Architect of a better Norwich

August 5, 2005

PALMER ROAD

He was the boy from the Norwich slums who rose to become a working class hero — one of the great Socialist firebrands of the 1920s and 1930s.

And when Herbert Palmer died at the age of 90 in 1962, thousands mourned this remarkable revolutionary who was respected — and feared — by his political opponents.

Rundown housing gave way to better homes thanks to Herbert Palmer.

The people of Palmer Road have every right to be proud of Herbert – the driving force behind the big Norwich housing and slum clearance schemes between the two world wars.

The Mile Cross, Earlham, Lakenham and Catton Grove estates all owe a great deal to his advocacy.

And he looked the part — with his clothes of hairy tweed, his bare, close-cropped head and his strong jaw gripping a big curved pipe.
It was a brave man who stood up to Herbert Palmer.

His father and mother worked in the Norwich shoe trade when it was still largely a domestic industry — and one of his earliest recollections was carrying his mother’s work from home to “the shop”.

Young Herbert won a scholarship from an elementary to a secondary school and left at the age of 15 to become a clerk for the railways.

By now he had become a socialist. He was angry at how cruel life could be in the Norwich slums and was determined to devote his life to helping the poor.

After 10 years with the railways, he left to became managing clerk at a silk factory but eventually gave up his job to be the organising secretary of the Independent Labour Party in Norwich.

As a young man he was secretary of the National Union of Clerks and then joined the Municipal and General Workers’ Union, who backed him to stand for Norwich City Council.

Herbert was elected to the council in 1923 to represent Mousehold. Housing was his greatest interest and he spearheaded a campaign to build new homes.

He became chairman of the housing committee and saw 4,000 council homes built and let at rents that were among the lowest in the country.

Herbert went on to become involved with a host of other organisations — always championing the underdog. He was chairman of the Town Planning and Maternity and Child Welfare Committee.

He was also a dyed-in-the-wool pacifist. Before the war he was a leading campaigner for the Peace Pledge Union and later supported nuclear disarmament.

Herbert left Norwich in 1946 and lived at Mundford, Rocklands and then at Stoke Holy Cross. He was married twice and had four children. His second marriage was to Dr Violet Jewson.

During his bid to get on Norfolk County Council in 1930, Herbert Palmer said: “When it is realised that 65 members of the council are representative of the landed gentry, big business and large farming interests, it will be seen that the real and vital matters affecting the welfare of the mass of the population are likely to get the cold shoulder.”

What's in a Name homepage