North Walsham heritage
Woolly Walk
North Walsham lies at the centre of what we can 'Paston Country'. The town has an important role throughout the 350-year history of the Paston family. As you explore the market town, learn about the Pastons' use of the land and relationship with the wool trade. From the 12th to the 17th century, wool was the main industry and export of the nation. In the Middle Ages, over 60 families in North Walsham earned their living from preparing cloth from wool. The Paston tales weaved into this walk are about great determination, generosity and legacy.
Good for:
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Families, youth groups: a character animation video, an online make your own Coat of Arms, and cross-curricula wool trade learning activities enable children to have fun and educational post-walk experiences.
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Wellbeing: a 'stepping stones' flow thinking (or writing) activity on the walk develops self expression through treasured memories, reflective thinking, sensory grounding and the practice of gratitude.
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Heritage lovers: 14th to 17th century Paston stories showcase daily life in historical narratives such as the 1381 Peasants' Revolt, the plague, and most of all the wool trade.
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Digital Storytelling: stepping forward into history occurs. A ruined spire reconstructed, a bird's eye view with a flyover, move Sir William's Paston's majestic tomb (on screen!), and character animations.
North Walsham
Woolly Walk
LENGTH: There is a circular short route (1 mile).
There are options to extend the walk.​
TERRAIN: town streets.​
PARKING: Marketplace, town centre, public parking​
BUS: nearest stop at XXX.​
FACILITIES: pub and cafes in the town.​​
Follow the walk overview below.
Enhance your walk experience
North Walsham heritage walk overview
1. Begin behind the Church at North Walsham's Information and Heritage Centre.
North Walsham, with 62 listed buildings, has the most of any North Norfolk town. Paston Footprints has donated an interactive touchscreen, where you can view Paston videos and explore the rest of the town's heritage with 1000 archive videos, photos and audio recollections. Includes quizzes. ​Check the Centre's opening hours here.​
2. Walk to the Church grounds. In the east, at the end of the churchyard, you will find the Millennium stone.
This sandstone erratic that is 30,000 years old was left here by the last Ice Age, and placed in the churchyard at the turn of the millennium. The stone had previously been a mounting block in a nearby yard. As the glaciers retreated leaving such stones, it also left Norfolk with flat, fertile land, ideal for growing crops. Pastures formed enabling the raising of flocks of sheep.
Look towards the buildings, to the east, and you will notice a gable end in the shape of a Dutch Gable. Throughout the town can be seen such lasting influences of Dutch and Flemish weavers, who were invited by the King in the 13th and 14th centuries to settle in Walsham and Worsted. They continued to come to North Walsham into the 16th century, with immense weaving skills, which enabled the area to become one of the most important in the country for the production of cloth.
3. Walk into the marketplace and make your way to the impressive market cross.
In 1275, North Walsham was given the right to hold a weekly market, by a Royal Charter of Henry III. A weekly market is still held here every Thursday, with a monthly Framers market on a Sunday. The Market Rights Indenture was purchased along with the Market Cross in 1914 for £25. The cross was used for the barter and exchange of goods and where records were kept and payments made. It soon became an important trading location.
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Clement Paston (1355-1419), was charged in 1381 with affray in the Market Place (during the Peasants' Revolt), specifically of assaulting members of the Abbot of St Benet’s household and destroying Poll Tax records. Clement, despite being described mischievously by one local scribe as a ‘plough man’, had taken advantage of the labour shortage caused by recurring plagues, acquiring land and the Bacton Wood mill. The wool industry was dependent on milling to full wool into usable cloth. He also married well, to Beatrice, of the Clere family. This meant he had the means to hire an attorney to defend his case against the Abbot.
Their son, William (1378-1444), later became a judge. Good Judge William bought much of the land between Paston and North Walsham. His wife, Agnes (c.1398 - 1479), supervised the letting of grazing pastures such as at Ebridge Mill but was sometimes in dispute with neighbours. A 1451 letter to her son John I details a land dispute at North Walsham, where Agnes had taken hay claimed by someone else. She often frequented North Walsham to oversee the sale of produce in the market and to visit Paston land at Bryant’s Heath.
Agnes' son John Paston I (1421-1466) and his wife Margaret Mautby Paston (1422 - 1484) often have their bailiff, Richard Calle, visiting the market, and it remains a feature in the Paston Letters for generations.
