Market Town: Visiting Norwich

On today’s episode of “This Old Market Town” we feature Norwich, England! Market towns in Europe are different from cities or villages because they were granted (sometime in history) a market right, which gave them the right to regularly host a market.

Ninety minutes northeast of Cambridge is a town called Norwich. Here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever said before: the “w” is silent (Nor-ich). One Saturday, we hopped in our hybrid and Mr. HomeFree drove us there. I wanted to make this pilgrimage for two very specific reasons. One, I wanted to visit The South Asia Collection. Two, I wanted to see the famous Norwich Market.

The South Asia Collection

The South Asia Collection is the private collection and life’s work of Philip and Jeannie Millward. They began traveling through Asia in the 1970’s. Eventually, they opened multiple smaller spaces in Norwich and in 1993 they consolidated their entire collection into one heart-stopping building in the center of Norwich. We met the now very elderly Millwards during our visit and they rewarded us with long chats about the business, their travels, and their life’s work.

It is part gallery, part museum and part store. It is all addictive. The building was (briefly) a skating rink in 1876. It had lives as many things until the Millwards bought it and restored it. Today, the building itself is an attraction, not just the displays inside.

Mr. Millward stressed that they specialize in collecting objects from daily life.

A Market Town & What its Famous For: The Norwich Market

If you can’t visit England then Columbia, South Carolina has a Saturday market that I love. Check it out here.

When the Normans conquered this area of present-day England they established a market just to the west of the castle. That was approximately 900 years ago. The Norwich Market has been the center of town and the center of town life continuously ever since. I needed to see a 900-year old outdoor market.

Today, there are just shy of 200 stalls, including nearly 30 street food vendors. Here, visitors and residents can buy everything including, clothing, bags and purses, stationary, beauty products, pet supplies and more. Getting lost in the South Asia Collection had made us hungry, so we shared lots of different treats and took parts of everything home for leftovers.

Lastly, on our way to the market, we observed a true “slice of life” moment. Some English citizens were exercising their democratic rights and marching to city hall to protest the lack of paid parental leave that they receive. I don’t know the details, but I suspect they get a lot more of it than Americans do. They had some very clever and funny signs that we recorded for posterity.