Introduction

"The description of the village is simple, for it practically consists of one long street leading from Norwich to the country, and round this street and the church are the so-called Hall (really the Grange), and the park, and the villas.  There is no river frontage..." (1). With this short paragraph the eminent Norfolk local historian Walter Rye opened his brief monograph of Catton in 1919.  In this study I hope to add some "historical flesh "to the "skeleton" provided by these lines.

Perhaps it is best to begin by placing Catton in its geographical context. The parish of Old Catton, as it is now officially known to distinguish it from its southern neighbour, New Catton, is a relatively flat area, covering about one and a half square miles, two miles north of Norwich's old city wall. It is about 30 metres above sea level and has light sandy soils on a subsoil of gravel, clay and limestone (2). The boundary between upper chalk and Norwich crag runs through the parish.

The majority of the parish lies between what were, in the nineteenth century, the Norwich to Aylsham and Norwich to North Walsham turnpikes, to the west and east of the parish respectively (see Map 1). As Rye noted, no river passes through the village and, until the construction of Norwich City station in the early 1880's the nearest railway station was Norwich Thorpe, some two and a half miles away. Between Catton and Norwich is the suburb of New Catton (which began to develop after 1820) while to the north is the more rural parish of St. Faiths.

Much of Catton's western boundary is shared with Hellesdon. To the east is Sprowston, a parish whose population growth in the 19th century both began earlier, and proceeded at a greater rate than, Catton's.  The brief descriptions that remain of Victorian Catton generally present a most favourable picture of the parish.  The short history published in 1878, for instance, introduces its section on contemporary Catton with the quote:" The stately homes of England, how beautiful they stand, amidst her tall ancestral trees o'er all the pleasant land" (3).

Rye's words give an impression of spaciousness, these produce an image of gentility. How accurate are such adjectives when applied to mid-nineteenth century Catton? Certainly the rural character of much of the village was still being commented upon as late as the 1950's (4), but these impressionistic descriptions can reveal little of the economic or social structure of the local community, concentrating as they do upon the antiquarian history and the wealthy residents of the parish.

Indeed, the period under consideration is an especially interesting and rewarding one because for these years there are sources available which allow one to move away from literary sources alone.  During the mid-Victorian era it is possible to deal instead with every person in the area as a named individual, thus allowing an examination of at least some aspects of the local community in near entirety.  The census lacks monetary information and so although this can sometimes be inferred from other sources, it is the local social structure that remains the most fruitful area of research. In fact, it is so fruitful that it is sometimes difficult to decide which aspects to look at - a pleasant change from the usual lack of historical evidence!

All the statistical data quoted in this dissertation is, unless otherwise stated, derived from the census schedules for 1851, 1861 and 1871 held at the Local Studies Library, Norwich.  Notes concerning the ways in which these documents have been assessed are given in Appendix One.

How realistic were the impressions quoted above? Was Catton the home of a large number of wealthy citizens, or were they greatly outnumbered by the agricultural labourers and tradesmen one would expect to find in an East Anglian rural parish? How was the local community affected by the general decline in England's rural population in the 1860's and the continuing growth of Norwich?

Before considering these questions let us look first at pre-Victorian Catton.

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