Cary's Meadow

The meadow was originally grazing meadow associated with a farmer of the same name. In the 1960s it was first suggested that the city ring road should be completed by continuing from the bottom of Harvey Lane towards the County hall junction, and although that idea was eventually dropped the site was once again earmarked for the Sainsbury's superstore that was eventually built on Pound Lane.
In preparation for various phases of building work which never materialised, very large quantities of rubble and brick were dumped on the site, turning it, temporarily, into a wasteland.

When the proposal for a superstore surfaced local people fought hard to have the site's importance recognised and protected. Eventually the meadow was rented to Broadland Council by Sainsburys for a peppercorn rent and the Norwich Fringe project was finally invited to manage it. After doing so for many years the management of the meadow is now back 'in-house'.

By now the rows of old Norwich terraces smashed up and piled on to the site had grassed over and turned it into a nutrient poor, wildflower-species rich meadow.
There are several unusual species on the meadow of which the most showy are the orchids. They are not always easy to locate or particularly obliging for us walkers in their flowering habits, but as well as the Common Spotted, Bee Orchid and Southern Marsh Orchid that I have seen, the Pyramidal orchid is also recorded.

The walk we carry out in the summer looks at the following points of interest, starting from the car park at Broadland Council offices on the Yarmouth Road.

Thorpe Lodge

Dates from around 1800, but there has been a house here since at least 1600. It was built by John Harvey, a Norwich banker, textile manufacturer, and former mayor.

He introduced the manufacture of shawls to Norwich, for which it was once famous. He was also a property developer who was involved in the replanning of Thorpe Hamlet after Carrow and Foundry Bridges were built in 1810. He had the estate from his father in law, Sir Roger Kerrison.

Harvey Lane was originally Rose’s Lane, it was diverted westwards to give the Lodge a bigger garden and at this time the crinkle-crankle wall was built. The house has since lost one wing and part of a storey.

The octagonal summerhouse was built by Harvey, later adapted as a camera osbcura. Light was admitted into the darkened chamber through a double convex lens, forming an image of external objects on paper or glass.

A few yards east of the summerhouse there is a tunnel under the road, built as a gardeners’ passage between Thorpe Lodge and Thorpe Hall, faced with flint and brick. In the past it has been lit with coloured lamps to provide a feature for visitors to events in the gardens. It is now sealed and is home to a colony of bats. The entrance to the bat tunnel is visible in the far corner of the small piece of woodland which lies to the NE of Cary's Meadow.

Crossing the road to the small car park at the entrance to the meadow, visitors can decide if they want to walk clockwise or anti-clockwise, cut across the middle or just meander! The best of the orchids are, as you stand at the entrance to the site, on your left and in front of you.
To your far left lies:

Thorpe  Hall

Thorpe Hall was probably a 14th century courtyard house. It may have been built as the centre of a new agricultural area formed by the clearance of woodland to the east of Harvey lane.

It was primarily a farm run by the bishop’s bailiff to provide income and produce for the bishop and his household. It was also the manor house of Thorpe by that time, although the original Saxon manor was quite probably near the top of Thunder lane. Various Bishops stayed here but by the early 16 century the hall and parts of the manor estate were let to tenants. It was remodelled and rebuilt by the Pastons in the late 16th century. Harvey introduced some Tudor and Jacobean doorways taken from other properties he owned, and gave it to his sixth daughter Harriot.

In the 20th century it was owned by a boat builder who demolished the fine chapel to make way for an engine repair shop in 1936. It was badly vandalised in the 1970s and restored in the 1980s after a public campaign to save it. Housing now fills much of its former grounds.

The western boundary of the Hall, the dyke and flint wall, still remain. The dyke forms the eastern boundary of the meadow.

If you have chosen to walk to your left and have passed the housing which has been built in the grounds of the hall, the path begins to turn to your right again as you near the river. There is a stile here off to the left which leads to a short path down to the river bank. This area has recently been (almost) cleared of that noxious weed, Japanese Knotweed, which is a pest in the parish and infests several areas close to the river. There is a new short boardwalk and a simple bench overlooking the water.

Harvey instigated the Thorpe Water Frolic in 1821 as a sporting and social  event, mainly for the gentry. 10,000 weavers attended in 1823 because they were given a holiday! The gentry amused themselves on the north bank and the working population on the south. A famous painting by Joseph Stannard was commissioned by Harvey to immortalise the event - it takes some liberties with the actual position of the patron's grand house. Harvey is said to have got the idea from witnessing water-borne processions and races etc in Venice while on the Grand Tour.

 Some more details about the Frolics and the painting can be found here
 http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/thorpe-water-frolic.html

The path at the southern edge of the meadow features at various times some now uncommon plant species, including Bee Orchid, Hoary Mullein and Field Scabious.

Elsewhere you can see Wild Carrot, masses of Birdsfoot Trefoil, Horseradish, Burdock and the Ragwort so beloved of the stripey caterpillars of the cinnabar moth. For more detail on the vital role played by ragwort in the insect food chain, and some of the ill-founded hysteria about the plant, see http://www.buglife.org.uk/conservation/currentprojects/Habitats+Action/Ragwort/ragwortfactfile

In fact the number of plant species reported here is truly staggering and worth a study of its own.


http://www.norwichfringeproject.co.uk/carys.html