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Mousehold Heath is a freely accessible area of heathland and woodland which lies to the north-east of the Middle Ages city boundary of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk.
The name also refers to the much larger area of open heath that once extended from Norwich almost to the Broads, and which was kept free of trees by both human activity and the action of animals grazing on saplings. This landscape was transformed by enclosure during the 19th century and has now largely disappeared, as almost all of it has since been converted into farmland or landscaped parks, reverted to woodland, or has been absorbed by the rapid expansion of Norwich and its surrounding villages, where new roads, shops, houses and Light industry have been built. The present Mousehold Heath consists of mostly broad-leaf woodland, with isolated areas of heath that are actively managed. It is home to a number of rare insects, birds and other .
A chapel dedicated to William of Norwich (a local child who was murdered in 1144) was erected on the heath, of which little remains today. In 1549, Robert Kett camped on the heath with his followers, days before their uprising was suppressed by the authorities. The heath was in the past used by the local population to collect fuel, food and housing materials, as well as to extract sand, clay and gravel. Parts of it have previously been used as a cavalry training ground, a race course, a United States Army Air Forces base, an aerodrome and a prisoner-of-war camp. Nowadays the last remnant of the original Mousehold Heath, managed by Norwich City Council, is surrounded on all sides by housing and light industry.
Chalk was deposited 75 million years ago, when the area was part of a warm, tropical sea. The chalk is now exposed near the southern tip of the heath at St James' Pit, which is an geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Geological Conservation Review site. About two million years ago sands, gravels, Quartz and clays were deposited across the area of Norfolk that now includes the heath. Similar materials were deposited during a Glacier that occurred more than 475,000 years ago. Clay, sand and gravel was laid over Mousehold Heath about 425,000 years ago, caused by the movement of melted ice. The heath's present landscape was more recently formed as a result of erosion, caused by streams cutting through the soft rocks. It later became altered when were blown over the topsoil, when the ground churned as a result of temperature variations and when sludge layers moved downhill during warmer seasons.
Detailed information about the geological history of the present Mousehold Heath, in the form of a 'Heritage Trail' leaflet and accompanying notes for points around the trail, has been produced by Norwich City Council.
St Leonard's Priory was founded on the heath close to the city boundary in around 1094, as a temporary home for the monks of the unfinished Norwich Cathedral, and as a way of establishing Normans control over a nearby chapel. The priory was demolished in 1538 and nothing of it now survives above ground.
In 1144 the body of a young apprentice boy called William was found on a part of the heath known at that time as Thorpe Wood. A false story was circulated that his death was the result of a 'ritual murder' carried out by local Jews. This was the first example in Europe of what became known as blood libel. The sheriff of Norwich succeeded in protecting the innocent Jewish population from persecution in the wake of an angry reaction from the local people. The boy later attained the status of saint and martyr, and a chapel, originally dedicated to St Catherine, was built where William's body was supposed to have been found. In 1168 it was rededicated as the chapel of St William in the Wood, and Votive offering continued to be made there until 1506. The overgrown remains of the site can be found on the northern edge of the present heath.
In 1381 the final battle of the Peasants' Revolt took place a few days after a huge meeting on the heath occurred on 17 June. There Geoffrey Litster, later to be defeated at the Battle of North Walsham, was proclaimed "King of the Commons".Walsingham, Thomas, (Editors Taylor, J., Childs, W. R., Watkiss, L.), The St Albans Chronicle: The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham Volume I 1376–1394
Kett's Rebellion began on 12 July 1549, during a period that became known as the 'commotion time'.Rawcliffe and Wilson (eds.), Medieval Norwich, p. 285. Led by Robert Kett (a local landowner and tanner) and his brother, it grew from a protest about enclosures into a full-scale insurgency. It culminated in the capture of the city of Norwich (then the largest English city outside Tudor London) and the surrounding countryside, with the rebels holding control of the city for over a month, basing themselves at a camp on Mousehold Heath and establishing other camps around Norfolk. After unsuccessfully petitioning the authorities for fairer treatment, they were able to defeat an attempt to oust them by the Marquis of Northampton, but a much larger government army, led by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, succeeded in regaining control of Norwich and forcing them to abandon their camp. Six weeks after the start of the uprising, the rebellion was crushed by Warwick's forces in a decisive engagement, with perhaps three thousand insurgents being killed. There is some uncertainty about the exact site of the battle, said to have occurred at 'Dussindale'.
The entire heath was turned over to arable land and pasture by Inclosure Acts between 1799 and 1810, a process that produced long straight roads and new farms. There was little sympathy shown for the practical needs of the local population, many of whom became impoverished as they were increasingly denied access to the land. Parks surrounding large houses, such as at Sprowston Manor, Rackheath, Thorpe St Andrew and Little Plumstead, became enlarged by the acquisition of land, and new views were created for their owners by the removal of existing woodland and the planting of new belts of trees.
In his autobiographical work Lavengro, George Borrow recorded his meetings with Romani people on the heath. The Norwich-born novelist and one-time Lord Mayor R. H. Mottram also valued the open space of Mousehold Heath. He once described it as "the property of those who have the privilege of Norwich birth". Public horse racing near Norwich first took place in 1838 and within a few years meetings were being held on a racecourse on Mousehold Heath.Rawcliffe, Carole, Norwich Since 1550, p. 442.
