Famous family made their mark on our city

January 20, 2004

JEWSON ROAD
(Bullard Road to George Pope Road)

HE was the Norwich Sunday School teacher who went to Russia at the end of the Second World War to meet the notorious and feared Joseph Stalin.

Percy Jewson, a man of many parts and a leading figure in the life of the city and county, was the wartime Liberal MP for Great Yarmouth.

He was part of the first British Parliamentary delegation to visit the Soviet Union following the war and they were welcomed at the Kremlin by Marshal Stalin.

On his return, Percy described how Stalin told them: “All you can do is to tell the truth about us. The bad as well as the good; everything is not perfect here.”

He was just one member of the Jewson family who have played such a major role in the life of Norwich and Norfolk over the generations.

Of course they are famous as timber merchants, but there is far more to the Jewson clan than just wood.

It was in 1836 that a Fenman named George Jewson bought a business at Earith in Huntingdonshire where he traded in goods brought up by horse-drawn barges on the River Ouse from King’s Lynn.

His son and heir, John Wilson Jewson had 13 children. The business didn’t bring in enough to feed so many mouths, so his eldest son, George, then working with another timber merchant in Norwich, suggested they extend the business.

In 1868, John Wilson Jewson bought a fine 17th century house in Colegate which became the headquarters of the business.

In those days one room served as an office, the family lived in the rest of the house, and wherries brought timber from sailing ships at Yarmouth to the riverside yard.

The Jewsons were Baptists and the meeting house was at St Mary’s (destroyed during the Second World War) — so began nearly a century of religious service as well as civic service to Norwich.

John Wilson Jewson’s eight sons made their mark all over the world. Frank became a partner in the Norwich firm of solicitors, Cozens-Hardy & Jewson.

Richard Jewson - Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1917

Richard was born in 1867 and lived until 1949 and is remembered with great affection as a shining example of a man of the people.

A skilled businessman and talented athlete he became Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1917. Known and loved as “Mr Richard” he was head of The House of Jewson, the largest timber merchants between the Thames and the Humber.

He also took great pride in being a Sunday School teacher for more than 50 years and in 1921 he signed the first British timber contract with Russia.
Percy was also a leading player in the business and social life of Norwich and was Lord Mayor in 1934. He was Liberal MP for Yarmouth during the Second World War.

And his son, Charles, described as “gentle and studious” became Lord Mayor in 1965. He was a man who also took a great interest in the city and wrote several books on the subject.

He also maintained the close links with the Baptist Church and encouraged voluntary work among young people and visited the twin town of Novi-Sad.
Those founders of the “House of Jewson” did the people of Norwich a huge favour when they set up home in the city — we had, and still have, a lot to thank them for.

This road was adopted in 1938 and is a tribute to generations of Jewsons.

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