20 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NORWICH AND DISTRICT 
are intended to show that the wide estuary attracted the Angles and the 
Danes and that the topographical features of the locality were significant 
factors in moulding the shape of the city. In Saxon times two river 
settlements, Conesford and Coselanye,?° sprang up on the banks of the 
Wensum. Conesford, on the right bank of the river just above its junction 
with the Yare, was hemmed in between a steep escarpment and the river. 
Coselanye, some distance further up-stream, and on the left side of the 
river, was situated on an island having an expanse of marshland on its 
northern side. Some time later a third river settlement of Danish origin 
grew up on the right bank of the river opposite Coselanye. In course of 
time these villages grew and amalgamated with Tombland *! as their 
common meeting ground, but up to the time of the Norman Conquest 
Norwich was a river town, consisting of three sections each retaining a 
certain amount of individuality, and the greater part of the ground 
occupied by their inhabitants was below the 50-ft. contour. When the 
Normans arrived in Norwich they used the northern end of the Ber 
Street Ridge as a vantage point for dominating the river settlements. 
On this spot they subsequently built their castle, 200 yds. from the 
‘'Tomland,’ and less than half a mile from Westwyk and Conesford. 
Around the castle the Norman part of the town grew up, particularly on 
the high ground to the west and south, where they set up a market place 
which was destined to supersede the ‘’Tomland’ ; 24 but it was on the 
low-lying flats, called Cow Holme,” or the Island of Cattle, that Herbert 
de Losinga built his cathedral church. In passing I mention these 
significant points in connection with the building of the cathedral : (1) its 
site adjoined the ‘’'Tomland,’ not the Norman market place; (2) the 
greater part of the stone for its construction came from Caen by water ; 
(3) the moving of the See from Thetford was an important stage in the 
establishing Norwich as the capital of East Anglia. 
The circumvallation of Norwich and the building of its walls during 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries determined the shape of medizval 
Norwich. Lack of space forbids a detailed treatment of the period of 
great prosperity which followed the arrival of the Flemish weavers in the 
fourteenth century ; the beneficial influence of the coming of the Friars ; 
the building of the many beautiful flint churches, the development of 
trade between Norwich and European countries, and the trade between 
the city and the surrounding country districts, the establishment of its 
cattle market, reputed to be one of the largest in England. The decline 
of the woollen manufactures in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
was due to the lack of adequate water power and distance of Norwich from 
the coal-fields, but other industries were established through the enterprise 
of the citizens. A description of the present-day industries is given 
elsewhere in this booklet. 
Norfolk, by reason of its geographical position, is somewhat remote 
from the main lines of traffic of Great Britain, and in so far as this is true 
20 I. C. Hannah, The Heart of East Anglia. 
21 Tombland, a corruption of Tomland, a vacant open space. I. C. Hannah, 
The Heart of East Anglia. 
22 Toid. 
