Marking a new era in our city’s history

September 5, 2003

GUILDHALL HILL

The Guildhall and vegetable market as they appeared before the Victorian restorations. The east gable had not yet acquired its buttresses or clock turret and an Italianate loggia can be seen on the flat roof of the 17th century South Range.

THE year was 1404 and it marked a turning point in the history of Norwich which was then home to about 10,000 people — the first Charter of Incorporation was granted.

Up until then our officials had to do what they were told by the King’s Sheriff of the County — or else!
But Norwich had grown up and was one of the first towns in England to be given permission to run its own affairs.

The new Charter gave the Burgesses the right to elect a Mayor who was directly responsible to the King, to collect their own taxes, hold their own courts of law, own property and enjoy the status of a city.

The crypt or vault of the old “Toll Booth” as it appeared in 1842 from a drawing by A Short.

But this new prosperous city — one of the largest in the land — needed a heart.

It had to be an impressive one.

One that proved to the rest of the country that Norwich was important.

So they set about building a Guildhall.

It was the largest and most elaborate medieval City Hall ever put up outside London.

Originally, at the end of the 14th century there was a little Toll-house here where four bailiffs and two others sat in judgement and collected market tolls.

It probably dated from the Norman period and was well in use before 1209.
Work started on the Guildhall in 1407.

It was a truly massive project to build courts, jails, various offices, rooms to store money and the city regalia.

How did they pay for this building?

Well, carpenters, carters and workmen were “pressed” to work from five in the morning to eight at night.

And a team of 24 was appointed to collect aid and tax from city folk — whether they liked it or not.

John Marowe was the master mason and it was he who gave us the black flint and white freestone which still ornaments the eastern front.

He was paid sixpence a day — handy money at the time — but he was a true craftsman.

Most of the money raised was spent on materials and only the skilled craftsmen were lucky enough to be paid.

By 1409 the roof was raised and three years later prisoners were put into the dungeons that were built underneath it.

The building project wasn’t finished until 1453.

Most of the people working on it never got paid a penny. It certainly cut down on the costs, but the Guildhall still cost a fortune — all these years on it is a monument to civic pride.

And now we can all get a feeling of the old place by popping into the tea-rooms now operating from the Guildhall.

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