At the cross, look around the marketplace to see how with only three main exits and entrances, it has been built to allow for animals to be easily herded into the market.
3. Walk through the marketplace and through an alleyway opposite the Black Swan pub.
In the Black Swan gardens, we can see a mural that depicts the history of the town. In the centre is a motif of a weaving loom and a roll of cloth containing food produce, marking the trading status of the town from medieval times to the present day. Can you name the episodes from the town's history that surround the cloth?
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One of the depictions is of fire. On the 25th June 1600, 118 houses, 70 shops and many other buildings like barns and malthouses were totally destroyed by a great fire, but the Church survived. The 1600 churchwarden records note £20,000 as the cost. Many of the townspeople had to shelter in the Church until the town was rebuilt. This is 150 years after Good Judge William, and another William in the family, Sir William Paston (1528-1610), is noted as supporting the townspeople: he "distributed amongst them which was given by the right worshipful Sir Wm. Paston, Knight, XX shillings."
4. Walk down the left side of the marketplace until you reach the gates to Paston College.
As you walk down, admire the Georgian houses on either side of the market, which were built over the original footprint of the medieval market.
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The story of Sir William Paston's noble and liberal hospitality is no more clearly witnessed than in the presence of Paston College. In 1606, he bought land that had been left vacant by the fire and founded and endowed the free Grammar School. To this day, the heritage listed gate onto the market place alley and the main school buildings are in the trust of the Paston Foundation and leased to City College Norwich to provide continuing educational services. The School motto "From Good to Better Everywhere" is adapted from Sir William's. Past pupils include Horatio Nelson and Stephen Fry.​
In Paston College grounds (not open to the public) there is a particularly fine (modern) wooden sculpture of the Pastons' griffin. The family symbol, the griffin is female and denotes courage and wisdom. Learn more here.
As you progress on your walk, keep your eye open for the griffin (she may be guarding the Paston children or their gold treasure!) How many griffins can you spot in the built architecture around the town and on Sir William's tomb in the Church?
Explore our creative gallery here to see how people have might you be inspired to send us an image of your work? There is an after-walk heraldry activity for children in the section below this walk overview. ​
5. Walk through the alleyway next to Costa Coffee back into the churchyard.
At the end of the alley a Paston Footprints board reveals more of the story, including a letter extract detailing the purchase of worsted cloth for a garment for Sir William, to protect him from the cold weather. Worsted cloth was a warm choice for the winter, whereas Walsham cloth was of a thinner variety, better suited for the summer.
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Sir William is an inspiring figure. He served as the Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk between 1556 to 65 and received a knighthood in 1578. He built the Great Barn and the almshouses in the village of Paston, donated money to the cathedrals of Norwich and Bath, to Gonville and Caius College and to the poor of Yarmouth and Caister he left £10 per annum for twenty years.
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The Paston board is where the last great battle in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt was fought. The rebels, many of them weavers, were unhappy at having to pay extra taxes. For more details about the battle, see Battlefields' Trust.​​
6. Walk to your left away from the church towards Shambles cafe.
The shambles area was where animals were butchered in medieval times. If we look down the main street, we can see the large building facing us that used to be the Angel Hotel. It was here in 1906 that the first Agricultural Workers Union was founded by George Edwards.
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Through the arch next to the Shambles restaurant, if we look up we can see sets of windows on either side of the upper rooms, which indicates that it was once a weaver's barn.
7. Returning back towards the church, walk into the churchyard.
To the left you will find a pair of sculptures by local artist Berni Marfleet with some supporting information boards. If you look closely you will see a pair of wool shears.
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Walk now towards the main entrance to the church. The present church was commenced in about 1330, although the Saxon church was partially enlarged and altered in around 1275. Look up and see the ruinous tower, which stands at 85 feet. Until the tower collapsed on the 16th May 1724, it had been 147 feet to the parapet, with a lead-covered timber spire to 180 feet. It was the second tallest in Norfolk. Never fear, in the walk resources section, you can 'see' our digital reconstruction.
To the left of the tower is part of the tower of the original 11th-century Saxon Church. The main church was built at the end of the 14th century, when the town had a population of around 850 people, from the wealth of the wool trade, and is the largest 'Wool Church' in Norfolk.
