Duke of Norfolk's Palace

Venue Type & Location

Private Residence

Site Name: Duke of Norfolk's Palace
Location: Norwich
County: Norwich (city-county) in Norfolk
Location Type: Town - in town at determined location

Overview

The first Norwich palace of the Dukes of Norfolk was a magnificent building on a grand scale, the largest building in the city.

'The principal court had a fountain in the centre and was entered from Lower Westwyk Street through a gatehouse in the centre of a three-storey wing containing thirteen rooms, including an 'ambulatory' on the second floor. The east side was partially built over cellars and had four storeys containing eighteen rooms with an 'ambulatory' on the top floor and access to a tower. The west side was also of four storeys and fifteen rooms, of which the main ones, the Magna Camera et le chambre of presence were on the third floor, while another 'ambulatory' ran along the top floor. The north side, opposite the entrance, was occupied by a wainscotted hall with two stone windows running through three storeys; at its east end was a pantry with closet above and further rooms above that. Behind this lay a domestic courtyard with kitchens along both east and west sides, of which the east side was four storeys in height and the north and west sides only two. Further north again, perhaps forming a third courtyard, were the malthouse, bakery, stables and a three-storey stillhouse, a woodyard and a wall with a water-gate. In the time of the fourth Duke there had also been a tennis court...' (Donaldson et al, Excavations in Norwich 54).

All that remains of the front section of the first palace is part of a wall with an associated mortar floor that was probably part of one of the outbuildings. Parts of a building that may have been the first palace’s kitchens and later the bowling alley also survive (Donaldson et al, Excavations in Norwich 40--1, 45).

Performance History

The Duke of Norfolk's Children of the Chapel are recorded for performances at Christmas in 1564 and 1565 while he was in residence.

Current Status

Long demolished.

History of the Venue

1561--7 Palace erected by Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, on the S side of the River Wensum not far from the marketplace.

ca. 1572 Probably confiscated by the Crown at the time of the Duke's execution.

Early 17th c. Palace restored to the Howard Earls of Arundel.

1663 5th Duke of Norfolk in residence again.

1671 Still assessed as the largest house in Norwich when Charles II and his queen visited (Pound, Tudor and Stuart Norwich 26). By this time the tennis court had been converted into a kitchen and the bowling alley (temporarily) into 5 rooms for eating (Kent, 'Houses of the Dukes' 83).

1672 Extensive rebuilding on the same site by the 6th Duke of Norfolk. The main courtyard was entirely replaced.

1698 Celia Fiennes described the second palace as a 'house of brick and stone with severall towers and turrets and balls that looks well, with large gardens but the inside is all demolish’d, only the walls stand and a few roomes for offices, but nothing of state or tollerable for use' (Journeys 148).

before 1711 Main house abandoned.

1711--19 Main house demolished by the 8th Duke of Norfolk. Some of the older buildings towards the river preserved, including the bowling alley. Bowling alley converted into a workhouse with an alehouse named the Duke's Palace Inn at the S end.

1806 Ruinous workhouse mostly demolished, the rest incorporated into the inn. The whole estate, except for the library, auctioned off.

1968 Inn demolished.

Record Source

REED Norwich 51, 54--5

Patrons who owned this venue

Name Dates Titles
Howard, Thomas 1538-1572 15th Earl of , 9th Duke of

Bibliographic Sources

  • Ayers, Brian. Book of Norwich. London: B.T. Batsford Limited/English Heritage, 1994.
  • Blomefield, Francis. An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk. 11 vols. London: William Miller, 1806.
  • Day, James Wentworth. Norwich Through the Ages. Ipswich, Suffolk: East Anglian Magazine Limited, 1976.
  • Defoe, Daniel. A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1974.
  • Donaldson, Peter, and Helen Sutermeister with Alan Carter. Excavations in Norwich, 1971–1978: Part I. . East Anglian Archaeology. Gressenhall: Norfolk Archaeological Unit, 1982.
  • Ewing, William C. 'Notices of the Norwich Merchant Marks.' Norfolk Archaeology 3 (1852): 177–228.
  • Fiennes, Celia. My Great Journey to Newcastle and to Cornwall: 1. From London through East Anglia to Ely. The Journeys of Celia Fiennes; Christopher Morris, ed. London: The Cresset P, 1947.
  • Fuller, Thomas. Norfolk. 1662. The History of the Worthies of England. 3 vols. London: Thomas Tegg, 1840.
  • The History of the City and County of Norwich from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time. 2 vols. Norwich: John Crouse, 1768.
  • James, Montague Rhodes, and G.E. Chambers. Suffolk and Norfolk: a perambulation of the two counties. 1830
  • Kent, E.A. 'The Houses of the Dukes of Norfolk in Norwich.' Norfolk Archaeology 24 (1932): 73–87.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, and Bill Wilson. Norfolk I: Norwich and North-East. 1962. The Buildings of England. London: Penguin Books, 1997.
  • Pound, John F. Tudor and Stuart Norwich. Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co., 1988.
  • Robinson, John Martin. The Dukes of Norfolk. 1983. Chichester, West Sussex: Phillimore & Co., 1995.
  • Rosenfeld, Sybil. 'The players in Norwich, 1669–1709.' Review of English Studies 12 (1936): 129–38.
  • Rye, Walter. Norwich Houses before 1600. Rye's Norfolk Handlists: First ser, no 4. Norwich: np, 1916.
  • Wenger, Mark R. The English Travels of Sir John Percival and William Byrd II: The Percival Diary of 1701. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1989.
  • Williams, Neville. Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of Norfolk. London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1964.