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Norfolk

County of England

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  • 12 chapters
King's Lynn Guild Hall
David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0

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The county has an area of 2,074 mi2 (5,370 km2) and had an estimated population of 940,359 in 2024. It is predominantly rural. Norwich is in the centre-east of the county, and its other principal settlements include Great Yarmouth on the east coast, Thetford in the south, and King's Lynn in the north-west. For local government purposes Norfolk is a non-metropolitan county with seven districts.

The centre of Norfolk is gently undulating lowland. To the east are the northern half of the Broads, a network of rivers and lakes which extend into Suffolk and have a similar status to a national park. The west of the county contains part of the Fens, and to the south is part of Thetford Forest. The geology of the county includes clay and chalk deposits, which make its coast susceptible to erosion; the northern coast has been designated a national landscape.

There is evidence of Prehistoric settlement in Norfolk. In the Roman era the region was home to the Iceni, whose leader Boudica led a major revolt in AD60. The Angles settled the area in the 5th century, after which it became part of the Kingdom of East Anglia. During the later Middle Ages the county was prosperous and heavily involved in the wool trade; this allowed the construction of many large churches. In 1549 Norfolk was the scene of Kett's Rebellion, which unsuccessfully protested the enclosure of land. The county was not heavily industrialised during the Industrial Revolution, and Norwich lost its status as one of England's largest cities. The contemporary economy is largely based on agriculture and tourism.

History

The area that was to become Norfolk was settled in pre-Roman times (there were Palaeolithic settlers as early as 950,000 years ago), with camps along the higher land in the west, where flints could be quarried. A Brittonic tribe, the Iceni, emerged in the 1st century BC. The Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD 47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second rebellion opened the area to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the area and farming was widespread.

Situated on the east coast, the homelands of the Iceni were vulnerable to attacks from continental Europe and other parts of Britain, and forts were built to defend against raids by the Saxons and the Picts. A period of depopulation, which may have been due to these threats, seems to have followed the departure of the Romans. Soon afterward, Germanic peoples from the North Sea area settled in the region. Though they became known as Angles, they were likely not affiliated to any tribe in particular at the time of their migration. It is thought that the settlement here was early (possibly beginning at the start of the fifth century, thereby preceding the alleged date of Hengist and Horsa's arrival in Kent) and that it occurred on a large scale.

By the 5th century, the Angles had established control over the region. They later became known as the "north folk" and the "south folk," giving rise to the names "Norfolk" and "Suffolk." Norfolk, Suffolk, and nearby territories formed the Kingdom of East Anglia, one of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, which was later incorporated into Mercia and subsequently into Wessex. The influence of the early English settlers is evident in numerous place names ending in "-ham," "-ingham," and "-ton." Place-name endings such as "-by" and "-thorpe" are also common and indicate Danish origins; during the 9th century, the region was subject to Danish attacks, during which King Edmund the Martyr was killed. Additionally, several place names in the Fenland area contain Celtic elements, which some scholars interpret as evidence of a significant Brittonic population in the region.

In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have been high: by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture and woollen industries. Norfolk's prosperity at that time is evident from the county's large number of medieval churches: out of an original total of over one thousand some 659 have survived, more than in any other county in Britain and the greatest concentration in the world. The economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349.

Kett's Rebellion occurred in Norfolk during the reign of Edward VI, largely in response to the enclosure of land by landlords, leaving peasants with nowhere to graze their animals, and to the general abuses of power by the nobility. It was led by Robert Kett, a yeoman farmer, who was joined by recruits from Norwich and the surrounding countryside. His group numbered some 16,000 by the time the rebels stormed Norwich on 29 July 1549 and took the city. Kett's rebellion ended on 27 August when the rebels were defeated by an army under the leadership of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland at the Battle of Dussindale. Some 3,000 rebels were killed. Kett was captured, held in the Tower of London, tried for treason, and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle.

By the late 16th century Norwich had grown to become the second-largest city in England, but over one-third of its population died in the plague epidemic of 1579, and in 1665 the Great Plague again killed around one-third of the population. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian. The economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry, except in Norwich, which was a late addition to the railway network.

Early military units included the Norfolk Militia. The local British Army regiments included the Royal Norfolk Regiment (now the Royal Anglian Regiment) and the Norfolk Yeomanry. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation. The first development in airfields came with the First World War; there was then a massive expansion during the Second World War with the growth of the Royal Air Force and the influx of the American USAAF 8th Air Force which operated from many Norfolk airfields.

During the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape.

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