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Norwich
Two specific locations were on our agenda for today. The first Norwich Castle and the second Norwich Cathedral. As a result of these two visits, there would be chance to take in the other delights of the city as we moved from one to the other. First stop then was the castle and fortunately we parked in the Castle mall shopping centre car park, which as its name suggest was adjacent the castle. Not to be seen on this old aerial photograph of the castle, however the space to the front of the bridge is the area the Mall now covers. Pam and I recall visiting the upper part of the mall, stopping for a drink, when we first came to visit the city back in 2015, not realsing at that time that it was part of a much larger shopping mall, with car park. That year we had use the Park & Ride facility to visit the City.
Above: examples of the excellent exhibitions within the castle museum. In addition to superbly displayed Natural History , they have the Colman Gallery, which contains some amazing works of art, many covering the local areas, A Boudica & the Roman exhibition, Egypt display with mummies, Dungeons & Prison Display, Pottery and a collection of teapots of all shapes and sizes, anglo saxons and vikings, a Royal Norfolk Regiment display and all that before you enter the castle itself. At the time of our visit there was an additional display to commemorate the link with Norfolk to Lord Nelson: he was born in the county. This was an amazing mix of art, artifacts, clothing etc, but all of the items dwarfed by the first exhibit on display the ensign from the French Temeraire ship of the line, which was captured in battle. The flag was presented to Norwich by Nelson and Captain Edward Berry. It measures 16m x 83m approximately the size of a tennis court. Its appearance at the museum is the first public showing for nearly a hundred years.
Views from inside the castle keep. The gallery looking down to the ground floor. Next the craftsmanship of the roof, which is constructed of two similar structures running parrellel to each other. A norman soldier recreated in one of the window recess and finally a stained glass window. Clearly a location where you could easilly spend a whole day or more.
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Pictures of the Norman style Cathedral, construction of which was completed in 1145, with building work started 30 years after the Norman conquest and features Caen stone facings. As with all cathedrals the scale of the building ais very impressive, and one can only stand in awe of the craftsman and builders who constructed such an inspiring building. The Cathedral possess the second largest cloisters in the country, only Salisburys is larger./p>