Swanton
Abbot, Subsidy Taxes, 1522. The original document is in the
custody of the Public Record Office. The 1522 record is a valuation
that led to the subsidy of 1524. It records the wealth of individuals
in land, goods and cattle and other sources of income. The poor are
usually simply recorded as 'nihil' (nothing). It is not a record of tax
paid. A muster was called at the same time. The original 98 page
document is in exceptionally good condition and lists the poor in each
parish. The 1522 muster was called as an excuse to assess the
value of
individual holdings, with a view to later levying a tax, which occurred
in 1524.[42]
A "billman" is one who uses, or is armed with, a
bill. The bill was a polearm used by infantry in Europe in the Viking
Age by Vikings and Anglo-Saxons as well as in the 14th, 15th, and 16th
centuries. It was a national weapon of the English, but was also common
elsewhere, especially in Italy. Derived originally from the
agricultural billhook, the bill consisted of a hooked chopping blade
with several pointed projections mounted on a staff. The end of the
cutting blade curves forward to form a hook, which is the bill's
distinguishing characteristic. In addition, the blade almost
universally had one pronounced spike straight off the top like a spear
head, and also a hook or spike mounted on the 'reverse' side of the
blade. There were many types of bill. English bills tended to be
relatively short, with broad chopping heads, while Italian bills
(ronche) often had very long thrusting points. The English
distinguished between several varieties of bill, including the black,
brown, and forest bills, but the differences between them are currently
not fully understood. George Silver, writing in 1599, stated that the
(military) black bill should be 5 or 6 feet (1.8 m) long, while the
forest bill (civilian) should be 8 or 9 feet (2.7 m) long. The bill is
similar in size, function and appearance to the halberd, differing
mainly in the hooked blade form. One advantage that it had over other
polearms was that while it had the stopping power of a spear and the
power of an axe, it also had the addition of a pronounced hook. If the
sheer power of a swing did not fell the horse or its rider, the bills
hooks were excellent at finding a chink in the plate armour of
cavalrymen at the time, dragging the unlucky horseman off his mount to
be finished off with either a sword or the bill itself. These
characteristics also made it effective against heavily armoured
infantry, dragging them into the melee or exploiting the weak points in
their armour. The small point found on the trailing edge of some bills
was useful for puncturing armor as well -- concentrating the force of
the blow onto the point. During the 16th century when most European
states were adopting the pike and arquebus, the English preferred to
stick with the tried and tested combination of bill and English longbow
that had been so successful during the Hundred Years' War, the Wars of
the Roses and in constant conflicts with the Scots. Even in the
Elizabethan period bills were still common with levies sent to fight
the Scots. The Battle of Flodden Field (1513) was a classic match
between Continental-style Pikes formations (Scots) and Billmen
(English). Along with the pike, the bill is mentioned as being one of
the main weapons of the Irish rebels in Ulster during the 1798
rebellion. Nowadays smaller versions are used as agricultural tools and
as kitchen appliances.[Wikipedia]
Variously
spelt Swanton Abbot & Swanton Abbott. Both appear to be
officially
used. The church is more or less at the centre of the parish, but there
is hardly a house in sight, only the village school for company. The
streets where the people live are half a mile away, in two groups, to
the north and the south. In some ways, St Michael is a typical East
Anglian church, a 14th century tower with a 15th century rebuilding of
the nave and chancel, the most common arrangement. There are no aisles,
no clerestory, just a wide nave spanned by a single roof. There are
some serious gargoyles draining the roof, which was replaced
in
the 1970s, the old one being unable to cope with the span. St Michael's
is situated on a hill top where there has
been a church since Anglo Saxon times although no trace of the original
church is visible today. Rebuilding of the present church in stone
started with the Tower in about 1340 and ended with the Chancel a
century later. St Michael's continues to operate as a house of
religion, with services most weeks, run by the priest at
nearby
North Walsham.[18]
1845:
"Swanton Abbott, a large scattered village, 2½ miles S.S.W. of North
Walsham, and 12 miles N. by E. of Norwich, is partly occupied by
weavers, and has in its parish 501 souls, and 1103A.2R.8P., of which
only 946 acres are assessable. The Church (St. Michael,) is a neat
structure, containing several handsome mural monuments to the Blake
family, and a fine brass of the Rev. Stephen Multon, who died in 1477.
