As often happens, I stumbled upon a fascinating old photograph taken in my neck of the woods being shared on one of the many local history Facebook groups and it really caught my attention. The photograph was of a family proudly standing outside a large-looking house on Aylsham Road, not too far from the city end. Being the inquisitive sort of chap that at I am, I have often wondered about this particular area and the small collection of homes along here that once backed on to what is now Clapham Wood and the former Putty Pierce’s Lime kiln site. Continue reading “Aylsham Road. A window into the lives of a Mile Cross Family in the early 1900’s”
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Watching TV and curiosity leads me right back to “the cross”.
The other evening I did something I rarely get the chance to do these days and that was to sit in my ‘old man’ armchair with my two cats curled up on my lap and watch a bit of telly. As I scanned the Virgin box to see what I’d been recording, I found a fairly new series going by the name of the ‘Bone Detectives’ which looks into the history of people and their surroundings by analysing their bones.
The episode I had decided to watch was looking into the past of the remains of three young bodies (a male child and two young teenage girls), unearthed in Leeds whilst clearing a site to build a posh-knobby shopping centre. As it turned out, these poor little souls were victims of the Industrial revolution and had literally been worked to death, with all the evidence pointing to the likelihood that they would have been working from dawn until night in a nearby cotton mill.
Continue reading “Watching TV and curiosity leads me right back to “the cross”.”
Wensum Park
Wensum Park is a unique park for Norwich and is (and has always been) well loved by the generations of Mile Cross inhabitants.
Phoenix from the flames
Tucked away and hidden out of site by the trees in summer, you could easily miss this interesting little building as you drive along the northern end of Mile Cross Road. Continue reading “Phoenix from the flames”
Fix my street
Not one of my normal, long and rambling posts today, and not a single photograph will be harmed in the process:
One of the biggest bugbears I have about living in Mile Cross is the seeming apathy from some of the other residents towards issues that can make parts of the area appear scruffy Continue reading “Fix my street”
Sandys-Winsch goes gardening
Mile Cross Gardens.
At the entrance to the estate at Suckling Avenue sit two ornamental gardens. These once-attractive gardens were designed by the parks superintendent Captain Sandys-Winch Continue reading “Sandys-Winsch goes gardening”
Mile Cross – sight lines
Sight lines: something sadly lacking from any of the later additions to the estate, and something seemingly lacking from anything else designed in Norwich from the 1960’s onwards.
This shot is taken looking South along the long footpath simply named: ‘The Lane’ by the estate’s engineers.
Mile Cross – expansion and toilets.
Moving North along Bignold Road will find you following in the footsteps (or tyre tracks) of the first builders onto the estate. Bignold road heads it’s way north from Drayton Road until it reaches the horseshoe shape that is Appleyard Crescent; which has become 0.7% more infamous since the resurgence of the Star Wars series of films (more on that later in the series).