Who's a nosey parker?

August 15, 2005

PARKER ROAD
(off Park Lane)

Do you know anyone a little too fond of sticking their beak into your business? If so you may well at one time or another have called them a Nosey Parker.

If so you have followed in a glorious local tradition because the original Nosey Parker, whose snooping gave the insult to the English language, was Norwich born and bred.

Matthew Parker, whose snooping gave rise to the saying Nosey Parker. He was born in Norwich.

Matthew Parker, the reforming cleric, was born on August 6, 1504 and his name lives on in the city in more than just the world famous phrase.

Anyone poking their noses into other people’s affairs in Parker Road in particular are keeping alive a great Norfolk tradition.
The road, just off Park Lane in the Golden Triangle, was named after the world’s most famous snooper.

Parker holds a central place in the political and ecclesiastical history of England. He was educated at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge before being ordained in 1527. He was twice chancellor of Cambridge University.

He became chaplain to Anne Boleyn in 1535 and Henry VIII in 1538. During this time he taught and counselled the young Elizabeth and when she ascended the throne Parker was called back and installed as Archbishop of Canterbury at the age of 55.

There were many difficult jobs to be undertaken in the new reformed Church of England. Parker had the unenviable task of having to mediate between the Catholics and the extreme Protestants to find a middle way for the Church of England.

Between 1563 and 1568 he produced the new official version of the Bible — the “Bishops’ Bible” which was the authorised version until the King James Bible in 1611.

There are a variety of theories as to why he got his famous nickname. Some think it was because he developed a reputation for being nosey because the job involved checking that people were going to church.

Another theory goes that it is due to Parker’s obsession with finding the roots of the Christian Church in England. He was granted a warrant by the Privy Council to locate and preserve the many religious documents that had been scattered following the dissolution of the monasteries.

Armed with this warrant he sent out many detailed inquiries to manor houses, churches and local officials. But his searching upset many people and earned him the reputation of being a bit of a busybody.

But there is also a more local explanation. During Kett’s Rebellion Parker went to speak to the rebel leader Robert Kett and his band of men at their camp on Mousehold Heath. They weren’t too impressed however. For his pains: “the people began to threaten the preacher with arrows and javelins, and some were shot at him, which put him in great fear”.

Parker did the sensible thing — he pushed off home to praise God for his great deliverance. The rebels voiced their displeasure by saying after his bid to poke it into other people’s business he was lucky to escape with his nose.

Others have a more simple explanation for the household name — it was partly because he had a very big nose!

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