The Norwich Society

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Walking Tour. George Skipper in Cromer. Tour guide: Paul Dickson

  • Wed 14 May 2025
  • Open to all
  • 2:00 pm
  • £16.50 non-members / £14.50 members

This 1 hour 45 minutes walking tour in Cromer looks at architect George Skipper’s legacy in the Norfolk seaside town. He worked on projects in Cromer from the late 1880s through to the 1930s, to include 7 hotels, and was renowned as an architect for buildings in Norwich, including the Royal Arcade.

Sir John Betjeman wrote: ‘He is to Norwich rather what Gaudi was to Barcelona.’

Paul Dickson has worked in the tourism industry in Norfolk for 37 years, initially for the National Trust and then as an independent PR practitioner. Eleven years ago he fulfilled a long held ambition by qualifying as an official City of Norwich tourist guide. Since then he has developed his own guided tours business in Norwich and has expanded into the Broads National Park and Cromer. Paul additionally works as an independent guide for the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich.

The tour starts in front of the North Norfolk Visitor Centre on Louden Road NR27 9EF (Meadow Rd Car Park) and finishes at the Cliftonville Hotel with tea/coffee and biscuits.

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Walking Tour of the North Walls and Hidden Finds. Tour Guide: Roger Smith

  • Sat 26 Jul 2025
  • Open to all
  • 10:30 am
  • £13.00 non-members / £11.00 members

This guided walking tour explores the Northern City Walls during which we will visit a variety of surprising sights in the North West area of Norwich - a rewarding circuit.

Led by Roger Smith, an experienced Norwich Tour guide

A circular tour starting from the centre of Anglia Square, NR3 1DZ.

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ALE TALES A walking tour of Norwich's pubs old and new. Tour Guide: Jonathan Hooton.

  • Tue 12 Aug 2025
  • Open to all
  • 5:30 pm
  • £13.00 non-members / £11.00 members

A guided walking tour with Jonathan Hooton around some of Norwich’s many pubs, including those still operating, whilst looking at evidence for those no longer with us. It will include many facts and ale tales about these much loved buildings and their breweries. During the walk we will debunk the claim that Norwich had a pub for every day, a very inaccurate boast.

Jonathan Hooton is a City of Norwich Tour Guide, a former Head of Geography at Notre Dame High School and a regular feature in the Society's event programme.

The walk will start outside the Sir Garnet, 36 Market Place, NR1 1RD and will conclude at The Plough on St Benedict’s Street and take up to 2hrs.

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A Visit to Earsham Hall with Afternoon Tea

  • Wed 18 Jun 2025
  • Open to all
  • 2:15 pm
  • £39.00 non-members / £36.00 members

Earsham Hall is a family home covering three generations. Parts date back to the 15th century with the Queen Ann block and facing bricks being added in the 1700s. Annabel Stretton-Derham will share the historical stories, architectural references and anecdotal evidence that show that the survival of such a building is a mixture of hard work, tenacity and luck! 

The visit Includes tea & coffee on arrival & full Afternoon Tea.

The tour will start at the front of the main house and take 2 hrs. To include the ground floor of the Hall and a walk through the garden. A tour group parking sign at the top of the drive will provide directions. Earsham Hall, Bungay, NR25 2AN

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Walking Tour of The Catholic Cathedral and City’s Western Enclave Tour Guide: Roger Smith

  • Thu 17 Jul 2025
  • Open to all
  • 10:30 am
  • £13.00 non-members / £11.00 members

A guided walking tour with Norwich Tour Guide Roger Smith, with enough interest along the way before a peep in the RC Cathedral then a different return over the bridge noting more gems.

A circular tour starting outside The Forum, Millennium Plain, NR2 1TF

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Walking Tour of The Catholic Cathedral and City’s Western Enclave Tour Guide: Roger Smith

  • Sat 21 Jun 2025
  • Open to all
  • 10:30 am
  • £13.00 non-members / £11.00 members

A guided walking tour with Norwich Tour Guide Roger Smith, with enough interest along the way before a peep in the RC Cathedral then a different return over the bridge noting more gems.

A circular tour starting outside The Forum, Millennium Plain, NR2 1TF

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Walking Tour of the North Walls and Hidden Finds. Tour Guide: Roger Smith

  • Tue 27 May 2025
  • Open to all
  • 10:30 am
  • £13.00 non-members / £11.00 members

This guided walking tour explores the Northern City Walls during which we will visit a variety of surprising sights in the North West area of Norwich - a rewarding circuit.

