Norwich

Written By Charlotte Engstad

It seems literally ages ago. Many, many years, not just one. Last summer I wanted to visit Norwich and study the old, handwoven fabrics from the 18-th century in the Norwich castle study center and our teenage daughter wanted to visit London, so this was a perfect match. We ordered Interrail tickets and traveled by bus and train all the way from Tromsø in northern Norway to Norwich in East Anglia and then on to Switzerland. A journey which is unthinakble today, due to closed borders, quarantine rules and risk of infection.


Why Norwich? Norwich was a center of textile production for many centuries and in the mid-1700s there were tens of thousands working employed in the worsted industry of the area. On the green meadows and hills of the English East midlands flocks of Lincoln longwool sheep grazed and their long lustrous fleece was sheared, and handspun by the wifes and children of the East Anglia farmers. The cities famous dye masters died the yarn in bright colours of all possible shades and then sold the skeins to the handweavers who produced an extreme variety of fabrics, ranging from simple two-shaft fabrics to intricate and complex brocaded fabrics with huge patterns. The merchants and sometimes weaver-merchants shipped textiles to China, the Americas, to the whole of Europe and also to Norway.

The city of Norwich was very open towards immigrants and welcomed refugees from the reformation wars and ensuing persecution of protestants in Belgium and the Netherlands. There were many congregations of different denominations and this multicultural aspect is still seen in the many Dutch style houses. The immigrants were weavers and brought with them new skills and new technologies, thus contributing heavily to the rise of Norwich as a international center of textile production.

At the Norwich castle study center I met Cathy Terry, Ruth Battersby-Tooke and Dr. Michael Nix. In Norwich, there are not many whole fabrics or garments left, as the merchants sold almost everything. But whatever was left, was breathtaking: extremely intricate patterns, vivd and strong colors and shiny surfaces.

Dr. Michael Nix was so very kind to show me the city and telling me about it’s textile history and the silent witnesses left today. A weaver needed as much natural light they could get, they would typically live on the floor below the roof in rooms with very large windows and where they would be enough space for the large floor looms they had. I tried to imagine the bustling city life as it had been, with it’s weaving workshops, masters, apprentices, and jouneymen, farmers, merchants and traveling sales agents,  horses and carriages, the dyers yards by the river, the steaming hotpresses, the warehouses and the bales of fabrics to be shipped out and exported from the port of Great Yarmouth over the whole globe.

I have posted some photos to give an impression of this lovely city:
 -the original medieval streets
- houses where weavers lived
- Norwich cathedral
- Norwich castle
- the gravestone of John Tuthill a famous Norwich merchant
- Dutch style houses

Charlotte Engstad
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