8

THE HOUSE OF HANOVER

1714–1837

When Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, died in 1714, the crown of England passed to her German cousins in the House of Hanover, as a result of the Act of Settlement. King George I (r. 1714–27) was initially unfamiliar with his new kingdom and its language and looked for close advisers. This provided an opportunity for the advancement of prominent Norfolk landowner Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745), who became the country’s most influential politician and was the first minister to be given the title of ‘Prime Minister’.

As leader of the Whig Party, Walpole opposed foreign military interventions, which were to dominate political affairs and international relations from the later eighteenth century. He was also the first in the long line of Prime Ministers to inhabit what was originally considered to be the modest town house in Downing Street, situated close to the centre of government. Walpole remains Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister, holding office for over twenty years, between 1721 and 1742.

This period has been characterised as a ‘restless age’ and an ‘Age of Revolution’. The mid-eighteenth century saw a transformation in Britain, with the birth of the Industrial Revolution, hand-in-hand with rapid economic growth. It was also a period of warfare from the later years of the century, which included war with America and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. During the early nineteenth century, Britain was to emerge as the principal global naval and imperial power.

At this time Norfolk’s agricultural role came to national prominence, as a cradle of important innovation. Changes in the countryside were driven by the growth of the large country estates, which served to shape the subsequent development of the county in many ways. At the same time, some of Norfolk’s citizens were to play prominent roles on the wider world stage, influencing international events.

NORFOLK’S TOWNS

There was a rapid rise in the population across England and Wales, from around five million at the start of the eighteenth century to over nine million in 1800. The eighteenth century saw improvements in the quality of town life as England was transformed from a rural nation into an essentially urban country. Major advances were made with the introduction of sewers and water mains were laid. Streets were cobbled and paved for the first time. Lighting of streets was introduced and there were attempts to control rubbish pollution.

At the start of the eighteenth century Norwich was England’s largest provincial city. It was one of only five urban centres with a population of more than 10,000, along with York, Bristol, Exeter and Newcastle. Norwich was also acknowledged as a centre for the arts and fashion. The appearance of the city underwent further transformation, both through necessity and through civic pride. Its walls needed to be repaired in 1727 and the gates were pulled down between 1790 and 1808. Additional housing was needed for workers drawn to the city and steadily grew up beyond the old walled area. More centrally, there was considerable investment in civic buildings, including the Octagon Chapel in 1756 and the Bethel Hospital in 1724. The Assembly Rooms were completed between 1754 and 1755 by Thomas Ivory and Sir James Burrough. Medieval earthworks that had been part of the castle bailey were levelled to provide space for a new cattle market in 1738.

The mid-eighteenth century was the golden age of the Norwich textile industry, when half of the city’s population were involved in the production of cloth; an industry that also engaged much of the surrounding countryside. Its hand-weaving industry managed to compete with production in the industrialised north, through its highest quality handmade products in worsted and silk. New businesses also developed that reinvigorated the trade, the most important of which was the manufacture of Norwich shawls.

The shawl was a fashion garment that had originated in Kashmir, India. Their manufacture in Norwich began in the 1780s. The city led the way in producing shawls as soft as those from Kashmir. Shawls became a valued fashion item during the early nineteenth century. Norwich was also renowned for the quality of its dyeing. The colour red became associated with the city and known as ‘Norwich Red’. By 1800 there were twenty shawl producers working in Norwich. The industry was a major employer and production was focused in the vicinity of the River Wensum. Other Norwich industries at this time were tanning, leatherworking, malting and brewing.

King’s Lynn was still a thriving port town. The harbour was silting up by the eighteenth century and its port was canalised between 1798 and 1828 in order to drain waters into the Wash and a new quay was installed. The port was unequalled in its location for trade, situated on the Wash and at the mouth of the River Ouse. It continued to import coal from Northumberland and Durham and also wine from France, and exported these goods to London and other parts of England, as well as abroad. Fishing and whaling vessels used the port. Lynn maintained two weekly markets, which attracted people from far afield and gave rise to additional services as well as inns and a range of shops.

