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A brief history of Norwich

Whilst there is evidence of human habitation of the East Anglian region going back to Palaeolithic times and there is evidence of Romans being in the region, recorded history of Norwich itself actually begins around 520 AD. At that time kingdom of East Angles was formed following the merging of the North Folk and the South Folk. Then, also at some point around this time, several small settlements amalgamated around a ford over the River Wensum at the area we now call Norwich.

As the centuries progressed Norwich became a thriving market town and by 949 even had its own mint. The next major even occurred in 1004 when it was attacked by Danes who had sailed their long-boats up the River Wensum from Great Yarmouth. In 1070, following the Norman invasion, the town was deemed important enough to have a 'Keep' built on what passes for a hill in the town centre. Also during Norman times the building of the cathedral began in 1096. Norwich was granted city status by a royal charter in 1194. The city walls were built between 1297 and 1334; this gave rise to 12 toll gates being created allowing access to the city on payment of the requisite fee. Around this time the significance of the Keep as a military installation dwindled and it increasingly became used as a prison. Also around this time the practice of digging peat for fuel declined. The result of this was that the channels began to fill with water creating the beginning of the Norfolk Broads. In 1404 King Henry IV granted the city a charter allowing it to elect a mayor, sheriffs and aldermen - to run the city's affairs.

Geographically very different in past centuries, Norfolk was one of the more important sheep farming and wool producing areas of the country. A testament to the importance of wool to the local economy is the famous textile, Worsted, which took its name from the nearby village of the same name. It was also the wealth created by the wool industry during these times that paid for the building of Norwich's medieval churches. In 1336, to encourage the development of the industry, Edward III even encouraged Flemish weavers to settle there, an act which helped secure the importance of Norwich as a centre of the wool industry right up to its demise at the Industrial Revolution. Edward's act resulted in more than two thirds of the 16,000 population being Flemish or Huguenot weavers by the 1570s. These largely protestant weavers would have an influence during the English Civil War. With Oliver Cromwell having been born not far away in Ely, the whole of the East Anglian region mainly supported the Commonwealth. The famed Maiden Troop of the civil war was raised in Norwich and contained many of the Flemish and Huguenot settlers. The strength of Parliamentarian support meant that Norwich was barely bothered by any military action at this time.

It was during the Georgian period that the city emerged as a centre of banking and insurance. The Gurney Bank and Norwich Union Fire Insurance companies were both established toward the end of the 18th century. The Gurney Bank went on to become Barclays. Entrepreneurs also moved into the city's breweries, amalgamating all the small micro-breweries into six major ones. The result was that Norwich ended up being able to produce more beer than all the breweries in London.

The first railway in Norwich (which ran to Yarmouth) opened in 1844 and by 1846 there was also a line to London. Prior to that, it was said to be faster to sail to Amsterdam than travel to London. The first recorded telegraph message in Norwich was in 1853, the city's first horse drawn bus service was in 1879 and in 1893 the Norwich Electric Company started generating for local industries.

At the beginning of the 20th century a tram system began operating in the city, only to be replaced with buses by 1935. In the First World War factories in the city were converted to 'war work'. One of them, Mann Egerton, produced Short seaplanes, from which the first aerial torpedo was launched to sink an enemy battleship. During the Second World War Norwich was bombed heavily resulting in 80% of its housing stock being damaged and around 2000 homes being totally destroyed. Fortunately most of the historic buildings in the city escaped damage.

Being somewhat isolated from the main commuter routes along and across the country Norwich has not expanded as many other cities have. Thus, its population is fairly steady at around 120,000 meaning that it hasn't suffered the inevitable urban sprawl and retains its identity as a compact and historic city.

Historical names associated with Norwich inlude:
Horatio Nelson - Admiral at the Battle of Trafalgar attended school here between 1767 and 1768.
Elizabeth Fry - born a member of the Gurney family in 1780, she married a Quaker, Joseph Fry, and went on to become a Quaker minister herself and a renowned prison reformer.
Edith Cavell - born in 1865 in a village outside Norwich she was executed by the Germans in the First World War for helping British soldiers escape, whilst she was working as a Red Cross nurse in Belgium. She is buried in Norwich Cathedral.

