[This is the ninth of a series of articles giving a brief
description of each of the 26 ancient Anglican cathedrals coupled with a sketch
of a person, activity or institution connected to the area]
In early medieval times, Norwich
was the second city in England
after London.
Its prosperity was based on the trade in English wool, shipped over to the
Flemish weavers through Norwich’s
port at Great Yarmouth. The City of Norwich
has retained a castle, many churches and historic streets from those times. Its
greatest glory is Norwich Cathedral,
whose lovely Church, Cloisters and Close make it one of the most satisfying
cathedrals in England
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| Norwich Cathedral |
The main part of the Cathedral, including the tower, was
built soon after the Norman Conquest between 1096 and 1145. The cloisters,
Perpendicular nave vaulting and spire (after two attempts) followed later in
1430, 1450 and 1480 respectively.
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| Nave and Vault at Norwich |
The imposition of Gothic features on a basically Norman building has been handled sympathetically. Norwich has lovely
cloisters and both there and in the transepts, there are hundreds of finely
carved bosses connecting the arcading, depicting sacred figures.
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| Holy Innocents Boss in Transept |
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| The Cloisters |
Dissolution of the Benedictine Priory and Civil War destruction
in the 16th and 17th centuries brought turmoil and ruin
but the cathedral has been repaired and restored. A visit to the fine City and
its Cathedral is very rewarding..
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Norwich has been long associated with the production of
mustard, not the effete confection produced in Dijon, not the feeble Bavarian
variety nor the ineffably bland American hotdog substance but real hot mustard
– enough to make you sneeze and take a deep breath, enough to irritate your
nasal passages – in short English Mustard, produced with
mustard flour and no vinegar since 1814, by Colmans
in the Norwich suburb of Carrow.
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| Colmam's Mustard Advert |
Its yellow jars are a staple of the English kitchen; it is
sold in various forms throughout the world. I cannot conceive eating a sizzling
pork sausage or a Melton Mowbray pork pie without a generous dollop of Colmans
mustard and it is an essential accompaniment to unbeatable roast beef and
Yorkshire pudding.
English mustard is not just a wonderful food. Spread lightly
on your little tot’s thumb, it will soon cure him of thumb-sucking: a short
weep, but a bad habit will be cured for life. Such little lessons are what gave the
Englishman his stiff upper lip! Mustard poultices and plasters have been a folk
remedy for backache and congestion of the chest for 400 years. ”Keen as
mustard”, “Can’t cut the mustard” reflect the challenging qualities of this
great condiment.
Norfolk
rather specialises in versatile items. At Jeyes at Thetford, the flagship
product is Jeyes Fluid, a
disinfectant patented in 1877, used to clean floors and kitchens. However Jeyes
Fluid will also clear paths of weeds and in earlier days was put into warm
baths to help patients suffering from scarlet fever and dropsy: some say it
will cure baldness, many say otherwise. But please do not on any account drink
the stuff.
Allow me to digress to some other peculiarly English
condiments. Less seen these days is Gentleman’s
Relish, a tasty anchovy paste to spread on toast. Much more visible is
tangy Lea & Perrins Worcestershire
Sauce, also using anchovies and great in stews or sprinkled over Welsh rarebit
or sardines on toast.
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| Worcester Sauce |
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| Gentleman's Relish |
The best of British sauces is surely HP Sauce, a great favourite of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who could recite the ingredients label which was
carried in French as well as English. I imagine this exhausted his knowledge of
French. HP, a tart mélange of tomato, dates, vinegar, spices and tamarind
extract enlivens many a dull dish. Its label used to feature the London Houses
of Parliament but that has been dropped, with the sauce now made sadly by Heinz
in Holland, with not a parliament to be seen - typical of Europe's democratic deficit!
Another great accompaniment is pickle, said in Victorian
times to mask the taste of meat which had gone off. Now it is a treat in itself
with Branston’s Pickle being the
brand leader. A favourite pub snack is a Ploughman’s Lunch consisting of a hunk
of bread, a large slice of cheese and a good spoonful of pickle – delicious!
This always reminds me of the hilarious TV sitcom “Nearest and Dearest” set at
Pledge’s Pickles with lantern-jawed Hilda Baker and veteran comic Jimmy Jewel,
both in great form, as Nellie and Eli Pledge and their pickle factory. Hilda
Baker’s Northern expressions and her boisterous but genteel persona made me laugh immoderately.
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| Hilda Baker and Jimmy Jewel of Pledge's Pickles |
The French have often been critical of English culinary
accessories. For instance rather than suffer all the palaver of stock and
bouillon, we Brits will produce some instant gravy using Bisto or toss an Oxo cube
into boiling water. The result is usually pretty good and it only takes a few
minutes. Much food is processed these days and some are particularly critical
of great British favourites like Bovril and
Marmite. Bovril is a nourishing spread
using beef extract while Marmite uses brewers’ yeast extract. Both are an
acquired taste and rather salty but Napoleon III ordered 1 million jars of
Bovril for his troops at the start of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 (they
lost). Anyhow we do not need to take any cheek about food from the French who
eat frogs and snails and torture geese for their pâté de foie gras.
The real culinary excitement comes North of the border. With
St Andrew’s Day looming in 30 November we will soon be crying for seconds of
McSween’s Haggis (with neeps and
tatties of course – mashed turnip and potato to the uninitiated) at our
celebratory feast. But the culinary glory of cholesterol-loving Scotsmen
originated in a modest chip-shop in Stonehaven just south of my home town of Aberdeen – the Deep-Fried Mars Bar.
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| Deep-fried Mars Bar and Ice Cream |
Let the Mars Company cringe in embarrassment, let dieticians rant and rave, we Scots have discovered the ultimate comfort food. Eureka!
SMD
31.10.12
Text Copyright ©Sidney Donald 2012
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