Roman

The Romans had their regional capital at Venta Icenorum on the river to the south which is now at modern day Caistor St Edmund. No sign of Roman influence can be seen in Norwich.

Early English/Norman Conquest

Norwich was a construct of the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes and the Normans. The word Norvic appears on coins minted during the reign of King Athelstan (early 10th century AD). The ancient city was already a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia when Swein Forkbeard the Viking destroyed it in 1004 AD.

At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, and it continued to be a major centre for trade, especially wool. The River Wensum was a convenient exporting route to the sea.

The main area of the city south of the Wensum was destroyed by the construction of the Norman castle (see Norwich Castle) during the 1070s creation of a “New” or “French” borough.

In 1096 Bishop Losinga, then Bishop of Thetford, began construction of the cathedral, then moved his See there to what became the cathedral church for the Diocese of Norwich. The bishop of Norwich stills signs himself Norvic.

Middle ages

By the middle of the fourteenth century the City Walls, about two and a half miles (4 km) long had been completed. These, along with the river, enclosed a large area, larger than that of the City of London. In the early part of the fifteenth century, Julian of Norwich wrote her famous work.

In 1144 the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy (William of Norwich) was found dead with stab wounds. The story was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of martyr and crowds of pilgrims bringing wealth to the local church. On Feb 6, 1190, all the Jews of Norwich were massacred except for a few who found refuge in the castle.

The wealth generated by the wool trade throughout the Middle Ages resulted in the construction of many fine churches. Norwich still has one of the highest number of medieval churches in Western Europe. Norwich Market had trading links from Scandinavia to Spain. Around this time, the city was made a county corporate.

The great immigration of 1567 brought a substantial Walloon community of weavers to Norwich. Norwich has been the home of various dissident minorities, notably the French Huguenot and the Belgian Walloon communities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Primarily through trading connections with mainland Europe, ideas of religious reform and radical politics were introduced to Norwich.

English Civil Wars to Victorian Era

The eastern counties were profoundly Parliamentarian in nature and Norwich followed suit, at the cost of some discomfit to the Lord Mayor, a Royalist, and the Bishop Joseph Hall a moderate but targeted because of his position.

The Norwich Canary was first introduced into England by Flemish refugees fleeing from Spanish persecution in the 1500s. They brought with them not only advanced working skills in textiles but also their pet canaries, which they began to breed. The canary is the emblem of the city’s football team, Norwich City F.C., nicknamed “The Canaries”.

Until the 19th Century, Norwich remained a major provincial capital and, alongside Bristol, was rated closely after London in terms of importance and wealth.

Norwich’s geographical isolation was such that until 1834 when a railway connection was established, it was often quicker to travel to Amsterdam by boat than to London. The railway was brought to Norwich by Morton Peto who also built the line onto Great Yarmouth.