Norfolk Corners

  Buried deep in the University of East Anglia (UEA) campus in Norwich, sits The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts , looking out across the Yare Valley. As well as hosting many art works of international renown, the building itself is a triumph of architectural design by none other than the young Norman Foster . It exhibits many of the features that have become his trademarks and anyone who has spent time in Stansted airport terminal building may experience a little deja vu when they set eyes on the arts centre for the first time. The Sainsbury Centre (which opened in 1978) served as a template for the later airport building. The exposed exoskeletal structure is one of the most notable similarities and has been much imitated, to the extent that its impact may have been dulled by familiarity. Stansted Airport Terminal (photo by Oxyman and used here under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License ) With great design co...

As you arrive in Norwich from the south, the A11 turns into Newmarket Road and just before you reach the city centre you pass the site of the old Victorian hospital that closed in 2003. Its domed spires (or maybe spired domes) and dutch gabled front still stand today though much of the building was rebuilt as the hospital was converted to flats. A little way behind the flats and the housing that has replaced the rest of the hospital, is a green square that includes a playground for young children and some outdoor basketball courts. On the other side of the path this marble arch stands as an entrance to a small open grass field. The playground, courts and field form Jenny Lind Park. The name 'Jenny Lind' will also be familiar to many parents whose children have needed medical attention in or around Norwich since 1854. The Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children was the UK's second children's hospital after Great Ormond Street and...

I've taken the circular walk around Queen's Hills country park many times over the past eight years and, every now and then, in a certain light and when the leaves are sparse, an ornate tower seems to appear in a haze on the horizon to the south east. Looking across from a modern estate, this piece of history that seemed to wink in and out of existence felt like a little bit of magic on our door step. As we became familiar with the area, I realised that the tower must be on or near the Costessey Park golf course and suddenly it didn't seem so magical. I hate golf. In fact I forgot about the tower until it occured to me that I had some friends who quite enjoy golf who might be able to give me a few details. In fact I met them for lunch almost every day. They told me that it was all that remained of Costessey Hall and that even that was crumbling away. I recently got into the habit of rising early in the mornings to photograph the sunrise. Squinting at the...

Its been a gloomy week or two in Norfolk so this weekend I was trawling through some old photos looking for something that I hadn't already posted on the Norfolk Corners Instagram . I put my lockdown collection of lamppost photos to one side and turned my attention to the smaller pile of remaining pics. I stopped when I came to this beautifully crafted (if slightly uncomfortable looking) seat in Kings Lynn's Tuesday Market Place. I photographed it after we investigated the legend of the Witch's Heart last autumn because I liked the way that the rain had settled on it and the diffracted reflection of the late afternoon sun on its brushed steel surface. Now that I looked again though I noticed that the glyphs etched out of the lower band of the back rest represented the pole mounted gallopers that carry you round on traditional carousel rides. Very apt for the Tuesday Market Place which hosts the Kings Lynn Mart for the fortnight beginning on Valentine's Day ...

Queen's Hills Country Park is situated in the Tud Valley to the west of Costessey which is itself a western suburb of Norwich. It was created at the same time as Queen's Hills housing estate around 15 years ago. The park is roughly delineated by the estate at its north and the River Tud to its south. Over the past year we have all become more familiar with our immediate surroundings than we would ever expected and I have enjoyed discovering how much the park has to offer. The geography of this part of Costessey has been heavily influenced by gravel quarrying. The clatter of gravel travelling through the steel tubes of Longwater Gravel's processing plant on the other side of the Tud valley is familiar enough to have become part of the ambient noise here. When the plant restarted after England's first lockdown in 2020 however, the renewed noise and light came as quite a shock. To the east lie Costessey Pits which have been repurposed as watersports and fishing lakes...

We visited St. Margaret's church in Cley-Next-the-Sea back in November 2020 about half an hour after visiting the sea defences which I wrote about in a previous entry . It is a surprisingly big church for a smallish village and is testament to the financial riches that Cley enjoyed when it functioned as a harbour around the time that the Church was built ( 1320–1340 ). There is a lot to admire about St. Margaret's church and there must be many stories to tell about the building and it's history. On this visit, my attention was drawn to a cluster of gravestones toward the back of the church. As I scanned the inscriptions on the stones, I noticed that six of them had the same surname: "Riches". I mentioned the Riches patch in St. Margaret's graveyard as I chatted to a genealogist (my dad) about our visit to Cley. Based on nothing but the photo that I emailed him, Dad has been able to follow a sometimes misty trail of clues to piece together a hist...

I found this intriguing brass plaque on the side of an old forge building in Bowthorpe when I went to photograph the community garden there. Like Pablo Fanque before him, I had seen his name in various places but I hadn't really registered it. This stern, bald figure commanded attention though. As a general rule I think its worth paying close attention to anyone who is wielding a huge scythe. Nearby there is another plaque with a short biography of St. Walstan. I was interested to note that he was related to King Edmund . It goes on to describe how he forsook his privilege to devote his life to Christ and how, through his prayer, he performed miracles to heal farm animals around Taverham. Photo: lwr There are some more details on Wikipedia describing how St. Walstan's miracles led to him becoming the patron saint of agricultural workers. This would have made him a pretty big deal in East Anglia in the 10th century. The page includes another portrait of St. Walstan...