The history of Norwich is long. As with any settlement around the world, with age, comes a history filled with the violence and bloodshed. Where there are great concentrations of people, you will find battles, tragic accidents, revolts, riots and good, old-fashioned, murder. So it is unsurprising to find that Norwich’s streets, if representing the amount of blood spilled on them over the centuries, would run like a river. What follows are the accounts of just a handful of these events. From brutal slayings and violent executions, Norwich truly has a blood soaked history.
The Brutal Execution of Thomas Tunstall
Thomas Tunstall was born in the beautiful area of Kendal in Westmorland to the ancient family of the Tunstalls of Thurland Castle in Lancashire. Importantly, a Catholic family, at a time (end of the 16th century into the 17th century) when the religion was outlawed in Britain. As a result, a young Thomas decided to head to France for a Catholic education and left college in August of 1610 as a fully ordained priest. As many priests of Europe chose to do, he decided to secretly travel back to England under an alias, Richard Dyer. This was so that he could lead worship among the wealthy families still practising the faith but with the means to hide the priests. (If you have ever heard of ‘Priest Holes’ this is where they come in!)
He was, unfortunately for him, captured almost immediately as he stepped off the ship to England and spent the next five years of his life being bounced from prison to prison until he ended up at Wisbech Castle between King’s Lynn and Peterborough. One night, desperate to end his incarceration, he threw a rope from his cell window and abseiled down the side of the tower into the moat. Unfortunately he was not a natural climber and in his escape he managed to slice open his hands. Injured, he sought refuge from a kind stranger and found one in Lady L’Estrange who took him in to treat his wounds. Thomas’ luck sadly continued to sour when the Lady’s husband returned home, who turned out to be the local magistrate. Despite his wife’s pleas, Sir Hamon L’Estrange had Tunstall sent to Norwich gaol. There, at the next Assizes, he was found guilty of high treason and condemned to the worst form of execution, to be Hanged, Drawn and Quartered.
Thomas apparently showed great courage in face of this horrific fate. The execution itself would turn the stomach of the strongest person. It involved being tied up behind a horse, sometimes on a rack if there was mercy, sometimes without, and being dragged to your place of execution. From there, the condemned would be hanged from a gallows until almost at the point of death before being cut down. Immediately after, and while still alive, they would be subject to the removal of their genitals with a hot knife, the removal of their bowels which would be burned before them and then finally to have the head cut off and the body cut into four pieces. These would then be placed over the various gates into the city for passers by to see. Despite knowing that this was what was in store for him, Thomas Tunstall simply announced that, as a Friar by vow, though not in practice, of the order of St Benedict, that he should have his severed head placed above St Benedict’s gate.
On the day of his execution in 1616, upon meeting the executioner, Thomas apparently greeted him, prayed for him and thanked him for being the instrument of his death. He was then dragged behind a horse to the Magdalen city gates and just outside to the gallows thought to be located close to where The Leopard Pub sits today (where Magpie Road previously met Bull Close Road.) During the horrific ordeal of his execution, he apparently displayed a countenance described later on as “saintly.” His demeanour had a profound effect on the people of Norwich and as a result he was remembered (especially by those harbouring catholic sympathies.) In 1929 he was beatified by the Catholic church.
His story was revived in the 18th Century when a traveller staying in Norwich reputedly saw the ghost of Thomas standing by the Erpingham gate, his face bulging as if still being hanged from the gallows and an executioner’s knife still protruding from his belly. Since then, there have been numerous supposed sightings of his ghost at the spot.
Thomas Berney, Duellist or Murderer?
Thomas Berney was a young man from a good family, living with a Robert Watts in the parish of St Andrews in Norwich in 1684. Berney was known among his friends as being hot-headed, poor with money and quick to anger. Many people had reported that he had asked several friends for loans which, if they declined, resulted in Berney drawing his sword and threatening to kill them, prompting them to give up the money. He had even wounded a few people during these threats.
On the night of Saturday 19th July 1684, Berney was drinking with several Norwich gentlemen and the High Sheriff of Norfolk. One of these gentlemen was Thomas Bedingfield of nearby Oxborough. At around 2am it is reported that the sheriff left the gathering and that those left drinking there were all very intoxicated. Shortly afterwards, an argument broke out between Berney and Bedingfield over comments made by the latter over the former’s sister. Enraged, Berney struck Bedingfield in the ear and received a punch back. At that moment, the two decided to take their fight outside and drew swords, hacking at each other into the darkness of Norwich. Shortly afterwards, Bedingfield was found face down on the ground in the street. He had eight severe wounds on his body that were gushing blood. Four of these wounds were situated in his back, suggesting he was trying to escape when he was caught. He had died from blood loss.
