The Elizabethan Strangers, often referred to as just the Strangers, were a group of Protestant refugees seeking political asylum from the Catholic Low Countries, who settled in and around Norwich. The first group came from Flanders in 1565, but many more followed, eventually making up a third of the population of Norwich.
In 1565, City authorities invited Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands to settle in Norwich to boost the City's textile industry. 30 households of master weavers, totalling almost 300 people, journeyed from the Low Countries to Norwich seeking refuge from religious persecution. They were the first of the "Elizabethan Strangers". [1] [2] [3]
Norfolk is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, and Suffolk to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Norwich.
The Huguenots are a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Besançon Hugues (1491–1532), was in common use by the mid-16th century. Huguenot was frequently used in reference to those of the Reformed Church of France from the time of the Protestant Reformation. By contrast, the Protestant populations of eastern France, in Alsace, Moselle, and Montbéliard, were mainly Lutherans.
Norwich is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about 100 mi (160 km) north-east of London, 40 mi (64 km) north of Ipswich and 65 mi (105 km) east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich City Council local authority area was estimated to be 144,000 in 2021, which was an increase from 143,135 in 2019. The wider built-up area had a population of 213,166 in 2019.
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England. The castle was used as a gaol from 1220 to 1887. In 1894, the Norwich Museum moved to Norwich Castle. The museum and art gallery holds significant objects from the region, especially works of art, archaeological finds and natural history specimens.
Costessey is a town and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, and is 4 miles (6.4 km) north west of Norwich. The civil parish forms part of the Norwich Urban Area.
Strangers' church was a term used by English-speaking people for independent Protestant churches established in foreign lands or by foreigners in England during the Reformation.
The Marian exiles were English Protestants who fled to continental Europe during the 1553–1558 reign of the Catholic monarchs Queen Mary I and King Philip. They settled chiefly in Protestant countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, and also in France, Italy and Poland.
Burnham Market is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 19 miles (31 km) north-east of King's Lynn and 32 miles (51 km) north-west of Norwich.
Morningthorpe is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Morningthorpe and Fritton in the South Norfolk district, in the county of Norfolk, England. It is situated some 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the city of Norwich. The parish includes the villages of Morningthorpe and Fritton. The two villages are 1 km apart
Newton Flotman, meaning new farm or settlement, is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, lies about 7 miles south of Norwich on the A140 road between Tasburgh and Swainsthorpe. The River Tas flows through the village. The area of 4.87 km2 (1.88 sq mi) had 1,197 inhabitants in 497 households at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,489 at the 2011 census. For local government it lies in the district of South Norfolk.
The Maddermarket Theatre is a British theatre located in St. John's Alley in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It was founded in 1921 by Nugent Monck, and is situated next to Strangers' Hall.
Dragon Hall is a Grade-1 listed medieval merchant's trading hall located in King Street, Norwich, Norfolk, close to the River Wensum, and since 2018 home to the National Centre for Writing. It is thought to be unique in being the only such trading hall in Northern Europe to be owned by one man. The building stands on what was the main road through the city in the 15th century, with river transport links via Great Yarmouth to the Low Countries. Dragon Hall is now acknowledged as one of Norwich's medieval architectural gems and an iconic building in the city.
The Dutch Church, Austin Friars, is a reformed church in the Broad Street Ward, in the City of London. Located on the site of the 13th-century Augustinian friary, the original building granted to Protestant refugees for their church services in 1550 was destroyed during the London Blitz.
John Cruso was a writer on military matters before the English Civil War, and a supporter of the Parliamentary cause during the war.
Strangers' Hall is a Grade I listed building and museum of domestic history located in Norwich, UK. Throughout its 700-year history, Strangers' Hall has been the home to numerous Mayors of Norwich and has served both domestic and commercial functions. A courtyard house, the oldest part of the building is the 14th-century undercroft while further additions were made through to the 17th century by various merchants and mayors, most notably the Sotherton family, Francis Cock and Joseph Paine. The house ended up in the hands of the Roman Catholic church before being bought by Leonard Bolingbroke, who converted it into a folk museum at the start of the 20th century. He then gave the house to the city of Norwich, which has since run it as a museum of domestic history. Although other theories have been proposed regarding the origins of the name of the house, it is named after the Strangers, a group of Protestant refugees seeking political asylum from the Catholic Low Countries from 1565, some of whom lived in the hall.
Edward Boardman (1833–1910) was a Norwich born architect. He succeeded John Brown as the most successful Norwich architect in the second half of the 19th century. His work included both civic and ecclesiastical buildings, in addition to private commissions. Together, with his rival, George Skipper, he produced many notable buildings with several standing to this day (2013).
Rainthorpe Hall is a Grade I listed Elizabethan country mansion and estate near Tasburgh in Norfolk, England, about 8 miles (13 km) south of Norwich.
Osbert Parsley was an English Renaissance composer and chorister. Few details of his life are known, but he evidently married in 1558, and lived for a period in the parish of St Saviour's Church, Norwich. A boy chorister at Norwich Cathedral, Parsley worked there throughout his musical career. He was first mentioned as a lay clerk, was appointed a "singing man" in c. 1534, and was probably the cathedral's unofficial organist for half a century. His career spanned the reigns of Henry VIII and all three of his children. After the Reformation of 1534, the lives of English church musicians changed according to the official policy of each monarch.
Norwich War Memorial is a First World War memorial in Norwich in Eastern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the last of his eight cenotaphs to be erected in England. Before Lutyens' involvement, several abandoned proposals had been made for commemorating Norwich's war dead, and by 1926 the newly elected lord mayor was determined to see the construction of a memorial before he left office. He established an appeal to raise funds for local hospitals in memory of the dead as well as a physical monument. He commissioned Lutyens, who designed an empty tomb (cenotaph) atop a low screen wall from which protrudes a Stone of Remembrance. Bronze flambeaux at either end can burn gas to emit a flame. Lutyens also designed a roll of honour, on which the names of the city's dead are listed, which was installed in Norwich Castle in 1931.
Norfolk Museums Service (NMS), formerly Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service (NMAS), is a county-wide museums service that presides over ten museums in Norfolk, operated by Norfolk County Council and headed by the council's Director of Culture and Heritage, Steve Miller. It notably runs Norwich Castle Museum, Strangers' Hall, and the Time and Tide Museum, and also operates a study centre at Shirehall.
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