Category Archives: Snapshots from the Archive

‘He will have the Dance of Swing’: Norfolk’s Involvement in the Swing Riots of 1830s England

Posted on May 7, 2022 by victoriadraper24

When the harsh winter of 1830 followed a poor harvest and caused reduced wages for labourers, agricultural riots spread across Norfolk and throughout the south and east of England. The labourers wanted to stop the spread of new threshing machines, … Continue reading →

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Norfolk’s New Railways: The Arguments For and Against the Introduction of Railways in 19th Century Norfolk

Posted on April 2, 2022 by victoriadraper24

The First Line The coming of the railways to Norfolk revolutionized many aspects of county life. The first railway from London to Norfolk arrived in the 1840s, when the line was opened via Wymondham and Cambridge and, from 1849, the … Continue reading →

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Book of Orders for Dutch and Walloon Strangers: Refugee Week 2021

Posted on June 19, 2021 by nroeando2017

For Refugee Week, we take a look at the Book of Orders for Dutch and Walloon Strangers (NRO, NCR 17d/9). This is a document containing orders for the regulation of the Strangers’ Hall in Norwich and for ordering the life … Continue reading →

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How a Second World War air raid caused the closure of a Norfolk School: The accounts of Amy Buckley, Head Teacher

Posted on February 24, 2021 by elizabethjayne2015

On the night of 26 – 27 June 1942, St Mark’s Primary and Infants’ School on Hall Road, Norwich was bombed and destroyed during a Second World War air raid. The school’s temporary log book (NRO, N/ED 1/86), written by … Continue reading →

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She was ‘a natural, a poor fool and ideot …void of reason or sense’: A harsh judgement on Margaret Cooper of Snetterton

Posted on February 6, 2021 by nroeando2017

Recent indexing work at the NRO on witness depositions from the bishop of Norwich’s consistory court has uncovered many stories relating to everyday life from the 16th to 18th centuries in both Norfolk and Suffolk (for the ancient Diocese of … Continue reading →

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Depositions: Uncovering the lives of ordinary Norfolk people through church court records

Posted on January 20, 2021 by nroeando2017

Archivists at the NRO have, among other projects, spent some time over the lockdown months of summer, indexing the contents of a representative sample of witness deposition books from Norwich Diocese, dating from the 16th-18th centuries (our reference, DN/DEP). Very … Continue reading →

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A Variety of Ways to Celebrate Christmas: Exploring the many Christmases of Hilda Zigomala

Posted on December 24, 2020 by victoriadraper24

Those of you who have read out blog posts in the past, will probably remember we have mentioned the journals of Hilda Zigomala many times before. A collection of 15 volumes which chronicles her life from getting married to Jack … Continue reading →

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The Cinemas of King’s Lynn from the Building Control Plans

Posted on September 25, 2020 by cbolsterNRO

The King’s Lynn Borough Archives hold the building control plans for the old Borough Council of King’s Lynn from 1883 up to 1960. The plans from 1960 to 1974 were sadly lost during the flood of the 1978. The plan … Continue reading →

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