14 Apr. 2018 at UEA: Brewers’ creation of country estates

Why did comparatively few Norfolk brewers form gentry estates in the late 18th and early 19th centuries? What difficulties did they face? And what were the various means they adopted to enhance the setting in which they lived?

These are some of the questions Margaret Bird will hope to answer in her talk as Honorary President of the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group (NAHRG) on Saturday 14 April 2018 at 2.30 pm.

Letheringsett Hall, the setting created by William Hardy jnr (1770-1842). His epitaph states that ‘he clothed the hills with foliage’. He also created the dangerous bend on the A148 seen here [photograph A.E. Coe of Norwich 1880: Cozens-Hardy Collection]

Road diversions to achieve privacy

A common means of gaining private space around the house and thereby create a small park was by road diversion—either with or without the authority of the magistrates. These re-routings of the main highway are with us today, forming awkward bends where once the busy road had passed right by the windows of the main front.

Thomas Paine Lecture Theatre, UEA

The meeting in the Thomas Paine Lecture Theatre takes the form of the AGM followed by the Presidential Address by Margaret Bird.

The lecture theatre is in the Thomas Paine Study Centre in the Norwich Business School block at the end of Chancellor’s Drive.

The River Glaven, which powered the Hardys’ brewery, passes Bayfield Hall downstream. Both this house and Letheringsett Hall owed the private parkland surrounding them to a series of road closures and diversions 1797-1808. The former public road ran between the house and the ruined church

UEA can be reached by a range of bus services; the bus stop is near the Norwich Business School. For those coming by car, parking on campus costs £1.00 on a Saturday, using Pay and Display. The nearest car park for the event is the West Car Park, labelled 26 on the UEA maps on the campus (ignore the ‘Staff Only’ sign). The Thomas Paine Centre is 25 on the map, and the bus stop is 22.

The NAHRG website gives details under Lecture Programme.

Non-members are welcome, free of charge, and are invited to tea or coffee after the meeting.