Pre-Victorian Catton

If we are to understand 19th century Catton we must consider, albeit briefly, it's earlier history. There is insufficient space in this study to detail that development at length, but certain features seem to be of special relevance and should therefore be noted.

There is evidence of early human habitation in the Catton area.  Both Neolithic flint axes and Iron Age pottery have been found in the parish. Catton “Street” may mark the course of the Roman road from Venta Icenorum (Caister St. Edmunds) to Brampton. The village name is Anglo-Saxon, perhaps indicating a site inhabited by wild cats. The church is not mentioned until 1254 though the round lower section of the tower indicates late Saxon or early Norman construction.  As in many Norfolk villages, the parish had a high proportion of freemen at the time of the Domesday Book (1).

The dominant factor in Catton's medieval history was the power of religious institutions.  The land passed from the King to the Benedictine Priory of Norwich Cathedral in the early 12th century (2).  It was, as Rye put it," in early times... an agricultural parish almost entirely in ecclesiastical hands" and the Dean and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral were to remain the lords of the manor until the nineteenth century.  Church Street, which has always been the " heart" of the parish, still preserves the close geographical relationship between the church and the Manor House (formerly the Prior's lodging or grange) which existed in the Middle Ages. I. M. Manning considers the Manor House to date from the early 15th century (3). Only two manors or estates are mentioned in the Domesday book, but during the Middle Ages Catton seems to have developed three main foci - Church Street, George Hill and Lodge Lane (4).

Another important factor in Catton's development was the weaving industry. Rye said home weaving probably existed as early as 1327 (5).  By the late 17th century weaving was established in Catton and was to remain important in the local economy until Victorian times.  By about 1750 there were 100 looms in Catton and neighbouring Sprowston (6).  A visible reminder of this industry are the three-storied houses on George Hill.  Local independent  weavers worked-up cloth for sale to Norwich merchants until competition from Lancashire and Yorkshire finally destroyed the Norwich weaving industry in the 19th century.

As a result of its ecclesiastical lords and, perhaps, it's early weaving industry, Catton's housing / social structure at the time of the 1664 hearth tax was unlike the other parishes in its hundred (7).  In Catton less than half of the households had only one or two hearths.  In other words it had relatively few poor households. It also had a sizeable middle group of 4-9 hearth households and two wealthy, 10 hearth households.  What made it unique in its hundred was that it had both a high proportion of yeoman housing and a moderately high total number of households (see Figure 1).  As early as 1664 a community appears to have existed which contained a few wealthy people, a large number of comfortably-off people and relatively few poor inhabitants.   Catton Old Hall on Lodge Lane (for a time the home of Alderman Norman who established the charity which bears his name) dates from this period, having been built in 1632. This early modern housing / social structure makes a fascinating background to nineteenth century Catton.

The Compton Census of 1676 (8) recorded 172 conformists in the parish (together with 4 “papists” and 4 “nonconformists”), indicating a total population of about 290. It seems from this that Catton had one of the largest populations in the Taverham Deanery – neighbouring Sprowston only recorded 112 conformists.

From the middle of the 18th century the character of the parish began to change as it became a fashionable place for Norwich merchants to build houses in.  Some of their residences can still be seen on Catton Street and St. Faiths Road. Writing in 1781 M. J. Armstrong listed 16 “seats and principal houses” in the hundred of Taverham of which four were in Catton: Thomas Rogers, Robert Harvey, Charles Buckle and Jeremiah Ives Harvey (9). Armstrong described Catton as “a very pleasant village and the residence of many opulent manufacturers, who have retired from Norwich and built elegant houses.  The air is reckoned very healthful, and many invalids resort thither or the benefit of it” (10).

The last man in Armstrong’s list, Jeremiah Ives, built Catton Hall in 1780. Its park filled a site formerly occupied by common fields and was the first commission of the famous landscape gardener Humphry Repton in 1788.  The development of the park involved a number of road diversions, as did other gentry “improvements” in the parish.  In 1806, for instance, a road diversion was made around Mr Fitch’s house on St. Faiths Road.  The alteration was approved by local magistrates and landowners Robert Harvey and Jeremiah Ives, both members of influential local families (11).

By almost quadrupling between 1664 and the first census in 1801 Catton's population growth appears to have been more rapid than any of the other parishes in its hundred  (see Figure 4). Local influence appears to have been increasingly focussing on the Hall.  In 1802 Ives bought the great tithes.

More than thirty years later the Hall was offered for sale. The resultant sale description (12) gives a vivid picture of Catton Hall and its “well-timbered” park in the early nineteenth century. The mansion was “erected on a handsome elevation, in a beautiful park of 60 acres, well enclosed by pales and walls, and highly ornamented with beautiful timber, plantations, delightful pleasure grounds and extensive walks…” The estate – including “the beautiful villa residences of Warner Wright, Esq., M.D., George Harvey, Esq., the neat Gothic cottage of Mrs Hobart, the superior and highly cultivated farms of a respectable tenantry” – covered 645 acres. The Hall was “approached by handsome carriage drives.” Detached from the Hall “in an enclosed yard is a lofty and roomy coach-house for three carriages, with granary over, an excellent six-stalled stable, now used as a carpenters shop.”  The article goes on to describe the “Pleasure Grounds”: (they were) “ tastefully laid out in a handsome lawn, with…flowers and choice exotics, beautiful shrubberies and luxuriant evergreens, intersected with walks, with an aviary and an elegant green-house 50 feet long and 21 feet wide, a capital fruit and kitchen garden enclosed by substantial walls, clothed with fruit trees, in which are three productive graperies about 120 feet long.”  The village beyond the park was considered worthy of description too: “ The walks from the mansion to the ivy-towered village church, to the gothic cottage occupied by Mrs Hobart and to the great road through the much admired pleasure grounds…may fairly vie with any walks in the county.”

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