Famous Norfolk People
When you visit Norfolk, you are walking in the steps of many famous
men and women. Heroes and heroines from history as well as modern celebrities
are among the list of names associated with the area.
Popular Culture
In the world of popular culture, comedians Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse,
Eddie Izzard and Arthur Smith all studied in Norwich at the University
of East Anglia. Stephen Fry, and Roger Lloyd Pack ('Trigger' from Only
Fools and Horses, and 'Owen' in Vicar of Dibley) have
their homes in Norfolk. Not forgetting the the fictional character
Alan Partridge. Norfolk's Harry Potter star, Chris Rankin plays the
charracter Percy Weasley.
Terry Molloy, who lives in Bawburgh, terrorised a generation of children
as evil scientist Davros (creator of the Daleks) in Dr Who. Mr Molloy
is also known to generations of Radio Four listeners as Mike Tucker
from the The Archers. He has played the morose milkman for 34 years
and the show has become a real family affair with his real-life son
starring in the soap too.
From the world of music, the beautiful North Norfolk Coast inspires
the heart-wrenching and emotional songs from singer/songwriters James
Blunt from Cley-next-the-Sea,
and David Gray at his seaside holiday home near Hunstanton.
Roger Taylor, drummer and backing vocalist of iconic rock band Queen
was born in King's Lynn
in 1949. Cathy Dennis and Beth Orton are from Norwich. English classical
pianist, television presenter, and former member of the UK pop group
Hear'Say Myleene Klass is from Gorleston.
From sport there's snooker star Barry Pinches from Norwich, and former
World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Herbie Hide is from the area too.
Not forgetting numerous famous Norwich
City football players. Motor Racing legends Ayrton Senna
and Emerson Fittipaldi lived in Norfolk whilst they were Lotus drivers.
Offering gastric delights are television chef Patrick Anthony, and
celebrity cook Delia Smith, the majority shareholder in Norwich
City Football Club. Her enthusiastic support for the Canaries
has made her Norwich’s favourite adopted daughter!
Historic Characters
Admiral Lord Nelson (1758 – 1805)
Naval genius Admiral Horatio Nelson, the hero of great sea battles
at Cape St Vincent and The Nile, and of course Trafalgar, was born at
the village of Burnham Thorpe
on the North Norfolk coast.
Take a visit Burnham Thorpe,
sit in Nelson's seat at the local pub now called The Lord Nelson which
is still very much like it was in Nelson's days, and have a drop of
the Nelson's Blood drink.
To preserve Nelson's body, it was submerged and pickled in a cask of
Brandy. Nelson was much loved, and his courage, skill and gallantry
so admired by his crew, that during the dark hours they would creep
out and drink from the cask containing his body, praying they would
inherit some of his traits.
Today at Nelsons Local they brew Nelsons Blood ®™ to a secret
recipe. It is sold by the tot in the pub or by the bottle to take away.
Also see the tribute in the local church where his father was the rector.
Nelson learned to sail on the Norfolk Broads. He was a pupil at the
Norwich School next to the Cathedral and there is a statue of this great
local naval leader in the Cathedral Close.
Albert Einstein
In 1933 the world's most famous scientist was taken into hiding on
an isolated heath in Cromer.
The mathematician and physicist, Albert Einstein stayed in a cottage
at Roughton in Norfolk during the 1930s, after he left Germany when
Hitler came to power.
Einstein was strongly opposed to war, but after Hitler was elected
to government, it was impossible for him to stay in Germany.
Something had to be done to help the world's cleverest man.
Einstein was brought to live in a small hut on Roughton Heath in Cromer.
While he was there, the scientist was still able to work on his scientific
theories. The science he was working on changed the course of history
- he had developed the idea for the world's first nuclear bomb.
Einstein soon left Norfolk and sailed to America, never to return to
Europe.
Einstein developed the special and general theories of relativity and
won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric
effect.
Click
here to Watch BBC Inside Out's film about Einstein's time in Norfolk
(Realplayer required)
Pocahontas
Daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Algonquinn Red Indians, Pocahontas
has been immortalised by Walt Disney.