Before the 20th century the heath was used to extract sand and gravel. Victorian era Ordnance Survey of the area show that there were lime kilns, marl and brick, in addition to numerous extensive gravel pits, across the unenclosed part of the heath to the north-east of the city. The remains of the diggings can be found today.
During much of the 19th century, the people of Pockthorpe, situated between Norwich's defensive walls and the heath, were relatively free from the control of local factory employers, being able to use Mousehold to graze their animals, and to collect food, fuel and raw materials for Brickworks. The population of Weaving, shop-keepers and labourers (as well as Smuggling) was largely left to its own management, as local magistrates and the officials of Norwich Cathedral were more involved in city affairs. The people of Pockthorpe even parodied the authorities, for instance in electing their own 'mayor', and founding the Pockthorpe Guild in 1772. In 1844, in an attempt to preserve their traditional life, they began a campaign to establish full control over Mousehold Heath, for instance in forcing outsiders to accept a charge for taking materials off the land and making them use Pockthorpe men to do work on the heath. The Guild provided a number of benefits for the poor, but discriminated against people living in neighbouring communities. The twenty-five year-long campaign failed, even when for a period it was supported by members of Norwich's political class. The local population then resorted to behaving badly towards the newly created park, tearing notice boards, fighting and gambling in public, and consorting with the local regiment.
The ownership of the remaining heathland was transferred to the city authorities in 1880, when the Church of England donated the land to the Corporation of Norwich, on the assurance that it prevented "the continuance of trespasses nuisances and unlawful acts" and held the heath "for the advantage of lawful recreation". The Pockthorpe committee was defeated, and the people of Pockthorpe, now forced to obey restrictive byelaws, could no longer use any part of the heath to support themselves. As a result of this change in the use of the land, the unmanaged part of heath remained ungrazed and it reverted to woodland.
Despite strong local resistance, the 1884 Mousehold Heath Confirmation Act confirmed a local law establishing a number of 'conservators' to manage the transformation of the remaining part of the heath.Banks, Stephen, Informal Justice in England and Wales, p. 163. The current managers are Norwich City Council and the Mousehold Heath Conservators.
The Britannia Barracks were built for the Norfolk Regiment on Mousehold Heath. After the Battle of Almansa in 1707, the regiment had been awarded the honour of wearing a figure of Britannia on their uniforms, and the new infantry barracks was named from the figure worn by the regiment. The main buildings were built between 1887 and 1897. The regiment left the barracks in 1959 when it amalgamated with the Suffolk Regiment to become the 1st East Anglian Regiment and moved to Bury St Edmunds. Most of the buildings subsequently became part of Norwich Prison.
During the Second World War, a prisoner-of-war camp for Germany workers was established close to the old airport. Its exact location has yet to be verified. On 12 February 1942, the pilot of a Hampden Medium bomber returning to RAF North Luffenham was killed when the aircraft crashed-landed on Mousehold Heath whilst attempting to reach Horsham St Faith, and on 25 July that year a Bristol Beaufort crashed on the heath, killing the crew of four.
In 1918 the Norwich Electric Tramways service from the city centre to Mousehold Heath was extended from Gurney Road to enable equipment and materials to run between Norwich railway station and the aerodrome. ( see References below). The Norfolk & Norwich Aero Club was formed at Mousehold in 1927. From 1933 until the onset of the Second World War the aerodrome was the first Norwich Airport, with four grass landing strips.
The airfield continued to be used until around 1950. Much of the old aerodrome was then built over when the Heartsease housing estate was created, but some of the airfield buildings survived and are now within the Roundtree Way industrial estate.
Vinegar Pond,The Ordnance Survey grid reference for Vinegar Pond is . which was created by quarrying and subsequent wartime activity, is an important site for breeding . It is fed by rain water and so has a tendency to dry out when the weather is hot. In the heatwave and drought of August 2022 hundreds of goldfish were humanely removed from the pond where they had been dumped and had bred, feeding on the native amphibian species. 1946 aerial photographs of the area show the pond existed at this time, but it does not feature on earlier large-scale maps.
In 1984 a new Mousehold Heath Act became law. In 1992 the bandstand by the football ground was rebuilt by the Mousehold Defenders using locally raised funds. ( see References below).
The Harrison's Wood, which was once originally part of the heath before it was enclosed and turned into a tree plantation, was opened to the public in May 2016. It lies within the White House Farm housing development.
At the start of 2019 a draft version of the new Mousehold Heath Management Plan was made available online for public consultation. The Management Plan aimed to increase the safety and security of Mousehold Heath, increase the cleanliness of the heath and to safeguard the historic aspects and buildings of the heath among other aims.
On 22 April 2019, a body was found in the heath. After investigation, the body was identified as that of Mark Sewell, 37, who had committed suicide by hanging.
A variety of different vertebrates live on Mousehold Heath. include the common frog and the common toad, while include the grass snake, the common lizard and the Anguis fragilis. on the heath include muntjac and roe deer, red fox, and various small rodents. As well as most common urban , the heath holds breeding and tawny owls, as well as nuthatches, treecreepers and great spotted woodpeckers. The heath is rich in and is home to a number of rare Butterfly, and other . Recorded species include the Chrysis ignita, Astata, green hairstreak butterfly, mottled grasshopper and tiger green beetle.
Heathland plants to be found on Mousehold Heath include rumex acetosella, bracken, Wavy Hair-grass, Crassula tillaea, Trailing St John's-wort, Filago vulgaris and Echium vulgare.
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