Roman era
A 1930s dig revealed that a Roman road ran from the Midlands, through the Fens to Dereham Road, St Benedicts, Princes Street/Hungate and then to Tombland Alley, across the Cathedral Close and on to Mousehold. There do not seem to have been any settlements in the Tombland area, however.
Early-Middle Saxon (4thc-9thc)
The Danes conquered East Anglia after the defeat and murder of the East Anglian king, Edmund, in 870. The Anglo-Scandinavian settlement in Norwich was to the north of the Wensum river and Princes Street. There is also evidence of settlements south of the Wensum river and north of the later Cathedral Close – just north east of Princes Street. Fragments of an Early Saxon urn were found St Michael at Plea, on the south side of Princes Street – St Michael at Plea was known as St Michael at Motstow – “meeting place near the market”.
Late Saxon (10thc to 1066)
Tombland was the main market of late Saxon Norwich. It was the location of the bishop’s house (where the Maid’s Head now is) and reputedly the palace of the Earls of East Anglia at the southern end. St Michael Tombland (pulled down when the Cathedral was built) was located in what is now the Cathedral Close. The street which is now Princes Street may have been the location of accommodation, warehousing and shops for the market.
1004 King Sweyn of Denmark invaded and set fire to settlements in Norwich including Conesford (where Princes Street and Tombland now are) and Magdalen Street
St Peter Hungate on Princes Street/Hungate dates to the late Saxon period and St Simon and St Jude on Elm Hill was built before 1066.
Norman era 1066-1154
1066 Norman invasion.
1,320 tax paying burgesses in Norwich, declined to 719 by end of the century
Wooden castle built.
1071 French borough started in Mancroft, market moved to Guildhall from Tombland. Tombland area continues as Anglo-Saxon settlement.
St George Tombland church built on the corner of Hungate/Princes Street and Tombland, cutting across the former Roman Road – St George was a popular dedication after the First Crusade of 1096
1096 work starts on the Cathedral
1100 Wooden castle begins to be rebuilt in stone
Picture above from Norwich Castle, 3 shows were Tombland is
13th century
1194 City obtained municipal independence by purchase from King Richard I. Norwich then divided into 4 areas known as Leets. St George Tombland was in the Wymer Leet.
1247 John Boude left legacies to the anchorites at St George Tombland and St Peter Hungate
before 1248 – John Le Brun, a priest, was granted land on which he founded the hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Chapel in the Fields .
1260 St George is a sub leet in the leet of Westwyk. Westwyk became Wymer during the 13th century. Then Wymer was divided into West, Mid and East Wymer. St George Tombland parish was in East Wymer.
1267 – Le Brun gave the college of the Chapel in the Fields the advowson of St Andrews, where his brother Jeffery le Brun was rector of St Andrew.
1272 – Le Brun gave the college of the Chapel in the Fields the advowson of St George at Monastery Gates (now St George Tombland) – possibly inherited from his father. It included 3 messuages. It is possible the medieval hall type building at the back of 26 Princes Street, in Tombland Alley was the rectory of St George. Another brother, Matthew Le Brun, gave his advowson of St Mary Unbrent (on Magdalen Street) to the college. (p378 History of Norfolk, Blomefield)
St George Tombland church rebuilt
1272 riots of citizens against Prior of Cathedral precinct, with arrows fired across Tombland from tower of St George’s at the Cathedral precinct. John Le Brun may have been involved in the riots. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Norfolk/Volume_3/Chapter_12
1272 A fish house is recorded in St George Tombland – archaeological evidence shows many fishermen lived in the parish (Ayers)
1278 John Le Brun became the dean of the College of the Chapel in the Fields, which by this time had become secular.
1287 Hundegate mentioned (Beecheno)
1290 beginning of listing of rectors at St George at Tombland
14th century
1320-5 Princes Inn, number 20/Trattoria Rustica on present day Princes Street owned by Mabel Gotte, widow of William Gotte
1323 Common lane running between Hungate and Waggon and Horses Lane (now Plumbers’ Arms Alley).
1349 Plague came to Norwich – around half the population of 25,000 died by 1379. There is no written or archaeological evidence of where they were buried – it seems likely that each parish would have dealt with their own dead in their own churchyards or taken the dead outside the city walls. Tombland Alley was unlikely to have been a plague pit for anyone other than the dead of St George Tombland.
Records from the 14th century show that many shops and market stalls had been untenanted for so long during the plague years that they fell to ruin and many churches became disused. [1] It seems the deserted streets became unsafe, as the present day Plumbers’ Arms Alley, running alongside Princes Inn, first recorded as a common way in 1323/4, which was shut up in 1373, to stop robberies being committed along it.
[1] A History of Norwich, Frank Meeres Phillimore & Co 2016 p.54
1380 royal licence passed to appropriate St George’s to the College of the Chapel in the Fields
1391 first mention of Princes Inn according to Beecheno
1397 Norwich Domesday Book – Princesin
15th century
Influx of refugees from the Netherlands – economic, fleeing persecution and also from the floods of 1421-2, civil war 1425 and peasants’ revolt 1426
1404 Municipal assembly established consisting of a Mayor, 2 Sheriffs, 24 Aldermen and 60 common councillors.
1414 Common lane (probably present day Plumber’s Arms Alley leading onto Princes Street) granted to Ralph Gunton “ambushes of malefactors there lying wait by night”
1415 Leets became known as wards
1445 Rebuilding of St George Tombland tower, addition of aisles and porches
1456 Paston Letters mention Princes Inn – John Bokkyng, Sir John Fastolf’s clerk, wrote from Caister Castle to John Paston: ‘Your cofre is at the Prinse Inn’. Clement Paston, a peasant bondsman, took the opportunity of devastation caused by the Black Death to buy up land, and send his son William to be educated as a lawyer. He may have owned the Princes Inn messuage and others in the area.
1458 Advowson of St Peter Hungate conveyed to John and Margaret Paston by the College of St Mary in the Fields.
1460 St Peter Hungate mostly rebuilt by the Pastons
1496 Waggon and Horses Lane known as Prynce Innelane – continued to be known as this until 1708
References:
Norwich: A Fine City – Brian Ayers, 1994
Some Account of St Peter’s Hungate Paris, Norwich, F. Beecheno, Norfolk Archaeology Vol 21 Part 2 1921
A Topographical History of Norfolk – Francis Blomefield,
Friends of Princes Street 