ush open the gate and you exchange tarmac for grass pathways. A green oasis greets you.

You have found a hidden treasure, a sanctuary in a bustling city, a place of peace and quiet. Sit... rest... look around you and let its spirit move. You have come to the Gildencroft and the silence welcomes you. The Gildencroft is a tranquil acre of land organically managed ; a haven for birds, bees, insects and wildlife. A place for quiet contemplation and reflection, a simple lunchbreak, a stroll through the avenue of limes,

breathing space in a busy world... Resting here are remains of thousands of Friends, also known as Quakers or Members

of the Religious Society of Friends. This has been a burial ground since 1670, still in use today

and cared for by Norwich Quakers who meet for silent worship at the nearby Meeting House

on Upper Goat Lane. Come and explore and take time to discover more

about the lives of the friends who have made this their home. Let their lives

speak

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ou’ll rarely find extravagant bouquets here though the more you look the more you see. You’ll realise

as you walk amongst them that each stone gathers to itself a small offering of flowers...naturally. Each graced with a gift of the season, a daisy, a small offering of blue alkanet, some ragged robin, bluebells and Queen Anne’s Lace... Simple gifts, small remembrances–perhaps drawn by the warmth of the stone, all timeless. As you pass by perhaps you’ll also notice the distinctive way Friends have used in marking time. An inscription might read 19th of the 7th month rather than 19th of July. ..... You’ll meet a uniformity of style, inscription and of size; no one stone standing prouder than the rest, no one voice shouting louder... Eloquently expressing equality. Quakers, who are a Christian based community, welcome people of all faiths and none but hold four ‘testimonies’ in common by which they seek to lead their lives; These are peace. equality, simplicity and truth.

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Let their lives

speak

Sue Debbage

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n exhibition to reveal the lives of friends who are resident at the Gildencroft, used as Norwich Quaker Community’s burial ground since 1670.

Sue Debbage has written an ‘alphabet’ celebrating their lives and times soon to be published under the title “Let their lives speak” These panels, designed by Deb Arrowsmith, show extracts from the book together with photographs taken through the seasons in the Gildencroft. The Burial Ground is also a haven for wildlife and a peaceful retreat for many in the heart of a bustling city. The exhibition is supported by The Quaker Gardens Project

The QGP is concerned with finding the spirit in Gardens and Burial Grounds of The Religious Society of Friends, mapping our green and spiritual places, and helping Meetings care for, plan and develop their grounds. Bringing the Meeting into the garden....

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Quaker

Gardens

Project

growing spiritual space...

PEACE, POLITICS, PRIVATEERS AND POSH FROCKS = THE GURNEY FAMILY.

As early as 1620 Norwich weavers had adopted the skills to produce the ‘new draperies’

and were selling ‘Norwich Stuff’ to Spain, Portugal. Italy and France. This was cloth

of a very high quality, later enforced by the Norwich Worsted Weavers Company which itself was established by act of Parliament in 1650. A century later the city had developed a wide range of high quality fabrics which were brightly coloured, glossy and stiff. Norwich became widely known for its shawls which,

initially hand embroidered, were woven for export. The Gurney family’s wealth was built on Norwich textile industry. This substantial Gurney family fortune [ supposedly at one time second only to the Bank of England itself] from textiles enabled the brothers, John and Henry, to start their bank in 1775.

In 1803 it was expected that Napoleon would try to invade England by landing on the

Norfolk coast. John Gurney of Earlham, father of Joseph John [qv] and Elizabeth [later Fry], kept four carriages constantly waiting ready to take his family to the relative safety of Ely should the invasion come. There were national calls for subscriptions to fund militia volunteers. Hudson Gurney sent such a donation in contravention of the Quaker Testimony to Peace. When this was reported to Norwich friends, his membership of the Society was terminated. Young John Gurney, of the Earlham Gurneys actually made to join the Volunteers. His membership was also terminated.

