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A remarkable true story

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In my twenties, as a newly qualified teacher, I worked in a classroom that had a kitchen in it. It was as odd as it sounds: about a third of the classroom had been partitioned off by a half-wall so that cookery lessons could happen there. As you can imagine the noises and the smells were a bit distracting when I was trying to teach but in reality it was only for about a quarter of an hour a day (as most of the lesson happened in the lunch hour). The one advantage of this set-up was that the wonderful woman who led the sessions: Sheila used to sneak me little freshly-out of the-oven treats. I was in that room for three years. Towards the end of that time Sheila, who was generally a private person, started to open up and chat more and more. I got to the point where I felt I could ask her why, when she was German, her name was Sheila. 'Oh it's not really Sheila, it's Gisella. I felt a need to change it when I first arrived here in England.' And then she told me her rema

Three Stories from Norwich cathedral: one true, one legend (sort of) and one fiction

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Story Number 1: True: The Riots of 1272 Some of the monks were put to death by the rioters. Every year in this period of history, a fair was held in Tombland on Trinity Sunday at which the prior had a given right to impose tolls on any sales. On 12th June 1272 a squabble broke out (almost definitely over these resented tolls) and at least one citizen was killed. This lead to an inquest which resulted in the city's coroner issuing warrants for some of the prior's men, 'wherever they be found.' The significance of this was that it implied they could be arrested within the grounds of the priory. This was an affront to the prior's jurisdiction and his inflated response was to excommunicated the citizens, shut the gates to the Close and send for mercenaries from Yarmouth with the intention that they would help defend the walls of the Close. Over the next few weeks men from the priory increased tensions by carrying out a raid on a local tavern and a house and firing f

Some slightly random snippets of Norwich history

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Norwich's Thatches In Tudor times a ban on thatched roofing was brought in because of the extra fire risk a thatch brings. The legacy of this is that there are very few thatched buildings in Norwich - despite there being so many old buildings. I originally read that there were only five thatched buildings, however, I found a sixth! A) Britons Arms - the only building on Elm Hill to survive the fire of 1507 has had many uses: a house of surgeons, place of weaving and saddle making. It was also - more unusually - a Beguinages which was a female community that was dedicated to religious worship without taking formal vows. These were common in the Netherlands but this was the only one known of in England. B) Pykerell's House - House of Thomas Pykerell who died in 1545 and was mayor of Norwich three times. This house has a great hall. C) Hampshire Hog Yard - behind the Arts' Centre. It was a pub for many years. D) Barking Dicky - . It was once a pub called the Light H

51 quirky features of Norwich Cathedral that you can go and find

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I have always loved Norwich Cathedral as it is beautiful and atmospheric. But it turns out that it is also loaded with a hotchpotch of history as building started in 1096. The more I learn about it, the more fascinated I become. So here are my recommendations for what to look out for should you ever visit the cathedral. 1) The Elizabethan grave of Thomas Gooding Thomas was a mason of the cathedral. He paid a fair amount of money to be buried upright because he believed this would give him an advantage come judgement day. At the base of his memorial is a typical of its time, poignantly death-focused inscription: 'All you that do this pass bye Remember death for you must dye As you are now even so was I And as I am so shall you be Thomas Gooding here do staye Wayting for God's judgement day' If you look at the skeleton, you will see there is poor knowledge of anatomy. 2) The grave of the baby that died before she was born . I have been told that this is be