Great Yarmouth was the only secure anchorage on England’s east coast for merchant vessels travelling between the Humber and Thames. It was a major naval base and active during the Napoleonic Wars. Nelson himself returned there following the battles of the Nile (1798) and Copenhagen (1807). In his tour through Great Britain between 1724 and 1726, the writer and traveller Daniel Defoe described Yarmouth as a beautiful town, situated in an ideal position for trade and with ‘the finest quay in England, if not in Europe, not inferior even to that of Marseilles’. By the early eighteenth century the town certainly had many fine buildings, which included St George’s Chapel (1714), the Custom House and the Fishermens’ Hospital (1702). The Herring Fair continued to be held and the fish were exported to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Russia, as well as woollen and other products to Holland, Norway and the Baltic. During the eighteenth century Great Yarmouth also became a fashionable place to visit for tourism and as a watering place. The population of the town doubled during the first half of the nineteenth century.

On the north coast, the ports at Blakeney and Cley were beginning to fall behind the other large coastal ports during the earlier years of the eighteenth century. Their coastal channels and shallow harbour were silting up. Ships used for foreign trade were also getting larger and could no longer reach the quayside. Foreign trade was focused on the export of local grain. Salt was also produced at Cley, both for the county’s use and for export, notably to Holland.

Daniel Defoe made special mention of Norfolk’s market towns, which he described as being ‘more and larger than any other part of England’. Dedicated market places were established at Swaffham, Dereham, North Walsham, Wymondham, Diss and Holt. Smaller market towns across the county still flourished, reflecting the prosperity of the period, including Acle, Thetford, Alysham, Reepham and Fakenham.

In north Norfolk, Holt had developed as a thriving market town, with its prosperity growing following the founding of Gresham’s School. Today Holt provides us with a window into what a Norfolk Georgian town looked like. Following a major fire in 1708, the town was rebuilt and a new centre was created with rows of Georgian properties established, creating the outline appearance we see today.

SOCIAL WELFARE IN HANOVERIAN NORFOLK

Unemployment was becoming more of a social issue and problem across society. From as early as the mid-sixteenth century Acts had been passed to provide a degree of social provision, which were known as the ‘Old Poor Law’. Money was collected from households to provide relief for the poor. It was at the end of the sixteenth century that the first workhouses were created. These were establishments in which people who could not support themselves were provided with accommodation and employment.

In 1723 the Workhouse Test Act was passed, through which anybody who wanted to receive poor relief had to enter a workhouse and undertake work there. These establishments were built across the country and in 1776 some twenty-four were recorded in Norfolk, situated mainly in the towns. By 1803 this had substantially increased to 130 across the county, which provided for 4,000 inmates.

RELIGION

Religious dissent had been steadily growing among the population. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries people began to move away from their previous adherence to the established Church. By the eighteenth century, although the Anglican Church still predominated, it was joined by those of nonconformists, Baptists, Methodists, Independents and Congregationalists. The later eighteenth century also saw the arrival of the Wesleyans.

Churches remained a dominant feature of the Norfolk landscape, although their distribution at this time still largely related to the pattern of earlier medieval settlement. The result was that Norfolk’s large churches were set among what were becoming shrinking rural populations and, as a result, many of these great buildings were poorly maintained and were being left in disrepair.

The clergy at this time often needed to rely on additional means of income and few parishes were left with a resident vicar. The diaries of Parson Woodforde (1740–1803) provide a charming insight into the life of a country parson in Georgian Norfolk. James Woodforde was a clergyman in the Church of England. He lived a largely uneventful life but his diaries provide a delightful and detailed account of rural Norfolk. Woodforde lived at Weston Longville, north-west of Norwich. He described Norwich as ‘the fairest city in England by far’ and explained how much he enjoyed visiting the beach at Great Yarmouth.

AGRICULTURE AND THE LAND

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw important advances in agriculture, with Norfolk playing a leading role in national developments. The period after 1720 experienced a steady growth in the population and Norfolk’s farming was important in providing food for the nation.

Norfolk’s larger landowners began to introduce important changes. The first was a new system of crop rotation that had been developed and used in the Low Countries, resulting in an increase in crop yields. The county’s landowners were to recognise and adapt that practice, which became known as the ‘Norfolk Four Course’ system. This system became standard practice on British farms during the course of the eighteenth century and subsequently spread right across Europe in the nineteenth. Another development was the enlargement of farms, together with the production of cereal crops, and involved taking in more marginal land for growing.

