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Coach Hire in Norwich – Ancient Capital of Norfolk

Posted by Sandy Holburn on Tue, Dec 01, 2009 @ 02:59 PM
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Neaves Coaches have been providing bus services and coach hire to Norwich for more than 50 years.

 

Norwich is the commercial and cultural capital of Norfolk and East Anglia. It’s the most complete medieval city in Britain and appeals to many tastes in tourism and entertainment.

 

Norwich was founded in Anglo-Saxon times on the banks of the river Wensum. In medieval times Norwich grew into a bustling town. The city’s wealth was based on wool and on trade down river and across the seas to Europe.

 

Norwich Cathedral is one of the great treasures of Europe and enjoys a five star rating as a tourist attraction. The Cathedral is located within a large walled precinct (known locally as the ‘Close’) together with many other ancient buildings including the Bishop’s Palace. The houses and gardens of the Close provide a magnificent backdrop to the Cathedral.

 

Close to the Cathedral gates is the Maid’s Head Hotel, said to be the oldest inn in Britain and original starting point for the old stage coach hire Norwich to London service.

 

From the Maid’s Head you may wander down to the river or up into the old cobbled lanes of Elm Hill with its half timbered houses, speciality shops, cafes and restaurants.

 

Not far from the Cathedral is the Castle, which is Norwich’s other five star tourist attraction. Norwich Castle now serves as a museum and art gallery. Here you may learn about the history of the Castle, the Anglo-Saxons and Boudicea.  And here too you may see the collections of the Norwich School of painters.

 

Another 900 year survivor is Norwich’s open-air market. Unique in Britain the market boasts over 190 stalls and is the largest 6 day market in the country.

 

Norwich is also the modern cultural capital for the region. The Theatre Royal offers West End productions and performances by international stars. In May each year the Norfolk and Norwich Festival provides an explosion of street events, music and the arts. And in October the annual Norwich Beer Festival is held in Blackfriars Hall

 

Finally, Norwich is the principal gateway to the many attractions of rural Norfolk – its towns and villages, stately homes, north Norfolk coast, nature reserves, and of course the Norfolk Broads.

 

Above all, Norwich and Norfolk are places of great beauty and interest and a real pleasure to visit.

 

Neaves Coaches provide minibus and coach hire in Norfolk, East Anglia and throughout the UK. Please contact us for assistance with your group travel arrangements. 

 

More tourist information and suggestions for great days out  in Norwich and Norfolk are available on our website.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

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Coach Hire in Norfolk - Houghton Hall & Robert Walpole

Posted by Sandy Holburn on Mon, Jul 27, 2009 @ 10:27 AM
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Houghton Hall, home of Sir Robert Walpole and his descendents, is a masterpiece among England’s stately homes – a grand Palladian mansion in west Norfolk and not to be missed by visitors to the County. Neaves coach hire Norwich make frequent visits to Houghton hHall with interested and enthusiastic groups.

 

The Hall was built by Robert Walpole, ‘great man’ of 18th. Century England, first British Prime Minister and still the longest serving Prime Minister of Britain.

 

Born in 1676, educated at Eton and Cambridge, Walpole became MP for Castle Rising in 1701. He was a shrewd and assiduous administrator and rose to become Treasurer of the Navy for the Whig government. When the Tories came back into power, Walpole was briefly imprisoned for corruption.

 

When George I came to the throne the Whigs returned to power with Walpole as one of its leading lights. Walpole was propelled to undisputed power by his handling of the financial crisis known as the South Sea Bubble. His great influence stemmed from his popularity with both King and people.

 

In his role as Prime Minister Walpole is credited with keeping Britain out of foreign wars, with low taxes and with reducing the national debt. Thus he set the political and economic stability which underpinned Britain’s growth as a world power in the following century. 

 

Many of the features of the modern British political system can be traced back to Walpole. He was the first prime minister to live at 10 Downing Street. He lived there in his capacity as First Lord of the Treasury and that is still the title on the door of Number 10. ‘More fundamentally, Walpole was the first leading minister…who maintained his position by his ability to dominate the House of Commons, rather than through the favour of the monarch’.

 

During his time in high political office, Walpole acquired great wealth. He was determined to build an impressive new mansion filled with magnificent treasures. Colen Campbell was principal architect for the building and William Kent designed the interior in lavish style as a backdrop for Walpole’s collections of pictures, sculptures and tapestries.

 

Houghton Hall came to reflect the flamboyant character of one of England’s most brilliant politicians. While the exterior of Houghton Hall is both ‘grand and restrained’ the interiors are ‘colourful, exuberant and opulent’.

 

Many of the state rooms retain their original furnishings. The V&A Museum acquired a number of state beds, tapestries and suites of gilded furniture to be carefully restored and preserved for the nation in their original places at Houghton Hall.

 

Shortly after Walpole’s death, debts forced the sale of his picture collection to Catherine the Great of Russia. The collection is now on display in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

 

Happily, the estate and its furnishings were rescued by the 4th. Earl of Cholmondeley who inherited it through descent from the marriage of Walpole’s sister Mary to the 3rd. Earl.

 

The house and grounds of Houghton Hall are all in beautiful order. Notable features include:
  • 5 acre walled garden
  • Model soldier collection with battle scenes
  • St Martin’s Church where Robert and Horace Walpole lie buried
  • 4,500 acre deer park
  • Restaurant with waitress service (pre-booking advised for groups)
 Houghton Hall welcomes visitors and provides good facilities for group travel. It is an excellent destination for coach hire in Norfolk. Please contact Neaves Coaches for further information or assistance with your coach travel arrangements.   

 

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Tom Paine – Man of Norfolk, Muse of Presidents

Posted by Sandy Holburn on Mon, Jul 06, 2009 @ 03:38 AM
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“Blogs are the greatest breakthrough in popular journalism since Tom Paine broke onto the scene”. So wrote Arianna Huffington, who knows a thing or two about blogging. 

Tom Paine was an Englishman born in 1737 and raised in Thetford, a small town in Norfolk in the East of England.

 

Tom later moved to Lewes on the south coast. It appears that Tom’s time in Lewes shaped his political views – he left England head stuffed full with radical ideas. 

 

There is now a statue of Tom in Thetford, at the top of King Street, on the old coach hire Norwich and and coach hire Norfolk road. His bronze effigy clutches a pen like a weapon - an evident reminder that the pen is mightier than the sword.

 

Tom Paine arrived in America in November 1774 at the age of 37.  By then there had already been several years of unrest in the North American Colonies. The source of discontent was unpopular taxation imposed by a British Parliament in which the colonies had no representation.   In January 1776 Paine published a pamphlet which attacked the British monarchy and advocated independence of the Colonies. It swayed public opinion at a time when many Americans retained personal loyalty to the British Crown.  During the War of Independence Paine wrote a further series of pamphlets designed to sustain support for the revolution through a prolonged and difficult war.  At a low ebb in the American Revolution George Washington instructed that words from Paine's pamphlets be read to his soldiers: “Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it”. In February 1943, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Franklin Roosevelt gave a rallying speech to the nation. He closed his address with quotations from Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls” … “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the sacrifice, the more glorious the triumph.” In his inaugural speech Barack Obama said: “I stand before you as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders is alive in our time”. It was Paine and his forthright rejection of discrimination to whom he referred..  

Tom Paine once wrote: “Let us reason the matter together”.

As a champion of clean and open government this man would have made a mighty blogger.   <!--[endif]-->

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