensive barrier in these areas but as we know from Kett’s rebellion, a committed force could get over the river.  Anyway the other main purpose of the wall was for the collection of tolls and this along with the river performed an excellent perimeter for this purpose.