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

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.

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.