Led by Roger Smith, an experienced Norwich Tour guide

A circular tour starting from the centre of Anglia Square, NR3 1DZ.

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Tour of The Great Hospital

  • Mon 28 Jul 2025
  • Open to all
  • 10:30 am
  • £15.00 non-members / £13.00 members

The Great Hospital was founded in 1249 by Bishop Walter de Suffield. The site contains much of historic and architectural interest. One of the smallest monastic cloisters in England; a fine medieval refectory; St Helen’s House – with excellent examples of Georgian decorated ceilings; an 18th century swan pit, The Eagle Ward, Church and a large Victorian hall are some examples.

Tours take 1.5-2 hrs and will start by the by the flagpole in St Helen’s Square, just next to the church tower. There is a pedestrian gate that leads directly onto the square from Bishopgate, Norwich NR14EL

There is no parking on site, the nearest car park is by The Adam and Eve, Bishopgate. NR3 1RZ.

The tour involves steep, uneven steps and narrow corridors and is unsuitable for wheelchair users

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A Walking Tour of Shardlake’s Norwich - followed by Drinks & Grazing Board. Tour Guide: Paul Dickson

  • Wed 6 Aug 2025
  • Open to all
  • 5:30 pm
  • £35.00 non-members / £32.00 members

A 2-hour guided walking tour with Paul Dickson celebrating CJ Sansom’s best-selling novel Tombland, featuring Tudor lawyer Matthew Shardlake’s visit to Norwich at the time of Kett’s Rebellion (1549). 

The tour starts outside the Maids Head Hotel and includes Tombland, the ancient Anglo-Scandinavian Market Place, Augustine Steward’s House, Norwich Cathedral Close, Bishopgate (Holme Street in the novel) and the Great Hospital, Bishop’s Bridge, the site of Bishop’s Gate and Lollards Pit, followed by a climb up to Kett’s Heights, the remains of St Michael’s Chapel, with its fabulous view across the city.

The return journey follows the north side of the river with views of the medieval Cow Tower and surviving city walls, near the location of the Pockthorpe Gate, before crossing the river and finishing at the Adam and Eve pub, where Lord Sheffield was taken after he had been mortally wounded, and seeing the site of the Battle of Palace Plain.

We will then take a short stroll to The Red Lion on Bishopgate for drinks and grazing boards.

Paul Dickson has worked in the tourism industry in Norfolk for 37 years, initially for the National Trust and then as an independent PR practitioner. Eleven years ago he fulfilled a long held ambition by qualifying as an official City of Norwich tourist guide. Since then he has developed his own guided tours business in Norwich and has expanded into the Broads National Park and Cromer. Paul additionally works as an independent guide for the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich.

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ALE TALES A walking tour of Norwich's pubs old and new. Tour Guide: Jonathan Hooton.

  • Thu 5 Jun 2025
  • Open to all
  • 10:30 am
  • £13.00 non-members / £11.00 members

A guided walking tour with Jonathan Hooton around some of Norwich’s many pubs, including those still operating, whilst looking at evidence for those no longer with us. It will include many facts and ale tales about these much loved buildings and their breweries. During the walk we will debunk the claim that Norwich had a pub for every day, a very inaccurate boast.

Jonathan Hooton is a City of Norwich Tour Guide, a former Head of Geography at Notre Dame High School and a regular feature in the Society's event programme.

The walk will start outside the Sir Garnet, 36 Market Place, NR1 1RD and will conclude at The Plough on St Benedict’s Street and take up to 2hrs.

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SAVE at 50! CONFERENCE Building in Context: Delivering Good Growth in Heritage Locations

  • Thu 15 May 2025
  • Open to all
  • The Kings Centre, 63-75 King Street, Norwich NR1 1PH
  • 9:30 am
  • Free (non-members) / Free (members)

Join SAVE Britain’s Heritage and The Norwich Society for a day of thought-provoking presentations and discussions exploring how new development can enhance the character and value of our historic towns and cities.

How can we build in historic places in ways that respect sensitive town centre heritage locations, support local communities and drive economic growth?

Join SAVE Britain’s Heritage and The Norwich Society for a day of thought-provoking presentations and discussions exploring how new development can enhance the character and value of our historic towns and cities.

Ten years on from the landmark Cathedral Cities in Peril report by Foster + Partners and Historic England, this conference brings together planners, architects, developers and conservation professionals. It’s open to anyone with an interest in the future of our built environment. Whether you work in the sector or simply care about the places around you, the day will focus on how historic cities like Norwich can attract investment, support local economies and create better places to live.