The rectory, valued in the King's Book at £6.10s., is in the gift of
the Rev. Wm. Jex Blake, and incumbency of the Rev. Henry Evans, of
Lyng. The tithes were commuted in 1841 for £275 per annum. Here is a
Wesleyan Chapel, built in 1829. Ann Steward, in 1732, left a pightle of
land for the relief of poor widows. This land received an allotment at
the enclosure, in 1824, and the whole is now let for £4.10s. The Poor's
Allotments, awarded at the enclosure, comprise 25 acres, of which
3R.6P. is let for 30s., and the remainder is used for cutting fuel. The
poor have also 15s. a year from a rood of land given by Andrew Garland,
in 1710; and an annuity of 5s., left by Sarah Young, in 1732, out of
Mr. Blake's estate. In 1732, Ann Steward left 5A.24P. of land for
repairing the church, and it is now let for £8.5s. a year."[19]
North
Walsham was an Anglo-Saxon settlement. Walsham was originally a small
settlement belonging to the Danish 'Waelsing' or 'Waels' family, who
settled there sometime in the sixth century AD. Both North Walsham and
the neighbouring Worstead became very prosperous from the 12th century
through the arrival of weavers from Flanders. "Walsham" was a
light-weight cloth for summer, and "Worsted" a heavier cloth. The
14th-century "wool churches" are a testament to the prosperity of the
local mill owners. North Walsham was involved in the Peasants' Revolt
of 1381. The peasants' leaders were defeated at the Battle of North
Walsham and the site is marked by a wayside stone near the town's water
towers. In 1600 North Walsham was razed to the ground by a fire. 118
houses, 70 shops, and countless other buildings were destroyed along
with the Market Cross and stalls.[20]
The
present church of North Walsham was commenced about the year 1330
although the Saxon Church was partially enlarged and altered around the
year 1275. Work was interrupted by the 'Black Death' Plague in 1348 and
again in 1361. During the peasant revolts, several thousand sought
sanctuary in the church, pursued by the Bishop of Norwich. The bishop
had all inside killed and the church was badly damaged. Some time later
the same bishop restored & re-consecrated the church. The
change to
St Nicholas happened after the reformation. The Church is famed for its
unusual design with a vast spacious interior and lofty columns. In the
early eighteenth century the church was crowned with soaring tower and
spire, easily the tallest building in the locality, being second in
height only to Norwich Cathedral, reaching a height of 180 feet. The
tower partly collapsed in 1724 and much of what was left collapsed in
1836. The porch, one of the finest in the district, dates from the
fifteenth century and was the last major part of the church to be
built. "Memorandum May 16. Between nine and ten o'clock
in the
forenoon on the Sat. fell down the north and south sides of the steeple
and no person man woman nor child 'yt we hear of yet getting any
mischief thereby Thanks to be to God for his goodness therein."
At the front of the church is a second, short tower, which dates from
the tenth century. It is built mostly of flint & ironstone and
tiles for the external angle stones. The Saxon tower was originally
seperate from the church.[20]
St
Peter Mancroft is the largest of the Norwich churches. It was
founded possibly by Ralph de Guader, the earl of Norfolk shortly after
1066 as one of the three churches in the new ‘French Borough’ (the
others were St Stephen and St Giles). The present building was
built between 1430 and 1455. The wealth of the parish is shown by the
fact that it is entirely faced with freestone, and flint is used only
for flushwork. It retains its mediæval appearance. The glory of the
church is its east window, the best surviving example of Norwich
glass, from the fifteenth century, and contains forty-two
panels,
with stories of Christ, the Virgin, and various saints. There
are
many fine wall monuments of the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. St Peter Mancroft has always been the largest Norwich parish
church and has been particularly well endowed by the rich merchants of
central Norwich. Many of then became Mayors of the City. St Peter
Mancroft remain the centre of a thriving religious community. It is the
biggest parish church in Norwich and supports a large congregation.[19]
Mancroft Yard, which lay behind the neighbouring Free Trade Tavern, was
pulled down at the beginning of the Second World War. It had been
described by Ian Hannah as “a good example of fine old 15th century
buildings converted into squalid tenements”. There were in fact two
yards here, one behind the other, with the gabled timber-framed
building illustrated lying between the two. At the street entrance (but
now preserved in one of the Norwich museums) was a small wooden arch
bearing the grocers’ arms and a merchant’s mark in one spandrel and the
initials “M.B.” in the other. These could be the initials of Margaret
Barnard, who lived here in 1626, or those of Michael Beverley, Mayor in
1692, to whom the property later belonged. He was a grocer, but the
character of the archway seems earlier than the latter part of the
seventeenth century. On the other hand in 1626 it was certainly
unusual, if not unknown, for women to use such a mark and arms.[11]
St
Gregory’s is located at the corner of St Benedict's Street &
Charing Cross. Charing Cross was once the site of a stone
cross,
the
only one remaining in the city by the early 1700's. Known as Sherhill
cross in the fourteenth century and variously thereafter as Shereshill,
Sherergate and Shereman rowe, the cross took its name from the men who
formerly lived here, whose trade it was to shear the worsteds made on
the city’s looms. This street, like so many others, has lost buildings
through street-widening schemes. The north side was demolished in
1970. A passageway led to Lord Camden yard, one of
the oldest
in the
city, having sixteenth-century flintwork in the walls of some of its
buildings, while others were of stud and plaster.[11] St Gregory is
famous for some of the finest wall-paintings in East
Anglia. The best known is at the west end of the north aisle. It
depicts St George killing the dragon, a magnificent city behind with
the princess watching. It is fully twelve feet high, and vibrant with
colour, as if it had been taken from a giant's illuminated book of
Saints. The way the horse stares into the dying dragon's eyes is most
powerful. The church was totally rebuilt (apart from the tower) in the
14th century. The short tower was surmounted by a spire until 1840.
