Category: Norfolk Annals

In a time of economic hardship for agricultural workers, rioters in southern England took to breaking new machinery that they felt had cost them their jobs.

A woman named Mary Hudson, aged 35, escaped from Norwich City Gaol under extraordinary circumstances.

Sir John Fastolf, owner of Caister Castle, died.He was a veteran of the French wars and is said to be the inspiration for Shakespeare’s comic character Falstaff

Norfolk knight Sir Thomas Erpingham unleashed the English and Welsh longbowmen at Agincourt.

Norfolk Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel came to grief at sea. Born in Cockthorpe, near Holt, in 1650, he was one of the Royal Navy’s foremost sailors.

It took until November 7 for news of the battle of Trafalgar to reach the city of Norwich.

King John of England died. Reckoned by historians to be among England’s worst ever monarchs, he perished in mysterious circumstances.

During a terrible gale the Revenue cutter Ranger, commanded by Capt John Sayers, was lost off Happisburgh with 30 of her crew.

The Cross Keys Bridge and embankment at Sutton Bridge, opened on this date, afforded direct communication between Norfolk, Lincolnshire and the North of England

At King’s Lynn nearly 50 new houses were opened for the sale of beer, and drunkenness, rioting and fighting were prevalent in many of the streets.