Part 1

=THE NORWICH ROAD=: AN EAST ANGLIAN HIGHWAY

By CHARLES G. HARPER

Author of "_The Brighton Road_," "_The Portsmouth Road_," "_The Dover Road_," "_The Bath Road_," "_The Exeter Road_," _and_ "_The Great North Road_."

_Illustrated by the Author, and from Old-Time Prints and Pictures._

LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL LTD. 1901

[_All Rights reserved._]

PREFACE

_The author of a little book published in 1818, called_ A JOURNEY TO LONDON, _which is nearly all "London" with very little "journey," remarks that "it is as uncommon for a book to go into the world without a preface, as a man without a hat. They are both convenient coverings." Here, then, is the customary covering._

_Introducing this, the seventh in a series of books telling the story of our great highways, it may perhaps be as well to re-state the methods used, and objects aimed at. The chief intention is to provide a readable book which shall avoid the style either of a Guide-Book or a History. It is the better fortune to be in the reader's hands than in the dusty seclusion of those formidable works, the County Histories; or disregarded among the guide-books of forgotten holidays. To the antiquary it will, of course, be obvious that this and other volumes of the series "contain many omissions," as the Irish reviewer said; but such things as find no place here have, as a general rule, been disregarded because they not only do not help the Story of the Road along, but rather hinder its progression._

_The_ NORWICH ROAD, _in its one hundred and twelve miles, passes by many an historic site and through districts distinguished for their quiet pastoral beauty. In being historic it is not singular, for, as Oliver Wendell Holmes very truly said, "England is one vast museum," and the old road would be remarkable indeed, that, like Canning's_ "NEEDY KNIFE GRINDER," _had no story to tell. It is, however, in the especial characteristics of East Anglian scenery, speech, customs, and architecture that this road stands apart and is highly individualised. "East Anglia" is no merely arbitrary and meaningless term, as those who travel it, if only on the highway, will speedily find._

_But this shall be no trumpet-blast; nor indeed do the charms of Eastern England require such a fanfare, for who has not yet heard of that lovely valley of the Stour, so widely known as "Constable's Country," by whose exquisite water-meadows and shady lanes the old turnpike passes? Scenery such as this; windmills, cornfields, tall elms, winding rivers, and commons populous with geese and turkeys, are typical of the_ NORWICH ROAD, _which may, with this introduction, now be left to recommend itself_.

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PETERSHAM, SURREY, _October 1901_.

SEPARATE PLATES

SCOLE WHITE HART _Frontispiece_

PAGE

ALDGATE PUMP. (_From a drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd_, 1854) 9

ALDGATE, 1820 21

THE "OLD RED LION," WHITECHAPEL, WHERE TURPIN SHOT MATTHEW KING. (_From a drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd_, 1854) 59

WHITECHAPEL ROAD IN THE COACHING AGE 65

MILE END TURNPIKE, 1813. (_After Rowlandson_) 71

ROMFORD 91

MOUNTNESSING WINDMILL 103

INGATESTONE IN COACHING DAYS. (_From an Old Print_) 107

NEW HALL LODGES 125

CHIPPING HILL 133

"THREE BLIND 'UNS AND A BOLTER." (_From a Print after H. Alken_) 145

COLCHESTER 215

THE VALE OF DEDHAM. (_After Constable_) 219

SPRING: SUFFOLK PLOUGHLANDS. (_After Constable_) 229

THE CORNFIELD. (_After Constable_) 233

THE OLD SIGN OF SCOLE WHITE HART 265

STAIRCASE IN THE "WHITE HART" 269

DICKLEBURGH 279

A DISPUTED PASTURAGE 289

LONG STRATTON 293

NEWTON FLOTMAN 299

NORWICH, FROM MOUSEHOLD HEATH 311

NORWICH MARKET PLACE 315

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

Vignette _Title Page_

PAGE

Preface vii

List of Illustrations: London Stone ix

The Runaway 'Prentice 1

Yard of the "Bull," Leadenhall Street. (_From a drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd_, 1854) 12