This tower has some evidence to suggest that it is Saxon in
origin. Following extensive restoration, since 2007 it has
been
operated by the Friends of St Gregory’s as a music and drama
centre.[11,17]
St
John the Baptist on
Timberhill is one of the smaller medieval churches in the
city.
Although The work in the east wall of the church indicates a
date
very soon after the Norman Conquest, the present church, which was
begun in 1420, replaced a previous building built in 1303. St John's
Timberhill is one of five churches in the city which were dedicated to
St John The Baptist. The site of this church was originally just
outside the Castle Bailey.
Timberhill itself was the open area to the south of the church, where a
timber market was held. The church now consists of a nave, a chancel,
and two aisles which run
the full length of both, giving a square plan. Its tower fell in 1784,
and replaced by a wooden bell-frame; this was in turn replaced by the
current stone turret in 1877. On the edge of the central shopping area,
this understated little exterior conceals a gorgeous high
Anglo-catholic interior. The building had fallen on hard times by the
19th century; the tower collapsed in the 1780s, the roof was full of
holes, and there was a massive restoration in the 1860s to bring it
back from the brink. Internally, very little medieval survived. St
John's featured in the Catholic and ritualistic 'revival' in the Church
of England and in the 1870's was restored to something like what it
would have looked like in its Medieval Roman Catholic years. St
John's was closed around 1970, but when the parish church of
St
Peter Parmentergate was found to be in need of considerable structural
rebuilding because of an unsafe tower, it was closed and St
John's reopened in 1980, maintaining the Anglo-Catholic
tradition
that made the church famous (or infamous) in the 1800's.[11,12]
Timberhill became so called because in the time of Edward III land
hereabouts was used for a market for timber. In 1507 it was
“Tymbermarket Hill,” and “14 Henry VIII Robt. Spall paid 4d. for the
Easement or convenience of laying his Timber upon the common ground at
Tymber Hill...At that time Timber was very plentifull, now the
carpenters are glad to go into the country to search it out &
buy
it there”.[11]
St
Simon & St Jude stands on the corner of Wensum & Elm
streets.
It is in the heart of Norwich and within 200 metres of 5 other churches
and literally across the road from the cathedral. No surprise that the
past century has been unkind to it. Regular services ceased in 1894,
but for a short
while after that it was used for a Sunday School, and the patronal
festival was celebrated annually until 1920. By that time decay had
already set in and the church had become smothered with ivy. In
1911 the tower collapsed and by the 1930s it had been abandoned, an ivy
covered- ruin, rapidly returning to earth. Plans to demolish the church
in the 1930's were discarded thanks to the activities of the Norwich
Society who raised money to have the church partially restored. In
1952 it was leased to the Boy Scouts
Association for use as a shop. Rather drastic modifications were made
inside to provide more rooms, but fortunately they were all
independent of the structure and could be removed. The Scouts vacated
the site in 1997 and in the decade since then the Norwich Historic
Churches trust has been restoring the church, inside and out.
Restoration was due to be completed in 2008 and the church leased to a
dance academy. A
church on the site is recorded in the Domesday Bookand it was the
Bishop’s own church before the See moved to Norwich in 1094. It was
rebuilt in its present form during the 15th century, the now lost tower
being begun in 1446. Notable residents in the parish during the 1600's
were the Pettus family who produced several mayors for the city of
Norwich. The family produced several knights during the 1600's.[9,10]
St
Michael at Coslany is noted for its remarkable display of
flushwork – patterns made with white stone against black flint. That on
the south aisle is original fifteenth century work; that on the chancel
is a remarkably good copy of 1884. The east window dates from this
restoration, too. The tower is tall, and has been heightened, as the
blocked lower belfry windows show. The parapet has shields in lozenges.