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Showing a pet rabbit, is it worth it?

I am thinking about showing my pet flemish giant doe in the Michigan State Fair, she will just fall into the juvenile class still at the show.

Showing a rabbit is a pretty simple process at most ARBA shows, but at fair shows, and especially state fair shows it gets complicated. For starters you have to pre-enter your rabbit, and then coop her by the deadline usually the day before she actually shows, and then keep her cooped until rabbits are released, sometimes several days after the show takes place. State fair shows are a trial even for experienced show animals and exhibitors let alone pet owners with pet rabbits. Your rabbit has to be tattooed in her left ear. Most breeders who show their rabbits tattoo them shortly after they are weened, as the older a bunny gets, the harder it is on the rabbit and the person tattooing it. The tattoo is a series of letters and/or numbers, it is placed in their left ear by either a clamp tattooer, or a battery operated tattoo pen. Both are painful, though the pen seems to be a little less so, but it takes a lot of practice to use one and have the tattoo be legible. After you get the rabbit tattooed, you need to make sure it knows what to do on the judge's table. Is it comfortable being turned over and having its teeth and genitals examined? Has it ever been posed? Will it even allow a stranger to handle it? Hope so, because that is the minimum for the showing process. If that were all there was to it I'd say go for it, because I raise rabbits for shows, and I want to see more people get into it, but this is a state fair show. So your rabbit has to be able to do this after being kept in a small coop for 24 hrs. Surrounding this coop are strange rabbits and strange noises, and most of all strange people who don't understand that rabbits don't want people sticking their fingers in the cages or talking loudly around them. It's an ordeal, and it can mentally scar a rabbit. To make it worth it to most exhibitors, the rabbit has to have a chance at winning. Now I will tell you honestly as a breeder. When someone wants to buy a rabbit from me for a pet they get a pet quality rabbit. It will be healthy with good temperment, but for whatever reason I don't think it would place well at a show, be it a breed fault or a disqualification, usually I'll tell them if it could be disqualified for some reason. But even I have messed up and sold a late bloomer or two, so maybe your rabbit has a chance. I hope you have been feeding her show formula rabbit feed, for a Flemish Giant that would be a high protein feed and a coat conditioner. Even the best genetics have to have the proper diet. If your bunny is an undersized Giant she won't be competitive, if she has a rough coat, she won't be competitive. Even for people who have showed rabbits for years it is hit or miss on fur in late August, and more often than not the coat is shedding pretty badly that time of year, I might find 1 rabbit out of every 4 with what I consider passable show fur that time of year. It isn't easy to raise a good show animal. I start training mine before they open their eyes, I play a radio around them 24/7, and they are on a show diet, unless they are pregnant or nursing, from the time they are weened on. Noise can't bother a show rabbit, and judges don't like animals that don't cooperate, no matter how nice it is. It is work, but I love every bit of it. The carefully selecting the breeding pairs, the comparing the kits and selecting who stands out as the next grand champion, training them on table manners and proper posing, then getting up in the early hours and driving several hours to see if this years litters kept pace with the other top breeders of the area. And whether my rabbits place 1st or last, I'm happy, because I'm doing what I love to do. Rabbit shows are fun, raising rabbits is a labor of love, but a state fair show for your first time out of the gates. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. Here are the links to the Michigan state fair rabbit show info, just in case you think you want to try it, though I think you'd enjoy a regular rabbit show much more.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mda_Dept07Goat_89458_7..pdf

Something To Declare: Mexico; board with your mobile; Flanders in bloom; East Coast Trains
Popular day-trip border-hopping destinations from the US could take you to some of the most dangerous places in Mexico. A new Travel Alert issued this week by the US Department of State is aimed at American travellers, but contains plenty of advice for British tourists in Mexico.

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