Front of the "Saracen's Head," Aldgate: Present Day 14

Yard of the "Saracen's Head" in Coaching Days. (_From a drawing by T. Hosmer Shepherd_, 1854) 16

Yard of the "Saracen's Head": Present Day 18

The Yard of the "Bull," Whitechapel, in Coaching Days 27

The Norwich Coach at Christmastide. (_After Robert Seymour_, 1835) 38

Whitechapel Old Church 63

Bow 76

Seven Kings 84

Whalebone House 87

Entrance to Romford 89

Old Toll-house, Puttels Bridge 93

The "Fleece," Brook Street 94

The Martyr's Tree, Brentwood 95

Yard of the "White Hart," Brentwood 98

Shenfield 100

Mountnessing Church 102

The Gatehouse, Ingatestone Hall 106

At Margaretting 111

The "Good Woman" Sign 113

The Bridge: Entrance to Chelmsford 115

The Conduit, Chelmsford 116

Tindal's Statue 117

The "Three Cups" Sign 122

Springfield Church 123

Boreham 128

The "Angel," Kelvedon 141

Birthplace of Spurgeon 151

Near Mark's Tey 176

Lexden 180

The Grand Staircase, Colchester Castle 199

Old Man Trap, Colchester Castle 205

Colchester Castle 207

Gun Hill 221

Old Toll-house, Stratford Bridge 222

Wolsey's Gateway 242

The "Lion and Lamb," Angel Lane 244

Sparrowe's House 246

The "Great White Horse" 248

Mockbeggar Hall 253

"Stonham Pie" 256

Near Brockford 257

"Thwaite Low House" 259

The "Cock," Thwaite 260

Long Stratton 295

Tasburgh 297

The Old Brick Pound 301

Caistor Camp 303

Norwich Snap 318

Norfolk Turkey, on his way to Leadenhall Market 320

THE ROAD TO NORWICH

MILES

London (Whitechapel Church) to Mile End 1 Stratford-le-Bow (Bow Church) 2½ (Cross River Lea). Stratford (Broadway) 4 Forest Gate 5 Manor Park 6 Ilford 6½ (Cross River Roding). Seven Kings 7½ (Cross "Seven Kings' Watering," or Fillebrook). Chadwell Heath 9 Romford 12 Hare Street 13 Puttels Bridge 15½ (Cross Weald Brook). Brook Street 16½ Brentwood 18 Shenfield 19 Mountnessing Street 21 Ingatestone 23 Margaretting Street 25 Widford 27½ (Cross River Wid or Ash). Moulsham 28¼ (Cross River Chelmer).

Chelmsford 29 Springfield 29½ Boreham 32¾ (Cross River Ter). Hatfield Peverel 34¾ (Cross River Witham). Witham 37½ Rivenhall End 39½ Kelvedon 41 (Cross River Blackwater). Gore Pit 42 Mark's Tey 45¾ Copford 46¼ Stanway 47 Lexden Heath 48 Lexden 49 Colchester 51 (Cross River Colne). Dilbridge 52½ Stratford Bridge 57¾ (Cross River Stour). Stratford St Mary 58½ Capel Railway Crossing. Capel Station. Capel St Mary. 63½ Copdock 65½ Washbrook 66 (Cross Wash Brook). Ipswich 69¼ (Cross River Orwell) Whitton Street 71¾ Claydon 72¾ Creeting All Saints 76¾ Stonham Earls 79 Little Stonham 79¾ Brockford 83¾ Thwaite 84½ Stoke Ash 86¼ Yaxley 88¼ Brome 90¼ (Cross River Waveney). Scole 92 Dickleburgh 94½ Tivetshall Level Crossing 97¼ Wacton 100 Long Stratton 101½ Tasburgh 102¾ (Cross River Tase). Newton Flotman 104½ (Cross River Tase). Hartford Bridge 109¼ (Cross River Yare). Norwich (Market Place) 111½

