Firstly I popped along to the roads alongside the Memorial Playing Field to take a photo of the vehicles parked along the road. Now before you have a go at me for being anti-vehicle etc etc let me tell you this was for a balanced article that also looks at the increasingly positive part the playing field is playing in village life.
There were nowhere near as many vehicles parked as last week but it was still impossible to pass on the pavement.
Then I wandered along to the three village schools to take some shots of the outside of the buildings showing the improvements and additions made. Of course one of them is an entirely new build. These will feature in an article on the educational revolution in our village in the next Hethersett Herald.
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A few days ago we moved some paintings/artwork around in our house. One of the pieces of artwork moved from the lounge to a bedroom depicted Norwich Cathedral Close and the Norwich School. It was a mixture of art/line drawings and photography by a very talented man by the name of Howard Tapperley. His work is regularly featured in exhibitions (when Covid allows of course).
This particular piece of art looks back from the Cathedral to and through the Erpingham Gate. It set me thinking about how many times I passed through that gate during my time at the Norwich School.
That's where my obsession with maths and statistics comes in. Assuming a regular school year is approximately 36 weeks and, working on the principle that I passed through those gates twice a day, six days a week (we had Saturday morning school) and it comes out at about 432 passes per year. Add a few more for lunchtimes and it will be more than 450. I was at the school for seven years so I would have passed through that gate well over 3,000 times.
But in all those 3,000 passes, how many times did I wonder about its history? I was probably more concerned with getting past the Headmaster's office without being seen and getting to the bus stop in time for the 84, 85, 86 or 87 bus home to Hellesdon.
So of course now being very interested in history, I think it high time I did find out something about it.
The Erpingham Gate is one of two that stand as sentinels to Norwich Cathedral Close - the Ethelbert being the other. The Erpingham Gate is named after Sir Thomas Erpingham.
The gate was built sometime between 1420 and 1435 and consists of a single decorated arch. Inside you will see the kneeling figure of Sir Thomas Erpingham who gave the gate to the city.
Erpingham was a powerful man in late 14th and early 15th century Norwich and England as a whole. He was born in 1357 and helped restore order in Norfolk after the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. He later sided with Henry Bolingbroke and fought against Richard II and guarded the deposed king in the Tower of London.
When Bolingbroke became Henry IV, Erpingham became his chamberlain and was given extensive lands in Norfolk and Suffolk. He urged the king to award Norwich a Royal Charter which was granted in 1404. Henry's successor named Erpingham as his royal steward.
Erpingham went on to command Henry V's archers at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and gave the order to fire. In his will, Erpingham left large amounts of money to the poor and the great gateway to Norwich Cathedral. Erpingham was buried in Norwich Cathedral beside his two wives.
The structure was not called the Erpingham Gate until the 18th century and the figure of Sir Thomas over the arch wasn't added until the 17th century.
The photo at the bottom of this page is courtesy of David Ross and Britain Express.
Norwich School goes back to 1547 and was formerly known as King Edward VI Grammar School. It is likely that there was some form of educational establishment on or near the site from the 11th century.