Coslany Street
Coslany Street An unusual feature, at
least in Norwich, used to be the iron kerbs that ran
along either side of Coslany Street. It was perhaps no
coincidence that for many years about an acre of land
adjoining the riverside on the east of this narrow street
was occupied by Barnard’s foundry. No doubt,
therefore, this special kerb was laid to protect the
edges of the pavements from the excessive wear and tear,
which might otherwise have been caused by heavy
iron-tyred horse-drawn vehicles entering and leaving the
premises.By the 1920s the houses in this street, like those of Elm Hill, had become very run-down, but unlike Elm Hill they had nobody to plead sufficiently strongly for their restoration. Adjoining the foundry were three houses that survived until after the war. Their being listed as grade III under the Town and Country Planning Act was insufficient to save them when the whole site was eventually cleared for a housing development. One was a three-storeyed mansion of red and blue bricks, the front supported by pilasters, and with a central doorway also of moulded brick. The other two were timber framed, possibly seventeenth century, the first floor jettied and the attic floor lit by a series of five dormers. Most of the houses on the opposite side had been cleared away by 1933. We may still judge their appearance, however, from a delightful watercolour by Mr Charles Hobbis which was reproduced a year later in the Snapdragon annual. The principal building depicted had once been the Waggon and Horses public house, known before 1844 as the Jolly Dyers, but originally a merchant’s mansion. It was not until it was being dismantled that a beautiful ceiling of moulded oak, thought to date from about 1540, came to light. Plastered over so that only the principal mouldings showed, the ceiling was discovered too late to save the building. The beams of the ceiling, however, were carefully taken down to be re-used in a public house then being rebuilt at Brandon - the Flintknappers - where visitors may still admire this specimen of mediaeval craftsmanship. Coslany Street crosses the Wensum by the narrow St Miles’ bridge (built 1804), now brick paved and open only to pedestrians. Here was the extensive Anchor Brewery of Bullards, now transformed into a new housing, shopping and office development with the old fermentation hall, counting house and taproom admirably adapted by Scrolapoint to their new roles. Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2001 |