I

IN the days before railways came, robbing the exits from London of all dignity and purpose, the runaway 'prentice lads of the familiar legends, who were always half starved and continually beaten, revolting at length from their uncomfortable beds under the shop counters and their daily stripes and scorpions, were wont, according to the story-books, to steal at night out of their houses of bondage and make for the roads. Such an one, making in those days for Norwich, and standing at Aldgate in the grey of the morning, looking across the threshold of London, would have seen, in the long broad road stretching before him, the only means of escape. The shilling or so of which he would be the owner would scarce serve him for two or three days' keep; and so, although he might have longed for a place on the coach he could see starting from the "Spread Eagle," in Gracechurch Street, at 4 a.m., there would have been for such as he no choice but to start afoot, with as light a heart as possible, and chance the offer of a lift on some waggon returning into Essex. Had he, in leaving Aldgate behind, asked some passer-by the way to Norwich, he might have been seized for what he was, a runaway; but, if he escaped suspicion, would have been answered readily enough, for everyone in those times knew the way to lie along the Whitechapel Road and by Mile End Turnpike. Has anyone in these enlightened and highly-educated times courage sufficient to ask his way to Norwich from Aldgate? and, assuming that dauntless courage, is it conceivable that anyone in that crowded street could tell him?

There are no apprentices and no tyrannical masters of the old kind left now, and the only runaways of these days are the bad boys of precocious wits who would not think of tramping the highway while they could raise a railway fare or "lift" a bicycle. But the way still lies open to the explorer from Aldgate, and the old Norwich Road yet follows the line of the Roman way into the country of the Iceni.

Between the era of our imaginary truant and that of the Romans, who originally constructed this road, there yawns a vast gulf of time; certainly not less than eighteen hundred years. The history of the road during that space has largely been forgotten; but, worst of all, we know perhaps less of it and its life in the times of Charles the First, onward to those of William and Mary, than we can recover from Roman historians; and certainly its coaching history is in tatters and fragments, for those who made it did not live in the bright glow of publicity that surrounded the coachmen of roads north, south or west, and died unexploited by the sporting writers of the Coaching Age.

II

NEARLY seventeen centuries have passed since, in the great _Antonine Itinerary_ of the Roman Empire, the first guide-book to the roads was compiled, and almost eighty years since Cary and Paterson--the rival Bradshaws and A.B.C.'s of the Coaching Age--issued the last editions of their _Travellers Companions_, which now, instead of being constantly in the travellers' hands, are treasured on the shelves of collectors interested in relics of days before railways.

The _Antonine Itinerary_ was compiled, A.D. 200-300. Among other roads of which it purports to give an account is the road to Venta Icenorum; the Norwich Road, as we should say. Its statement is brief and to the point, if requiring no little explanation after this lapse of time:--

Iter a Venta Icenorum Londinio _m.p._ cxxviii _sic._ Sitomago xxxii Combretonio xxii Ad Ansam xv Camuloduno vii Canonio viiii Cæsaromago xii Durolito xvi Londinio xv

A hundred and twenty-eight miles, that is to say, between Venta and London. The Romans, of course, calculated all their mileages in Britain from that hoary relic, the still existing "London Stone," which, from behind its modern iron grating in the wall of St Swithin's Church, still turns a battered face towards the heedless, hurrying crowds in Cannon Street, in the City of London.

In coaching days the Norwich Road, in common with most East Anglian routes, was measured from Whitechapel Church, and the distance from that landmark to Norwich given as 111½ miles. The apparent wide difference between those measurements of classic and modern times is very nearly reconciled when we add a mile for the distance between London Stone and Whitechapel Church to the 111½ miles, and when we reduce the Roman miles to English. An English mile measures 5280 feet, while a Roman mile runs only to 4842 feet, this fact accounting, along the road to Norwich, for some 13 miles of the discrepancy, and bringing the difference to the insignificant one of 3½ miles; or, assuming the Roman ruins at Caistor, 3 miles short of Norwich, to mark the site of Venta Icenorum, 6½ miles; no very wide margin of error.

