Norwich

Norwich, city, England

Norwich (nôr`ĭj, –ĭch), city (1991 pop. 32,664) and district, county seat of Norfolk, E England, on the Wensum River just above its confluence with the Yare. Norwich is a principal city market for cattle and grain. It is also a center for shopping and entertainment, as well as administration. Since the 11th cent., Norwich has been a leading provincial city. It was sacked by the Danes in the 11th cent. and scourged by the Black Death in 1348. Norwich was the scene of events in Wat Tyler's rebellion of 1381 and in the uprising under Robert Kett in 1549. There are many medieval churches as well as a cathedral founded in 1096 by the first bishop of Norwich. Norwich Castle, part of which dates from Norman times, was made (1894) into a museum for collections of natural history and local antiquities. It also houses paintings of the 18th- and 19th-century Norwich school of artists. Other old buildings include St. Giles's Hospital (13th cent.), Suckling House (14th cent.), Strangers Hall (15th cent.; now a museum), the guildhall (15th cent.), and St. Andrew's Hall (15th cent.; formerly a Dominican church). The Maddermarket Theatre, a reconstruction of a Shakespearean theater, has a permanent amateur company. The Norwich grammar school dates from the 13th cent. The city is also the cultural center of the county; triennial music festivals have been held there since 1824. It is seat of the Univ. of East Anglia (1963). The writer Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich.

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Norwich, city, United States

Norwich (nôr`wĭch, –ĭch), industrial city (1990 pop. 37,391), SE Conn., seat of New London co., on hilly ground, where the Yantic and Shetucket form the Thames; settled 1659, inc. 1784, town and city consolidated 1952. Chemicals, plastics, and paper products are manufactured. The last great battle between the Mohegans and Narragansetts took place on the site in 1643, and the tribal chiefs are buried there. Norwich was a leading colonial industrial city; Thomas Danforth began making pewterware there in 1733. The many historic structures include the Leffingwell Inn (1675); the birthplace and home of Benedict Arnold; and the home of Samuel Huntington. The Mohegan Sun casino is in neighboring Uncasville.

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Norwich

City (pop., 2001: 121,553), administrative and historic county, Norfolk, England. Located on the River Wensum northeast of London, it had become an important market centre when it was sacked and occupied by the Danes in the 11th century. It was among the most prosperous English provincial towns for centuries; its economy was fostered by Edward III, who induced Flemish weavers to settle there, and by the influx of immigrants during the reign of Elizabeth I. One of England's largest centres of footwear manufacturing, it features a Norman castle and cathedral. It is the traditional regional capital of East Anglia and the site of a cathedral founded shortly after the Norman Conquest.

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Norwich

a city in E England, administrative centre of Norfolk: cathedral (founded 1096); University of East Anglia (1963); traditionally a centre of the footwear industry, now has engineering, financial services. Pop.: 174 047 (2001)