The name of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754–1842), is associated with the advances in British agriculture. Coke was a politician and lived at Holkham Hall. He took a major interest in his park and gardens, planting extensive areas of woodland. He employed Humphrey Repton to modify the design of the grounds and gardens. Coke also extended his estate, which incorporated fifty-four farms situated around the periphery.

Coke developed many innovative ideas and experimented with a range of new farming methods. He improved grasses and experimented with selective breeding methods for sheep and cattle. The resulting improvements to fodder crops served further to improve numbers and quality of sheep and cattle. He purchased strips of land and enclosed the areas; following the process that had begun in the sixteenth century. By the mid-eighteenth century there were few remaining areas of strip agriculture.

Norfolk contained distinct farming regions, which developed independently due to both different soil conditions and to local tenurial arrangements. In the central north were open fields and enclosures. In the north-west were more open fields, which supported sheep and cereal growing. The loams of Flegg in the east provided well-drained fertile arable land with open fields, and cattle grazed the marshes inland from Great Yarmouth. Open fields in the southern Breckland heathland were suited to sheep and barley. The Fenland provided pasture for sheep and cattle. The western area benefitted from improved drainage in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Alongside the improvements being made to agriculture, the early nineteenth century once again experienced major discontent among agricultural workers. The Corn Laws, between 1815 and 1846 kept grain prices high and led to riots by agricultural labourers in west Norfolk. There was also an outbreak of destroying farm machinery, which was seen as threatening employment of those already on the poverty line. In 1830 there was a major episode of riots and arson across parts of the county.

COUNTRY HOUSES, ESTATES AND THE ARTS

During the Hanoverian period there was further growth in the creation of large estates, through which the landed gentry now dominated the rural countryside. The wealth that had been generated over centuries of farming can be seen expressed in their magnificent houses, set within their own private and individually designed landscapes. But these were more than just mansions set within parkland. They were working estates which were populated by their own workforces; able to deliver all their own trade and craft needs and produce their own food. These estates thus became essentially self-sufficient in all ways. Furthermore, they went on to play an integral role in the wider local economy by linking farms, villages, markets and supplying the needs of the surrounding countryside.

The principal family seats in Norfolk built in the first half of the eighteenth century included those at Felbrigg, Holkham, Houghton, Narford and Wolterton. The landscape of parklands was not an even one across the county. The larger estates were concentrated in the central north and towards the Norfolk–Suffolk border. There were fewer towards the Fens and only smaller landowners in that area. There were fewer too across the central boulder clay region, where there were historically more complex patterns of land ownership combined with higher land values. More estates were created further east but these were smaller in scale.

As well as being an outstanding politician, Sir Robert Walpole amassed a considerable fortune during his political career. He developed an understanding of architecture, pictures, sculpture, furniture and landscape design, all of which were reflected in the sumptuous surroundings of Houghton Hall, built on the site of an earlier family house. Constructed and completely furnished during the period between 1722 and 1735, Houghton Hall became a showcase for Walpole’s internationally important collection of works by the finest architects, craftsmen and painters of that elegant age. The surrounding grounds and parkland were designed by Charles Bridgeman.

The famous landscape designer Humphrey Repton (1752–1818) attended Norwich Grammar School. He was apprenticed to a textile merchant in Norwich before moving to Sustead, near Aylsham, where he became secretary to William Windham at Felbrigg Hall and began to study botany and gardening. He became a landscape gardener, succeeding Capability Brown as the greatest landscape designer of the eighteenth century. His first commission was Catton Park, Norwich, in 1788 and his favourite project was to be Sheringham Park.

Holkham Hall is situated close to Wells-next-the-Sea. It is one of the finest examples of Palladian-style architecture and its design shows strong influences from classical Roman architecture. The house was built for Thomas Coke by the architect William Kent (1685–1748), who is recognised as having introduced the Palladian style into England.

NORFOLK AND THE GRAND TOUR

It was from the seventeenth century that aristocratic Englishmen started to venture abroad for the purposes of travel, adventure, military experience and appreciation of the arts. The example of the Paston family at Oxnead Hall was considered in the previous chapter. The term ‘Grand Tour’ was developed, as this form of experience became an established way for young men to develop their education, engaging with a study of the Classics and visiting, in particular, France and Italy.