The compiler of that ancient itinerary is unknown. He, or they (for a survey of the Roman Empire cannot have been made by one man), are quite hidden and lost to sight under the title of "Antonine," which was given in honour of the Emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, father and son, who both owned the name Antoninus. By similarly honorary titles we are accustomed to christen our public buildings. Thus, in coming ages, when such earthworms as engineers and architects are forgotten, the "Victoria" Embankment, "Victoria" Station, the "Victoria and Albert" Museum, and the thousand and one other things thus entitled will serve to hand a Sovereign down to futurity, while the names of those who created them, good or ill, will have perished, like the leaves of autumn. Customs change, and fashions cease to be, but snobbery is more enduring than brass or marble, and outlasts the mummies of the Pharaohs.

The compiler who drew up the list of places on the road between Londinium and Venta has chosen to reckon backwards. The "_m. p._" is the abbreviation for _mille passus_, or paced Roman miles; the figures after the first line giving the distance from the place last mentioned. Setting out from London, we find "Durolitum" to be identified with the Roman earthworks of Uphall, near Romford; "Cæsaromagus" to be identical with Writtle, near Chelmsford; "Canonium" to stand for Kelvedon; "Camulodunum" for Colchester; and "Ad Ansam" for Stratford St Mary; while "Combretonium" and "Sitomagus" still puzzle antiquaries, who are reduced to the extremity of suggesting the opposite alternatives of Brettenham or Burgh for the one, and Dunwich or Thetford for the other; names with a specious resemblance, and on circuitous routes east or west of the direct road which would more than account for the Roman surveyor's overplus of miles. The direct road, however, is unmistakably Roman, and those who will may seek for the elusive "Sitomagus" and "Combretonium" along it. Haply they may discover them at Scole, Dickleburgh or Long Stratton.

But along the whole length of the road, from London to Norwich, the wayfarer receives impressions of its true Roman character, whether in its appearance or in the place-names on the way. Old Ford and Stratford-at-Bow, where the Roman paved fords crossed the River Lea; that other "old ford" at Ilford, across the River Roding, which was already ancient when the Saxons came and so named it, "Eald Ford," leaving it for later times to corrupt the name into "Ilford" and for uninstructed historians to explain the meaning to have been that it was an "ill ford"; to which condition, indeed, many had descended in mediæval times: these are examples. Others are found at Ingatestone, the Saxon "Ing-atte-stone" = the "meadow at the stone," a Roman milestone that stood by the wayside; in the names of Stanway, Colchester, Stratford St Mary. Little Stonham, Tivetshall, and Long Stratton, places to be more particularly mentioned later in these pages.

It has been aptly pointed out by East Anglian antiquaries that the circuitous route eastward or westward of the straight road between Stratford St Mary and Norwich, on which Sitomagus and Combretonium may have been situated, may probably have been an early Roman way, constructed shortly after the conquest of the Iceni, along an old native trackway, and superseded in later and more settled times by the direct road, overlooked by the Antonine compilers who, working at Rome, the very centre of the Empire, may not have been fully informed of changes in countries like Britain, on the edge of the Unknown. This view, when we consider the long period stretching between the conquest of this part of the country and the final break up of the Romano-British civilisation, about A.D. 450, has much to recommend it. A period of some three hundred and eighty years of colonisation and development, equalling, for example, the great gulf of time between our own day and that of Henry the Eighth, the changes in its course must have rivalled, if not have surpassed, those in our roads between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. During those eras, between the first and the fifth centuries, many of the original winding tracks must have been straightened, or left to the secondary position of byways, while new and straight roads were engineered across country formerly, for one reason or another, avoided. Meanwhile, the Antonine Itinerary-makers must have relied for their surveys upon old and out-of-date information, just as, in our own time, we find many recent maps, printed from the Ordnance Survey of a hundred years ago, still indicating winding roads that have been non-existent for generations, and ignoring the direct highways made by Telford and others just before the opening of the Railway Era.

III