The Story so Far...
Until the early 19th century, the people of Norwich lived mostly within its medieval walls. It had been observed that, “Norwich, from its numerous gardens, shrubberies and shady trees has been emphatically called a ‘city in an orchard’”. However, during the later 18th century, the population of the city began to increase. Chase’s Norwich Directory of 1783 described the city, with its narrow, congested thoroughfares, overpopulated tenements and yards as in desperate need of public improvements. He bemoaned the fact that Chapel Field was the only eligible situation for a public walk and suggested that the overflowing church graveyards be appropriated to Mousehold Heath! Within 20 years the city gates were being dismantled.
By 1811 the population was 37,000 and shortly afterwards the city began to expand outside the walls into the Peafields estate in New Lakenham and the New City in the Vauxhall area. In 1819 Stacey described how, north of what is now Starling Road, there were “a considerable number of buildings, having the appearance of a little town, and affording another proof of the increase of population in Norwich, as most of them have been built within the last five years.” This was the area between Waterloo Road and Millers Lane.
In the first half of the 19th century, some open spaces were established within the city boundaries, such as Quantrell’s Gardens on the site of the old Victoria Station. These gardens were big enough to allow mass meetings and balloon ascents, as well as an area for citizens to promenade. To the north of the city walls green spaces such as the Angel Gardens, on what is now Angel Road, and the Green Hills Gardens near St Augustine’s were opened. However, most of these had been abandoned by the 1860’s.
By 1871 the population of Norwich had reached just over 80,000. North of the city some private residential developments had taken place, such as St Clement’s Hill from the mid-1820s and Philadelphia Lane from the 1830s, but Magdalen Road and Angel Road were still basically rural, with hedges, farm gates and open fields stretching up into Catton.
As the century developed and the city expanded, the pressure for the establishment of green open spaces to act as ‘lungs’ within the urban sprawl increased. The Norwich Playing Fields and Open Spaces Association, formed in response to a national initiative, campaigned for a more enlightened attitude towards preserving land within the city boundaries for the use of the public. Catton Recreation Ground (now Waterloo Park) was established in 1904 with some of its gardens laid out by ‘enthusiastic scholars of the Angel Road School’. This pressure also resulted in the expansion of a number of the city parks by the City Council in the first 35 years of the 20th century. However, parks, green spaces and woodland were sometimes given by philanthropic, generous donors as memorials to individuals or to their families. Sewell Park was one of these.
In 1880 the land in New Catton was largely undeveloped. Constitution Hill (at that time called North Walsham Road) and St Clement’s Hill were still country roads. Denmark Road was known as Church Lane and to the north was Sprowston Lodge set in its own grounds. Beyond the lodge lay Ash Grove, the Constitution Public House and then open fields. There were a number of big houses and a large mill on St Clement’s Hill before the road wound its way across the city boundary into Catton. The Sewell estate (then known as Clare House) stretched from what is now Wall Road down to the junction with Denmark Road and Magdalen Road, bounded by Constitution Hill and St Clement’s Hill. Clare House, the home of Philip Sewell, was where the Blyth Jex School now stands, surrounded by trees.
Philip Sewell let it be known that he wished part of the Sewell estate to be given to the City of Norwich as an open space. The plaque at the entrance to the park states that “This open space once used and loved by Philip Edward Sewell is dedicated to his memory and to the use and love of his fellow citizens by his children and Edward Gurney Buxton, 6th July 1908”.