8. Walk into the main entrance of the church and pause in the porch.
The south porch is a late 14th century showpiece, luxuriously carved and pinnacled, with figure niches. It also displays the heraldic shields of John of Gaunt and King Edward III and also of St Benet's Abbey. These three great benefactors are responsible partly for the creation of the church. The porch is richly decorated with many other colourful statues and heraldic emblems, a hint of what is to come inside. You could pause and focus on your present surroundings with 'thick description': think of vivid descriptive words to describe in detail what you see (and touch). ​
9. Go into the church.
Today, the Church is an oasis of clam in the busy town, all are warmly welcome to seek some peace inside.
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Inside the church, its great size is immediately noticeable, which is an indication of the great wealth at the town, the wool which bought great wealth, which would have led to the building of such a large church. It is also thought that it had it not been for the Black Death in the 14th century, the church would have been much larger.
When you look inside the church, can you see in the windows the representation of the Good Shepherd? Of course as the main theme of the Christian faith, the idea of Jesus Christ as a shepherd is important. Similarly, the Agnes Dei (Lamb of God), or the sacrificial sheep was also visible in one of the stained glass windows. Near the entrance to church by the south door, you will find a memorial tomb slab for a mercer -a merchant of cloth. How many more images of sheep can you find in the Church?​​​
​The great tomb beside the altar is that of Sir William Paston. It was completed in 1608, 2 years before his death. There are 18 heraldic shields that adorn the monument. Those across the top of the panel record an ancestral pedigree for the Paston family. The next nine celebrate family marriages from the 14th century to the the 17th century. They include the famous Norfolk names of Brewes, Heydon, Wyndham, Clere and Knevet. The final four shields celebrate the key union between the Paston and Mautby families.
An entry in the Parish Records indicates that on the day after the funeral of Sir William, his wife's remains were transferred from Paston Church and placed with his, though there is no record of Frances on the monument.
The tomb cost £200 (perhaps £25,000 in a 21st century valuation). Sir William ensured the legacy of a major Paston family memorial by requiring pupils from Paston College to pay their daily respects. In the 20th century, this became an annual procession around the tomb for the school pupils rather than a daily one into the 1960s.
One other story weaves through North Walsham's history during these times: the plague. Due to recurring waves of plague, population figures greatly reduced. This acted as a catalyst for people to move into sheep rearing, as it required less labourers than the growing of grain. The Pastons are one such example, raising their wealth through malting barley, tenant rents, but also the wool trade. The Pastons suffered the loss of at least three family members to plague in the fifteenth century. In 1558, North Walsham's burial register note 110 deaths due to plague, well above the average of less than 20 at that time. When the plague struck the town again in 1626, there are 138 recorded burials for the year, 59 in one month alone. Lady Katherine Paston (1578-1626) gives a dramatic picture of this 1626 wave. Read Lady Katherine's letter.
Extend your walk ...
​Interested in walking around more Paston lands? You can join the 23 mile long walk Paston Way, that takes you from North Walsham to Cromer.
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Interested in finding out more about the weavers? The 62 mile Weavers' Way takes you through the beautiful Norfolk Broads from Cromer to Great Yarmouth, passing through North Walsham.
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Share your walk experience
We'd love to hear about the highlights of your walk. Tag your photos #pastonfootprints.
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Activities for children and adults
Medieval Shopping
Watch this 3.5 minute animation of Richard Calle, the Paston's family bailiff and husband of Margery Paston, tour North Walsham market.
For medieval shopping KS2 worksheets click here.
Pastons Beyond
Listen to this 4.5 minute podcast by Dr Rob Knee about the Pastons in the areas just beyond the town centre, along the canal and in the woods.
Things to do nearby
Acorn Play Park
En route of our trail, just after the Church, off Bacton Road. This is a small open greenspace with play area. The Children’s area includes a zip wire, climbing frame and swings.
North Walsham & Dilham Canal Boat Tours
Enjoy a guided boat tour following a scenic stretch of the restored North Walsham and Dilham Canal.
Norfolk Motorcycle Museum
Over 150 motorcycles from the 1900s to 1980s. Over 100 motorcycles from the 1900s to 1980s.
The Paston Footprints trails in Paston village and Bacton are nearby. See the Paston Country map.
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