A great cry went up in the city about the murder and the gates were shut to stop Berney escaping. He was discovered trying to hide and dragged from his hiding place to the city’s common gaol. There he was locked up until, a few days later, he stood before the Right Hon. Lord Chief Baron Montague on 14th August 1864. He claimed that he didn’t remember much other than hearing Bedingfield’s blood “pour upon ye stones”. His previous behaviour was mentioned during his trial and several people came forward to speak about Berney’s violent temper. He seemed sober and penitent in the courtroom but it wasn’t enough to sway the jury who found him guilty. He was sentenced to death and on the 8th September he was hanged in the marketplace in front of a baying crowd. At the time of his execution, the following epitaph was written:
“Here lies interred in this pitt,
Ye relicts of a pregnant witt,
Till vice enamoured of his part,
Instructed him in his black art,
Knowing the fattest soil do breed,
Ye greatest crop of every weed,
But God in mercy unto him,
Rouz’d him into a sense of sin,
And by distressed misery,
Unto him taught humility,
When true repentance of the fact,
That drink and anger made him act,
And from ye ladders top I wiss,
He did ascend to heavenly bliss.
He thought his life was not his loss,
To snatch a crown from off a Cross.”
The Bodies in the Well
In 2004, during the excavation of the site that was to become Chapelfield Shopping Centre (now Chantry Place), an early medieval well was discovered. Much to the surprise and horror of the workmen, the well contained a large number of human bones. They were excavated by archaeologists and kept in storage until 2011 whereupon a terrible and saddening discovery was made. The DNA sequenced from the bones revealed that the people were Jewish. What’s more, is they had clearly been thrown into the well while still alive, implying a horrifying death. Worse still was the fact that 11 of the 17 bodies found were those of children. The eldest 15 years old, the youngest only two. It was quickly ruled out that they were thrown down there due to disease, as none of the bones showed any evidence of illness or disease. So what was the real reason for this ruthless mass murder?
Well, sadly the answer is: antisemitism. When the Normans invaded England in 1066, they brought their own brand of Christianity. In this form of Christianity, it was against the law for Christian people to lend money with interest. However, the Normans were trying to create a new economy in their new kingdom and money lending would be a way to build it up. As such, Jewish communities, (who had no such rules about money handling) were brought to England to act as moneylenders. Here in Norwich, they were based at the point where Gentleman’s Walk meets the Haymarket, where the Lamb Inn currently stands. As they were the only people involved in the lending of money with interest, naturally the Jewish communities started to become wealthy. This led to friction with the Chrisitians who became jealous.
There has been conflict between the Jewish faith and Christianity since Christianity branched off from it approximately 2000 years ago. Christians would tell stories involving “evil jewish” characters and St John supposedly rewrote the bible so that the Jewish community was responsible for the crucifixion rather than the romans. All of this compounded a misplaced distrust in Jewish communities.
In 1144, a young boy named William was found murdered on Mousehold Heath. The murder could not be solved and it was almost forgotten by most of the population until a visit from a monk named Thomas of Monmouth four years later. He had heard of the murder of William, and came to Norwich to preach that it was the Jews who had murdered William by crucifixion (the body of William is not thought to have been crucified.) He claimed that sects of Jewish people around the country were ritualistically murdering Christian children. This was a completely unfounded claim but led to panic amongst the Christians nonetheless. Unfortunately this culminated in the Christian population turning on the Jewish population in the city with great prejudice and violence. In February of 1190, the people of Norwich were instructed by crusaders to kill the Jewish people and it led to many families being butchered in their homes. Sources at the time describe the horrendous bloodshed that followed and how, in the 1290s, the entire Jewish community was eventually driven from the area.
It is thought that it is around this time that the harrowing violence was inflicted on the poor individuals found in the well in 2004. From the examinations of the remains, it appears as though the skeletons potentially belonged to an entire family. The adults were thrown down the well first, their bodies show evidence of potentially fatal injuries sustained when they hit the bottom. Once the men and women had been thrown down the well, the children followed, possibly while still alive, and, having landed upon the bodies of the adults, could have survived the fall. Which leaves us with the horrifying knowledge that, there, at the bottom of the well, trapped in a space only a few feet across, they slowly suffocated with the bodies of their family.
In 2013, the 17 bodies were buried in Earlham Cemetery Jewish Quarter. A large ceremony was held and an Anglican Bishop attended to apologise on behalf of the Christians for the murders. They remain there today, hopefully now at peace after their secret was revealed over 800 years later.