The mediæval west doors are traceried and have angels in the spandrels.
The south aisle (and demolished porch) were added in 1500, by Alderman
Gregory Clark; the chapel at its east end was added around the same
time by Robert Thorpe, as his chantry chapel. The north aisle was built
by Alderman William Ramsey in 1502-04. The south aisle is curious,
because the west end of it is one bay short
of the north aisle's west end. There must have been a simply enormous
two-storey porch here at one time. The nave was rebuilt in the early
sixteenth century, by the Stalon brothers, who were both Sheriffs.
Coslany was the heart of industrial inner-city Norwich, home to the
city's biggest brewery and some of the world's largest shoe factories;
but today, what survives of these buildings has been converted into
hi-tech offices and trendy flats. St Michael is sometimes abbreviated
to St Miles, and is recorded that way in old documents. There were four
churches dedicated to St Michael in the city, but St Miles always means
this one. Since 1995 the church is the home of the Inspire
Discovery
Centre, a 'hands-on' science exhibition, and the colourful interior is
a dramatic contrast with that of nearly seventy years ago.[16]
The
original St Peter Parmentergate was a small Norman
structure,
was presented by Roger Bigod to the Cathedral Priory in the late
eleventh century. In the fifteenth century it was completely rebuilt,
financed by the prosperity of its location on a main route through the
city, close to the merchants' quays. St Peter Parmentergate became
redundant in 1981. In 2005, after being empty for some time, the main
church building became the Norwich Centre for Martial Arts. St Peter's
is a big, urban church, and its setting is deceptive. It sits in an
overgrown graveyard towards the northern end of the Ber Street and King
Street area of social housing and rundown warehouses, an area now
undergoing regeneration. The church sits on a drastically
sloping
site, so much so that the Priest door in the chancel has a flight of
twelve steps leading up to it from the graveyard. There is a two-storey
building set immediately against the east end of the chancel which does
nothing to obscure the east window. It is a sacristy of the early 16th
century, with a gigantic image niche set in its east wall. The windows
are uniform, on both sides of the church. They are built in
the fifteenth-century Perpendicular style. The absence of any cusps in
the tracery suggests a 'no frills' building budget.[14]
St.
Giles on the Hill is the tallest parish church in Norwich at 34 metres
and on top of that it stands
on the highest point within the old city walls. In fact in terms of
height above sea level it is as high as the Anglican cathedral. The
present church dates from the 1420s apart from a few minor additions in
subsequent centuries. It replaced a previous St Giles which was built
on the site in 1136, but there appears to have been a church on the
site even before that (mentioned in the Domesday Book). The
dedication is to the patron saint of the poor and
marginalized, which may connect with the presence of a leper house just
outside St. Giles Gate. Unlike most of the Norwich churches, St Giles
remains today a functioning Anglican church. After the Norman conquest
it was one of the three large parishes forming the French Borough, the
richest part of Norwich.[11,13]
St
Mary Coslany is on Muspole St, near the intersection with Duke St.
Muspole Street follows a curious twisting path which possibly follows
the
borders of the old Mus Pool - “A pit or pool”, said historian
John
Kirkpatrick, “whereof there were many in the city, but whether
so-called from mus a mouse, or from moss, quere?”[11] Although St Mary
Coslany is one of 36 or so surviving medieval parish churches in the
centre of Norwich, it is so old that it actually predates that time,
and was probably the original parish church of the Anglo-Saxon
settlement of Coslany. The tower is the most striking feature
of
the outside, as it is round.
Round towers were a ‘fashion statement’, being more difficult
to build. St Mary's tower is believed to be of Anglo-Saxon origin and
may be the oldest of the four round towers
in Norwich. An octagonal Gothic belfry added in the
fifteenth century. The rest of the exterior was entirely rebuilt in the
1460s. The church was restored in 1857, but was derelict by the end of
the Victorian era, it
underwent a major restoration in the early 20th century. However, it
had again fallen out of use by the Second World
War. The war damage was repaired and the church served as a craft
centre and today as the offices of an internet bookshop and a
publishing company. The last is a rather appropriate use, as
one
of the people baptised here was Luke Hansard
(1752-1828), who first published the House of Commons Journal, still
referred to by his name. Coslany became an area of factories,
warehouses and breweries, and there are still factories today; the huge
one to the west of the church is the printing works of a religious
publishing house. The three surviving Coslany churches are all
redundant today, and St Mary has been redundant for the longest.[11,15]
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