Norwich: family tourism

descendants in the ancestral courtyard

The reason Norwich was on our radar for this trip is that some of Henry's ancestors (think 13 generations back for Henry, 15 for the grandkids!) were big shots in this area. 

And what's super cool, from a tourist standpoint, is that

several of the buildings associated with this family are still standing! Thanks to the valiant efforts of conservationists in the area back in the 1920's and '30's. Their work is the reason that Elm Hill (see the bottom of my last post) has kept its original charm (as "one of the best streets in the country"). And the ancestors lived on this very street! On the right is the sign that proves it!

In the photo above you can see Pettus descendants at the shop which was part of the house their forebears lived in. It now also houses a little cafe and of course we had to come there for lunch during our visit. 

Here is one of these descendants herself, pouring a cuppa herbal tea from a very cute teapot in the cafe's garden:

The Pettus house was originally much larger, as you might expect for a leading figure of the community. It possibly extended all the way to this well (no longer functional):

Henry knew just where to take us on this family history excursion, because he'd been here before, in 2008. He wrote a detailed saga of his ramblings in Norwich itself (see it here) but although he never returned to describe his ventures further afield, he remembered enough from the earlier trip to enable us to—eventually—find a local church where scads of Pettus' were buried. 

The first church we found, on our trip into the surrounding countryside, was the wrong one. But it was still scenic and worth visiting, as are pretty much all the old churches in England. It was All Saints Saluce, said to date from the 14th century. And of course it was decorated in knapped flint!

It also had a nice war memorial that follows the common theme: originally set up to honor the dead of the War to End All Wars, they eventually had to add a codicil for the one that followed:

so touching to see that these folks are still remembered

Rambling around for a while, though, led us to the church we wanted. Although the road to it was closed and we had to walk a bit. Amazingly, though, it was open!

All Saints Rackheath (Rackheath Magna)

More knapped flint, of course, but so much more! (If you click on the images hopefully they'll get big enough for you to read the text on the memorials.)

Henry in front of the font and some memorials to ancestors

a particularly fancy memorial plaque

one of many in-floor tombstones

Some of the people buried here were probably Pettus' who stayed in the old country, going by the dates. (Henry's first ancestor came to Virginia in the 1630's!) But some were certainly forebears of the American Pettus', since they died before the adventurous one struck out for the New World.

checking up on the ancestors

A helpful sign in the church gave a lot of its history and details about the architecture. The eye-popping item is definitely that the "fabric" of the building dates from the early 1300's! The sign described various additions and restorations that have been made over the years, but gee whiz! That's old!

We still had one more site to visit connected with Henry's forebears: their estate, known as Rackheath, like the church and the town. It's now what seems to be an event center, and has certainly been refurbished considerably, but it remains a handsome place to call "home":

We were allowed to walk around the lovely grounds, a fine finale to our very interesting dip into family history.

So, back to our "home" for the last night in Norwich and a tasty Indian takeout dinner, after a stop at a fun playground. Then to bed to rest up for the next leg of our UK adventure!