Heacham, in
Norfolk was the home of Pocahontas.
Inside the church of St. Mary at Heacham there is a memorial to Pocahontas
carved by a pupil of 'Rodin', she is also shown on the village sign
of Heacham. In both she is dressed in a stylish Jacobean trilby hat
and great neck ruff. A picture which is believed to be of Pocahontas
and her son can be found at the Kings Lynn Museum.
Robert Kett
In 1549, Robert Kett from Wymondham
put his name down in history with a spirited but unsuccessful peasants’
revolt. Rebelling against the hardships of agricultural workers, he
raised a small army, seized the city of Norwich and set up a base on
Mousehold Heath with a base of up to 16,000 people. Within six months,
however, the uprising was crushed and Robert Kett was put to death,
hanged from the wall of Norwich
Castle which faced the busy market, and his body was left
there to rot as an example to others.
Initially demonised by the local gentry, in more recent times he has
been reclaimed by Norwich as a local hero and symbol of the city. 'Kett's
Hill' in Norwich is the name of the road through Mousehold Heath (a
recreation area) where the followers were based.
In 1949 the council erected a stone plaque in memorial to Kett at the
entrance to Norwich Castle
and its inscription shows clearly how Kett's legend has been revised.
Part of it reads:
"This memorial was placed here…in reparation and honour
to a notable and courageous leader in the long struggle of the common
people of England to escape from a servile life into the freedom of
just conditions".
Edith Cavell (1865-1915)
Commemorated with a statue outside the Norwich
Cathedral gates is Edith Cavell – “Nurse, Patriot
and Martyr”. She was executed for helping hundreds of Allied soldiers
to escape from occupied Brussels during World War I. She was born in
the South Norfolk village of Swardeston and is buried next to Norwich
Cathedral.
Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845)
Social reformer Elizabeth Fry was born in Norwich. Most famous for
her work improving conditions for women prisoners, her portrait has
been featured on the Bank of England £5 note. She was a member
of the Quaker Gurney family and in her early years she lived in Gurney
Court, off Magdalen Street, and later at Earlham Hall, now part of the
University of East Anglia.
Literature
Norwich has always had a very strong literary tradition.
Julian of Norwich (1342 – 1413)
The “Revelations of Divine Love” written by the medieval
Christian mystic Julian of Norwich is believed to be the first book
in English written by a woman.
Anna Sewell (1820 – 1878)
Anna Sewell was born in Great
Yarmouth and wrote 'Black Beauty' at her house in Old Catton
on the outskirts of Norwich.
Bill Bryson
Lives near Wymondham,
Norfolk. 2003, in conjunction with World Book Day, voters in Great Britain
chose Bryson's book Notes from a Small Island as that which best sums
up British identity and the state of the nation. In the same year, he
was appointed a Commissioner for English Heritage.
In 2004 Bryson won the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general-science
book. 2006 Bryson was awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to
literature.
Others
The influential and highly original writer Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)
spent much of his life in Norwich, and a statue of him can be found
in the Haymarket, near the Forum library.
From Norwich were the author Amelia Opie (1769-1853) and the writer
and liberal thinker Harriet Martineau (1802-1876). Another contemporary
was George Borrow (1803-1881), the novelist and travel writer, who was
born locally and wrote about Norwich in his partly autobiographical
work 'Lavengro'. Philip Pullman, author of the award-winning 'His Dark
Materials' trilogy was born in Norwich in 1946
The Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia (UEA)
has produced novelists such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan. Agatha
Christie often stayed in North Walsham.
Artists
The city of Norwich and its surrounding countryside has been a source
of inspiration to writers and artists through the ages. The area was
the home of the first British art movement based outside London –
the Norwich School of painters.
The artists most associated with this movement were John Crome (1768-1821),
John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) and Joseph Stannard (1797-1830). Other
artists born in Norwich have been the Pre-Raphaelite painter Frederick
Sandys (1829-1904) and Pop artist Colin Self. The Norwich
School of Art and Design was also where Sir Alfred Munnings
(1878-1959) learnt his art.
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