A Hanging At Home
Robert Watts (nicknamed “Gaffer” by his friends) was a “throwster” in the weaving trade in 1701. He was known to be a drunk with a violent temper and his friends often enjoyed winding him up to see him explode. On January 7th 1701, Robert was drinking in his local, The Globe, on Botolph Street (now buried somewhere under Anglia Square.) As usual, his friends were doing their best to aggravate him when one of the group, hoping to top all previous jokes, claimed to have slept with his wife. Robert was famously a jealous man when it came to his wife. During his tirade, the friends decided to up the ante by turning the comment into a wager. Unbeknownst to Watts, the man who claimed to have slept with his wife was told that, if he successfully went to Watts’ house down the road and came back with the ring, he would receive a gallon of beer.
He left and told Watts’ wife that he was acting on her husband’s behalf and told her that he had been sent to collect her ring to settle a bet. Possibly out of naivety but most likely out of fear of her husband, she agreed and gave the man the ring. He returned to the pub victorious and loudly showed off his prize. This, however, pushed Robert over the edge. Drunk and now enraged, he left the pub before it was revealed that it was a joke and stormed home. There, he went straight to the kitchen, picked up a knife and stabbed his wife. She survived the initial stab wound and what happened next was published in a broadsheet at the time. For some reason, they decided to publish the events in rhyme (which makes it sound all the more horrific) and it went as follows:
“Trembling and bleeding, up again she flies,
Unto the window, where she vainly tries,
To call assistance; but no hope was near,
And so he cut her throat from ear to ear.”
Watts was caught quickly and tried at the next city Assizes. He was hanged outside his own home and his body was left to rot there in a gibbet for all to see. This was the last execution of its kind in Norwich. It had been fairly common practice, to execute someone at the location of their crime, and to display their body there for some time, (known as “hanging in chains”.) This was so the corpse would act as a warning for others who might stray down the same path. Unfortunately though, if there was a lot of crime in an area, it could result in a road being littered with gibbets full of corpses. After the hanging of Watts, future executions took place at designated sites in the city.
The Fiery Tombland Riots of 1272
Times were rough for the working people of Norwich in 1272. The Norman market was far outstripping the smaller, ancient Tombland market. The church was levying unfair fees against the people, overstepping their bounds as they tried to claim more land for their parishes at the expense of the masses. If people complained, hired thugs from the cathedral would beat them or even in some cases murder them to stop any rebellious words. The rights of the populace were also being stripped away.
The few remaining events to look forward to for the public of Norwich were the annual fayres that were held in Tombland that involved games, food, drinking and merriment. These events upset the Cathedral however as they took affront to such scenes taking place right outside their gates, and the people knew this. As oppression from the church deepened, one of the few ways the public could fight back was to disrupt the church as much as possible with their rowdiness. In 1272, a large fayre was held which was due to have jousting demonstrations as part of the entertainment. The cathedral had spoken out against it vehemently and was outraged at the idea of such a sport taking place on their doorstep. Almost as if in response to this, the organisers decided to place the jousting arena so that it blocked one of the cathedral gates. The cathedral workers were enraged and sent their thugs out into Tombland. A huge argument ensued between the cathedral enforcers and the fayre-goers which resulted in the former heading back through the cathedral gates and slamming them shut behind them. One of the enforcers climbed the wall and fired his crossbow into the crowd below.
Some sources at the time say the bolt hit a child in the crowd, killing him instantly. The crowd of citizens, utterly enraged, turned their anger against the cathedral. First they attempted to smash open the gates to the cathedral by battering them down while others climbed the nearby St George’s Church tower (still visible nestled among the buildings opposite the cathedral) to fire flaming projectiles into the cathedral grounds setting several fires among the timber buildings and the main roof of the cathedral. Down in the square, a woman set fire to the gates that were positioned where the Ethelbert Gate stands today. The gates crumbled under the inferno and the people flooded into the cathedral grounds. There, they spent three days killing any monks or cathedral workers they could find, razing the old St Elthelbert’s Church to the ground and ransacking the treasures obtained with their own money.
The Bishop escaped and made his way to see King Henry III who was outraged at the looting and burning of the monasteries. He sent a military force into Norwich to quell the riots and had many people arrested. The King himself then came to Norwich to show his displeasure at the actions of the populace and many people were hanged around the city, their bodies left on display in chains and gibbets for all to see. The woman who set fire to the gate was executed as per the punishment for arson, which was to be burned alive herself in Tombland square. The pope, once he received word of these events in England, was so appalled that he excommunicated the city of Norwich from the church, making Norwich the only city in the history of western Europe to receive excommunication. The citizens were also ordered to build a new gate and gatehouse, which resulted in the current St Ethelbert’s gate used today.