The eighteenth century saw the creation of some of Britain’s most important collections. Although by no means exclusive to Norfolk, the Grand Tour underlay the formation of some of Britain’s great art collections, including those at the Norfolk houses of Felbrigg, Holkham, Narford, Wolterton and Houghton. Some of Norfolk’s early travellers included Ashe Windham of Felbrigg (1672–1749), Sir Andrew Fountaine of Narford (1676–1753), Thomas Coke of Holkham (1754–1842) and Horace Walpole of Houghton (1717–97). Acquisitions reflected tastes of the day and, for example, in the earlier eighteenth century works by great masters including Canaletto, Claude and Poussin were acquired to adorn the great houses of Holkham, Melton Constable, Narford and Wolterton.

It is recorded that Rev. William Gunn (1750–1841), rector of Sloley church, made the Grand Tour on two occasions. While in Rome, he discovered an important tenth-century manuscript of the Historia Brittonum, which he subsequently brought home and had printed to make it more widely accessible in Britain.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Norfolk was geographically well positioned in relation to England’s increasing focus on commerce and industry, geared to the Industrial Revolution. Although it did not have the factories of the north, it did play a role in trade through the import, export and distribution of goods, including the vitally important mineral – coal.

Textile production was still the most important economic activity in Norfolk. By the mid-eighteenth century, the high point of the industry, in Norwich it employed almost half of the city’s workforce. It was then to undergo a decline towards the end of eighteenth century, during a period of wider economic decline in the city.

Norfolk’s geology, with its natural chalk and lime, provided the resources to facilitate glassmaking. This long historical tradition reached its peak from the seventeenth century onwards. The main focuses of glassmaking were the major seaports of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn. A prominent producer of decorated glassware was the acclaimed William Absolom Jnr (1751–1815) of Great Yarmouth.

Brewing beer developed as an industry at many places during the eighteenth century. By 1852 there would be eighty-eight common breweries operating across Norfolk. A number of major breweries had become established by the mid-eighteenth century, mainly growing up in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, with Lacon’s of Yarmouth regionally prominent.

TRANSPORT

By the mid-seventeenth century a stagecoach network had been established across the country, employing four-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicles for transporting people to scheduled destinations. The condition of the roads themselves became an essential element of improving the transport infrastructure. The Turnpike Acts were introduced from the late seventeenth century whereby toll gates were set up on roads and the revenue collected was used for their upkeep. From 1769 a series of Acts were passed, enabling improvements in Norfolk’s most important roads. These were very largely those radiating out from Norwich, King’s Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Fakenham in the north.

Canals were becoming a major method of transporting heavy goods in the north of England during the eighteenth century. Norfolk already had an established system of waterborne trade to which it added a canal between Norwich and Lowestoft in 1833. Bolder plans to link the east and west between King’s Lynn and Norwich by canals never materialised.

SEASIDE RESORTS

It was as early as the eighteenth century that Norfolk’s coast started to become a desirable destination for visitors. Fashionable members of society started to look to the Norfolk coast in search of leisure pursuits and sea bathing. The sandy beaches of Great Yarmouth provided an obvious attraction and became the first major draw. A bathing machine was constructed there in 1779 and a bath house was located on the beach in 1814.

The fishing village of Cromer developed into another popular seaside location, attracting visitors from the end of the eighteenth century. This resort was to became popular among the more affluent families, who built not only seaside houses there, but also permanent homes in the vicinity.

NORFOLK AND THE WIDER WORLD

Norfolk’s Regiment, still known as the 9th Foot, was involved in campaigns across the world between 1714 and 1837, ranging from the Americas to Asia. In 1761 the Regiment fought the French at Belle Isle in the Bay of Biscay and served in Cuba in the following year. Subsequent years saw a series of major international conflicts. In 1776 they were sent to Quebec and took part in the war against the American colonies in Canada and North America. They were part of the army of General Burgoyne, which surrendered at Saratoga in 1777. Following a return to Britain, the 9th was stationed in the West Indies in 1788.

At the end of the eighteenth century it was given the distinction of bearing Britannia as the Regimental badge. The American War of Independence was followed by the Napoleonic Wars and the 9th went on to serve with distinction throughout the Peninsular War, between 1808 and 1814. The Regiment was always seen in the forefront of battles and won nine additional battle honours in the campaign. In 1835 it was sent to India for the first time, which was to be the start of a longstanding association with that country, lasting for over a century.