Of all the members of the Gurney family, my favourite might be the feisty Henrietta. [d. 1828] One of the six daughters of Henry Gurney, she never married, she remained the eternal maiden aunt, and could be relied on to pass opinion upon most things. Hannah Gurney describes the pattern of cousin Henrietta’s visits to Earlham-

“….She also used to come in a very stiff stately dress and sit in great formality on the sofa. She also always brought her little box of sugar plums…..” Henrietta habitually refused to pay her church tithes for the parish of St Michael at Plea in which she lived. There is, tucked away on a small sheet of yellowing paper in the archive a record of distraint completed a week or so after her death in 1828. Goods – six silver teaspoons and five other teaspoons to the value of £2:3/- plus 13/- costs- were taken and excluded from her estate for probate.

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INFANT MORTALITY. Look at the many tiny coffin shapes on the Gildencroft’s burials map roll;

it will break your heart. Epidemics, particularly of smallpox, were frequent and together with food shortages and high prices, the most vulnerable succumbed. It has already been shown [see Bidwell] that medical provision was sketchy. By 1740 children aged under ten years old accounted for nearly half the burials across the city at that time and infants alone for 45% of that. Penelope Corfield [using Bills of Mortality as her source material] argues that Norwich had inherited several housing and sanitation problems in the old city centre and was rapidly gaining new ones in the unplanned districts of growth beyond the city walls. She notes that in all but nine of the years 1707-50 burials across the city exceeded bap-tisms... she describes the early nineteenth century city as crowded, smelly and insanitary. As late as 1883, one quarter of the city’s families depended upon wells for water, fewer than 5000 houses had a toilet. However, smallpox was recorded less often as a cause of death, the last outbreak being amongst prisoners in Norwich Castle. Typhus had been all but eradicated, and there were fewer incidences of typhoid, scarlet fever and tuberculosis. The Lincoln family, Charles whose occupation is unrecorded and his wife Sarah, lost six children towards the close of the eighteenth century. Their daughter, Mary was eighteen weeks old when she died, their son Robert lived only two weeks. The following year they buried stillborn twins, the sex of whom is unrecorded. Three years later they lost [another] Mary at twelve weeks and four years later still Timothy died aged nine months. Sarah died aged only [by today’s standards] 53 and is buried close to her children. Isaac Harrison was a weaver when he wasn’t required to dig graves. He and his wife Mary lost three children; Christopher born in 1831 lived to sixteen years but Lewis John, born in 1833 in a time of prevalent cholera, lived only six weeks. The following year he was “replaced” by another Lewis John who himself lived for only four years. Every once in a while, Dear Friends, remember the sorrow of all these parents.

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THE EDDINGTON FAMILY.

The Eddington dynasty [ for that is what it felt like to all of us who knew and respected them] benefitted Norfolk Quakers for well over a century. It has also been said that Eddington men all married strong women!

Alexander Eddington and Joseph Rowntree together read a paper

at the First Day Schools Conference announcing estimates in 1894 that there were 213 admissions to the Society of Friends nationally by convincement through the Adult Schools. Alexander and Florence’s son Arthur joined his father in the grocery business and in his parents work within the Society of Friends.

Together they set up a network of Coffee Carts across the city,

aimed at the cattle drovers bringing stock to market in the centre. Arthur and Doris had one son, John, of their own and adopted another, Anthony. Anthony and his wife Mary also led an active life within and on behalf of the Society of Friends. Anthony became a lecturer in Animal Husbandry at Easton College whilst also clerking the Meeting. They were great stalwarts and supporters of Quaker Worship in the new estate of Bowthorpe in the western outskirts of Norwich. Alexander and Florence [and Maria], Arthur, Doris, John and Mary Eddington have graves in the Gildencroft.

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THE CROWE FAMILY.

As early as 1765 Crowes became caretakers/ wardens at the Meeting House.

In May of that year it was decided that

“….a William Crowe and Wife be admitted to dwell in the House belonging to the New Meeting House until further ordered,

and they would be allowed one shilling per week to keep the

Meeting House clean and in good order….” Friends were asked to get the said Dwelling House put into order as soon as they conveniently could.

Crowe declined the offer.

It was left for Friends “….to consider of a proper Person for the same”. No one else wanted the job so Crowe finally agreed “….to go into the Dwelling adjoined to the New Meeting House….on condition that the usual Allowance is discontinued….” They would do the job for no payment. They were “…desired to remove thereinto as soon as he can with convenience….” and carried on in this arrangement until 1774.

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