The Dumpling Poisoner of Norwich
Today, at the top of Grapes Hill, you can witness the splendour of Norwich’s Catholic Cathedral built in the early 1900s. It is used today by Catholics for Mass and quiet prayer but if you go back around 200 years, the area would have a completely different atmosphere. Grapes Hill was once known as Gallows Hill, as standing where the cathedral was built was previously the city gaol and gallows. It was built at the beginning of the 1800s and completed by the mid 1820s. A new gallows was ordered at this time, so authorities searched for a carpenter for the job. They chose a man named John Stratford who was delighted to be given the job and would joke to friends about how building it secured his place in history. He had previously tried to run the Swan public house on King Street but the business had failed and he was now running a woodworking business from his home on St Faith’s Lane that he shared with his wife and 6 children.
The job went well and he was paid. However, in 1828, through a mutual friend, John Stratford met a woman named Jane Briggs whose husband was currently living separately from her in a workhouse as a pauper. He was also thought to be deathly ill and unlikely to live much longer. The two struck up an affair and by 1829, Jane was pregnant with John’s child. John was horrified by this and tried to get Jane to terminate the pregnancy, even providing her with a powder that he said would abort the unborn child. Jane, however, had other ideas, threw the powder away, and told John she was keeping the baby. Paranoid that they would be discovered, John’s biggest worry was that Jane’s husband Thomas would find out (seeing as he and his wife had not slept together in a long time) and expose John to his own family. He decided the best course of action was to kill Thomas Briggs.
Hatching a plan, John laced a bag of flour he had purchased with a large amount of arsenic and took it to the workhouse where Thomas was residing. He left the flour as an ‘anonymous gift’ for Thomas and left. Unbeknown to John, Thomas had a decent supply of flour in his personal locker already and so he simply wrapped up the poisoned bag and left it in his locker untouched. Some time later, a man named John Burgess was trying to find something to make food and broke into Thomas’ locker. Finding the bag of flour, he took it and cooked him and his entire family to cook a large dumpling. Shortly after, the entire family fell violently ill and a doctor was called who arrived very quickly. Diagnosing the family with arsenic poisoning, he administered treatment, thankfully saving the wife and children. John Burgess, however, had eaten the largest portion of the meal, as was customary back then in more patriarchal times, and as such could not be saved by the doctor. He died in agony after hours of suffering.
An investigation began almost immediately and it didn’t take long for Mrs Burgess to admit that the flour was from the locker of another inmate. The locker was soon identified as belonging to Thomas Briggs who explained that the flour had been an anonymous gift from several days past and he had not thought much of it. The authorities tracked down the nurse who had accepted the gift and she identified him as the man who had built the gallows, John Stratford. He was arrested and put on trial immediately. Stratford did not help himself when, during questioning in court, he refused to answer any of the judges questions. When asked to make a defence for himself, he simply stated, “Oh, I am perfectly innocent of the charges.” Despite the judge urging him to say more, he refused. This apparently did not sway the jury and he was found guilty. The judge, donning his black cap, passed a sentence of death. John was taken back to the city gaol and awaited his execution.
On the day before his execution, it’s recorded that John’s wife and children came to visit him in gaol. His four year old daughter is said to have thrown her arms around her father and begged him to come home for tea. Jane Briggs is not recorded as having visited John during the wait for his execution. After his family left, John called for a governor and said that he wished to give a full confession and make his peace with God. The confession was taken from John in writing and, although it confirms he committed the murder, it’s worth noting that the confession didn’t even mention the actual victim John Burgess, nor did he show any actual remorse. After giving the confession, he bade the governor and chaplain goodnight and simply went to bed for his final night’s sleep. He apparently slept well, as if unburdened.
The following morning of Monday 17th August 1829, crowds gathered outside the city gaol long before 7am. John Stratford’s gallows sat starkly on the roof of the prison and all eyes were trained upon it. The executioner entered John’s cell at 7:45am and by that time there were several thousand people outside. Every roof, window, alleyway, street and even the top of the church towers nearby were packed with people wanting to watch John Stratford die. Just a few minutes before 8am, John appeared at the base of the ladder to the scaffold. He knelt before climbing and took a few moments to pray and afterwards a minister began to recite a specially prepared prayer as he ascended the ladder. At the top, he turned and looked over the thousands of faces around him. Slowly, he bowed three times to them in each direction before stepping under the hanging beam.
The hangman started to place the noose around his neck at which, John complained saying that he was putting it on the wrong way but was ignored by the hangman who fitted it into place and placed the hood over his head. It seems at this moment, John resigned himself to his fate as he appeared to tense up. The Lord’s Prayer was loudly recited by the chaplain and during this, a handkerchief was dropped giving the signal and the hangman stepped forward and pulled the bolt. Stratford lurched downwards and there was a few seconds of twitching before he became still. There was silence from the crowd save for a solitary scream that was reported, although the person in such anguish is not known to history. And so it was that the man who built the gallows at City Gaol, became the first man to die on them in a twist of irony.
References
Further Analysis on Jewish bodies
Hanged in Norwich – Neil R Storey
Haunted Norwich – David Chisnell