During the period of the Napoleonic Wars coastal defences were constructed against possible foreign hostility. In fact, there had been the potential of seaborne invasion for much of the eighteenth century. Whilst Britain was at war with America, there was a threat from not only France but also Spain and Holland. There were already forts at Great Yarmouth and at King’s Lynn, St Anne’s fort was re-armed. A battery was placed at Cromer and another five were positioned at Great Yarmouth. These all remained active when war with France began in 1793. In 1803 an additional battery was placed at Weybourne. This was followed by others across north Norfolk. These defences were maintained until Napoleon’s defeat in 1815.

This period saw some of Norfolk’s most famous citizens make contributions to the establishment of the modern world. Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was born in White Hart Street, Thetford, son of a local farmer. This extraordinary man managed to change the world through his influence on international affairs on a major scale. He was an author, pamphleteer, inventor, intellectual and revolutionary. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and participated in the American Revolution. Through his writings, which were powerful expressions of man’s rights, he stimulated people worldwide. At the height of his fame, his books were read in their hundreds of thousands. After returning to England he needed to flee to France to escape prosecution for his writing. There, he was to greatly influence the French Revolution. He also actively contributed to the Industrial Revolution, as a designer of the cast-iron bridge. His book, The Rights of Man (1791), served as a guide to ideas of ‘enlightenment’ at this turbulent time in world history. Paine died in Greenwich Village, New York City, at the age of 72. His ideas have continued to resonate down the generations.

Norfolk’s most famous son, Horatio Nelson, was born slightly later than Paine, in Burnham Thorpe, north Norfolk, in 1758. He enjoyed an outstanding career as a naval commander and his exploits made him a national hero. He is renowned for his inspirational leadership and bold, decisive actions. Nelson distinguished himself in the defeat of the Spanish off Cape Vincent in 1797, which was followed by his victory at the Battle of the Nile. It was at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 that, when given the order to retreat in the face of fierce bombardment from shore batteries, he famously raised his telescope to his blind eye and declared that he could see no signal to withdraw. He went on to achieve another famous victory. In 1803 he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean fleet and given HMS Victory as his flagship.

Between 1794 and 1805, the Royal Navy maintained a vital supremacy over the French. Nelson’s final victory was the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Despite being fatally wounded, he had saved Britain from the threat of invasion by Napoleon. He was awarded a state funeral, which was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London in 1806. Although Nelson is famously reported as saying ‘I am a Norfolk man and glory in being so’, his career ultimately led him away from the county of his birth. He continued to visit Great Yarmouth, which was an important naval depot and garrison town. His close association with Norfolk was memorialised with the erection of a monumental column to him in Great Yarmouth in 1817.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

There was no standing police force in Georgian England. When crimes were detected, punishments were severe and the death penalty was enforced for what we would today consider to be relatively minor issues. However, some more serious offences needed to be confronted.

It was in the eighteenth century that smuggling became a serious problem on a national scale. It was a particularly well-organised practice around Norfolk’s seaboard, where local gangs defied the authorities. The underlying cause for the escalation in smuggling had been the level of taxation imposed on imported goods to pay for the increasingly expensive wars of the period. It fell to the army to confront what were in effect private militias across the county’s villages and beaches, particularly in the area between Snettisham and Wells. It was not until Prime Minister William Pitt lowered customs duties in the 1780s that the activities of the smugglers were rendered unprofitable and the practice was effectively curtailed.

The practice of highway robbery was similarly prevalent. One particularly notorious highwayman plied his illegal trade in Norfolk and adjacent counties. In 1737 a horse dealer named John Palmer took up residence at Long Sutton, in the Lincolnshire fens. His real and more famous name was Dick Turpin (1705–39) and he robbed stagecoaches on roads between Norfolk and London. When Turpin’s true identity was eventually discovered, he was captured and hanged in York in 1739.

As the fear of crime maintained its grip through the eighteenth century, so punishments handed down by the judicial system became ever more harsh. The most common form of punishment at this time was execution by public hanging. Public executions of convicted prisoners were carried out at the foot of the stone bridge at Norwich Castle, where these gruesome events attracted large crowds.

Prison conditions were similarly horrific, exacerbated by overcrowding. Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845) was a Quaker and social reformer, born in Norwich to the Gurney banking family. Influenced by visits to Newgate Prison in London, she became a prison reformer. She campaigned for the provision of schooling for children imprisoned with their mothers and for the improved conditions of prisoners. She also campaigned for the rights of prisoners sentenced to transportation. Elizabeth later created a training school for nurses, which in turn was an influence on Florence Nightingale.

