The Norwich Road: An East Anglian HighwayHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Norwich Road: An East Anglian Highway
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Description and travel; Norwich Road
"Caistor was a city when Norwich was none,
And Norwich was built of Caistor stone,"
and if Norwich partook of Caistor's building materials, why not, in
degree, Newton Flotman? But a whisper. Caistor was never more than a
camp, and not at any time a place of houses, much less of stone ones.
Stone is not to be found in this neighbourhood, and flint only, of
which Norwich is principally built, is available for building materials.
[Illustration: TASBURGH.]
One object in Newton Flotman that puzzles the passing stranger is a
little effigy of Bacchus fixed on the wall of the "Maid's Head" Inn,
so thickly covered with successive coats of paint that it is difficult
to give it a period. Remains of Roman antiquities are so many in this
district that it is often mistaken for a work of that classic age,
when it can really claim no higher antiquity than that of the late
eighteenth century, a time when figures of the kind were a usual
decoration of inn signs. Such an one still swings from the wrought-iron
sign of the "Angel" at Woolhampton, on the Bath Road.
In the woody valley of the Tase beyond Newton Flotman lies Dunston,
trees casting a protecting and secretive shade over it, and the "Dun
Cow" Inn its only roadside representative. That inn and the circular
brick pound for strayed sheep and cattle redeem the last few miles into
Norwich from absolute emptiness. When the pound last was used who shall
say? The tramps have played havoc with it, and its wooden gate has
gone. The ancient office of pound-keeper is here evidently fallen into
disuse.
Swainsthorpe's octagonal church tower is seen on the level to the left,
but Caistor, in like manner with Dunston, is sunk deep in foliage, half
a mile or more away in the valley, its church tower rising like a grey
beacon from amid the trees, to tell the curious where its ancient camp
may be found. Caistor St Edmunds, to give its full name, is the site of
the great Roman camp established here to overawe the stronghold of the
Iceni, four miles away on the banks of the Wensum, and now the site of
Norwich.
[Illustration: NEWTON FLOTMAN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account