Speakers will share insights from UK and international examples, exploring public interest-led development, the role of government investment in shaping better places and the use of design codes to secure high-quality new architecture. They’ll also discuss how temporary or “meanwhile” uses can unlock the potential of neglected places.

Part of SAVE Britain’s Heritage’s 50th-anniversary year and programme of national events, this conference is a rare opportunity to hear from leading voices in planning, architecture and conservation. The event will include talks, panel discussions, Q&A sessions and guided walks, offering fresh perspectives on the role heritage plays in shaping the future.

Tickets are £45 pp for the general public. and £35 for Norwich Society and SAVE members. Your ticket includes entrance to the full day conference and an optional lunchtime tour (limited places), as well as refreshments from 9:30am, and a sandwich buffet lunch.

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TALK What the Normans did to ….. and for Norwich. Speaker: Adrian O'Dell

  • Thu 24 Jul 2025
  • Open to all
  • The Forum, Norwich, NR2 1TF
  • 7:30 pm
  • £8.00 non-members / £4.00 members

Norwich has always welcomed Strangers to its city but some have been more welcome than others. The Normans disrupted Anglo-Scandinavian life, breaking the 200-year link with Denmark and reconnecting with France and Europe.

Dominant new buildings were raised and the layout radically changed but the Normans brought order, recognition and prosperity.

This talk is part of the Norwich History Festival

Adrian O'Dell is the son of a Polish Air Force officer and a nurse from Lancashire  and was educated at the City of Norwich School. After an international career in the oil industry, he 'retired’ to Norfolk and has devoted himself to the study of Norfolk and Norwich’s history and heritage. He is a freelance city tour guide and was also a trustee of the Norfolk & Norwich Heritage Trust (Dragon Hall) before it was passed on to the National Centre for Writing. He has completed post-graduate studies in Landscape History at UEA. He is Chair of the Norfolk Polish Heritage Group which researches and archives stories of Polish immigration into Norfolk since World War II and has dual British/Polish nationality. Adrian has taken an active interest in the present plight of Poland’s neighbour Ukraine.

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TALK Sir Peter Eade, in his own words, at the bicentennial of his birth. Speaker: Phyllida Scrivens

  • Sat 10 May 2025
  • Open to all
  • The Forum, Norwich, NR2 1TF
  • 10:30 am
  • £8.00 non-members / £4.00 members

In celebration of the bicentenary of his birth in Acle during 1825, this talk from biographer Phyllida Scrivens, will explore the life of Peter Eade. Over his long lifetime, Peter became known as a senior man of medicine, a generous benefactor, a knight of the realm, Mayor of Norwich on three occasions, and keeper of pet tortoises.

Using many of Peter’s own words, including from his autobiography published in 1916, his Collectanea of Addresses and Papers and articles from the British Medical Journal, Phyllida will map out Peter’s remarkable career, sharing her insight into this man who gave so much to the people of Norwich.

Phyllida Scrivens is a local historian and biographer, Her third book The Great Thorpe Disaster 1874 was published in 2021. Phyllida has given many illustrated talks to groups around Norfolk but has now decided to retire from face to face talks, so this may be the last chance to hear her speak in person.

Photo: Peter Eade as a young man. Image from The Autobiography of Sir Peter Eade, edited by Sydney Long, published by Jarrold and Sons, 1916.

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TALK Mr Woodward's Memoir - keeping it in the family. Speaker: Matthew Williams

  • Thu 22 May 2025
  • Open to all
  • The Forum, Norwich, NR2 1TF
  • 10:30 am
  • £8.00 non-members / £4.00 members

Horace Woodward, Assistant Director of the nation’s Geological Survey, returned in 1875-1884 to Norwich, the native city of his grandfather, father and uncles to undertake a definitive survey and mapping exercise of the area. He ended up spending the happiest years of his life here amongst the quarries and railway cuttings. Half a century earlier, his grandfather Samuel Woodward (1790-1838), an antiquary who became known as The Norfolk Geologist, had blazed a trail and had earned an epitaph as an ‘indefatigable investigator’.

Matt Williams will look at the historical significance of this family and explore local connections.

Matthew Williams is a geologist and historian with a particular interest in Norwich as a physical entity.  His latest books are Norwich's Netherflow on the history of the sewerage system and The Masterful Mr Collins on Norwich's city engineer 1894-1925.

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