The exploration of the wider world provided new opportunities for dealing with criminals, many of whom had been convicted of relatively minor offences. New territories were being explored and a new land was discovered, which was called ‘New Holland’, and which is known to us today as Australia. Transportation was introduced as a new form of punishment in 1714 and criminals were sent away to a new prison colony at Botany Bay, called Sydney.

It was at Norwich Castle that prisoners were held prior to their transportation. Ties have been established over many years between the city and the descendants of early transportees who had been held in Norwich Castle gaol. The stories of many families are well recorded. Mary Ann Adams from Norfolk was convicted of stealing a purse and sent to Sydney, where she married another transportee named Thomas Richardson, in 1837.

One of the most famous transportees was Henry Kable (1763–1846), who had been convicted of a burglary at Thetford in 1783. When in Norwich gaol, Henry met Susannah Holmes and they managed to conceive a son while in prison. When they eventually reached Botany Bay in 1788, Henry and Susannah married. Together, they raised eleven children. In 1988, 500 of their descendants came together to celebrate Henry and Susannah’s 200th wedding anniversary. The couple are recognised as one of Australia’s founding families and their descendants still regularly visit Norwich Castle.

THE ARTS

The label of ‘restless age’ may also be applied to this period through the arts, in terms of influences from abroad and foreign travel. Through the agencies of warfare and thirst for knowledge and enlightenment, Norfolk’s citizens brought back exotic items from Europe, America, Australia, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. There was an increasing desire to explore and record other world cultures, resulting in the creation of provocative new art and literature.

In the field of literature and progressive thinking, Thomas Paine has already been mentioned. Another writer, Amelia Opie (1769–1853), who was born and lived in Norwich, was an author of novels and poetry. Through such novels as Adeline Mowbray (1804) she explored serious issues of the day including the position of women in society and that of slavery. Following the death of her husband in 1807, she stopped writing fiction and focused her attention on charitable work, helping in prisons, workhouses and hospitals. She also became known as a leading abolitionist. Amelia bought a house in Norwich adjacent to Castle Meadow and the location is now called Opie Street.

The work of the finest architects enhanced the great country houses, such as Houghton Hall and Holkham Hall. Great art collections were being formed by Sir Robert Walpole and other wealthy individuals. Landscape design has also left a major mark on the Norfolk countryside.

In painting, the Norwich Society of Artists was founded in 1803 by John Crome (1768–1821) and his friend Robert Ladbrooke. It brought together professional painters, drawing masters and amateurs, becoming what was then the only regional school of painting in England. John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) joined the Society in 1807 and became one of its great masters. Other members of what became known as ‘The Norwich School’ were John Berney Crome, George Vincent, James Stark, Joseph and Alfred Stannard, John Thirtle, Thomas Lound and Henry Ninham. This association of artists found their inspiration in the heaths and woodland of East Anglia, together with rivers, such as the Yare, and the Norfolk coast. They flourished as a group throughout the first half of the nineteenth century.

The work of the Norwich School of painters was based on realism, derived from direct observation of the local landscape. It represented a departure from the tradition of classical landscape as seen in the work of Claude and Poussin. Their influences included the tradition of Dutch landscape painting, including such artists as Jacob van Ruisdael and Albert Cuyp. In turn, the influence of the Norwich School paved the way for the great British tradition of landscape painting, in particular through the work on John Constable and J.M.W. Turner.

THE CLOSE OF THE HANOVERIAN DYNASTY

In 1837 William IV, last king of the House of Hanover, died after a seven-year reign. England had embarked on a period of industrial and social change, together with a rapidly growing population and accompanied by underlying social tensions. William left no surviving legitimate children and he was succeeded by his niece, Victoria.

While in some ways Norfolk and its citizens were engaged in events on a wider national and international scale, by the end of the Hanoverian period it was beginning to experience an economic downturn. In the final years of the eighteenth century Norwich itself no longer enjoyed its earlier commercial importance. Signs of a decline might perhaps be interpreted through the eyes of the Norwich School artists, much of whose work may perhaps be viewed as reflecting the county in idyllic terms, with a nostalgic eye; encapsulating a time of Norfolk’s former greatness.