St James the Less
The history of Pockthorpe and the parish | St James the Less | Mousehold Heath | William of Norwich | St William's Chapel | the barracks | Pockthorpe Brewery | old maps of the parish | parish records
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Norwich Puppet Theatre
A church has existed in the northernmost part of Norwich since the 11th century, when the medieval city had a large population, but the heath and wooded countryside beyond the city walls was largely unpopulated.
After the English Reformation, the parish of St James was enlarged to include the chapel parish of St Catherine (in Thorpe Wood), which included the riverside hamlet of Pockthorpe and all of what now remains of Mousehold Heath. There was a vicarage, located at the bottom of Ketts Hill, where there is now a roundabout.
During the 19th century, the population of Norwich grew rapidly. New terraced houses appeared north of St James to house the extra workers and their families. New public houses, shops, factories and schools were built, whilst the yards of Pockthorpe became overcrowded slums - the parish became known as the poorest in Norwich.
In 1972, St James was finally closed, the first of many medieval Norwich churches to be become redundant. St James was then re-purposed - initially as a night shelter for the homeless, and then as the new home for the Norwich Puppet Theatre, which opened in 1980.
During the 1930s, the old yards were condemned and demolished, and their inhabitants were relocated to new housing estates in Norwich. The area's factories, and most of the pubs and shops of the parish, disappeared as well. The old buildings of Barrack Street were eventually replaced by modern buildings and parking areas, and the once narrow street was transformed to become a part of the city's busy ring road. St James now stands alone as an isolated reminder of a lost age.
Explore some of the people, events and stories that are part of our parish's history.
Sources and further information
The Wikipedia article on St James the Less, Pockthorpe is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James_the_Less,_Pockthorpe. There is information in this article about the history of the parish, the font, the rood screen panels, and the cope. The vicars of St James from 1896 to 1972 are listed.
The above article also provides a link to the parish registers at Family Search. The original records are held the Norfolk Archives Office in Norwich, whose search page is https://nrocatalogue.norfolk.gov.uk/nro/setSearches/nro-set-search-home.html.
The Norfolk Churches page for St James is at http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichjamesless/norwichjamesless.htm.
There is information about the plate once held at St James from Norfolk Archaeology (Volume 10 - https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3236502).
Maps
The best site for detailed Ordnance Survey maps that show the parish of St James Pockthorpe can be found at the National Library of Scotland's website (go to https://maps.nls.uk/os/).
Norfolk County Council's Map Image Viewer page has Millard and Manning's 1830 map of Norwich, which shows the parish of James. go to https://maps.norfolk.gov.uk/highways/historic/mm2.htm. Morant's later map (1873) is at https://maps.norfolk.gov.uk/highways/historic/morant2.htm.
James Sillett - St James Church, Norwich (1828)
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