Sprowston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sprowston is a suburban village (population 14027^[1]) bordering Norwich in Norfolk, England. It is bounded by Heartsease to the east, Mousehold Heath and the suburb of New Sprowston to the south (in Norwich), Old Catton to the west, and by open farmland to the North.

It is the largest parish in Norfolk and the most populous in Broadland District.

[edit] History

Sprowston was first mentioned (as 'Sprowestuna') in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is Anglo-Saxon and means 'the settlement belonging to Sprow".

By 1186 one Manor was held by the Mounteney family, on behalf of Sir Richard de Luci, who kept it for some 250 years, whilst the other, held by the de Sproustons and then the Aslakes, was owned by the Bishop of Norwich. In 1545 the Jermy family granted Mounteney Manor to John Corbet. The first Sprowston Hall was built in 1560.

The Aslakes Manor passed to an eminent family of Norfolk Gentry, the Calthorpes (subsequently related by marriage to family of Anne Boleyn). It was later sold to Sir Thomas Corbet (owner of Mounteney Manor) and in 1592 the two Manors were united.

Monuments to the Corbet family can be found at the parish church of St Mary and St Margaret, Church Lane. The Sprowston Corbets were Royalists in the Civil War; Thomas Corbet was knighted by Charles I at Royston. However, Sir Thomas' uncle, Miles Corbet, who was Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth, was the last signatory to the death warrant of Charles I and was himself executed at the restoration of Charles II.

Sir Thomas Corbet became High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1662. He died without an heir and the manor of Sprowston was sold to Sir Thomas Adams.

Effigy from the tomb of Sir Thomas Adams

Adams had been Lord Mayor of London in 1645. He had given Charles II £10,000 whilst he was in exile, and in 1660 he accompanied General Monck to escort the King back to England.

Adams endowed a Professorship of Arabic at Cambridge and had the Gospels printed in Persian, which he described as 'throwing a stone at the head of Mahomet'. Although he died in London in 1667 his body was brought to Sprowston for burial in a barrel vault excavated under the altar at St Mary and St Margaret and a large marble monument was erected above it.

In the 18th century the manor was sold to Sir Lambert Blackwell[2], a Director of the South Sea Companyand he was created baronet in 1718. In the 19th century the manor went through a number of families until it came into the hands of the Gurneys. In 1876 John Gurney, who was mayor of Norwich and blind, rebuilt Sprowston Hall. In 1885 he gave money for the building of St Cuthbert's Church and a new vicarage to serve the development known as New Sprowston which was being built.

Sprowston Mill [3] was built in 1730 and made famous by John Crome, of the Norwich School of Painting. It burnt down in 1933, a few days before it was to be handed over to the Norfolk Archaeological Trust [4], but is still used as a symbol by Sprowston High School and is on the village sign.

Also important to Sprowston's history, and now within the boundary of the City of Norwich, is Mousehold Heath (much reduced in size) where the army of Robert Kett was encamped in 1549.

Sprowston Hall[5] is now a hotel.