A History of Norfolk in 100 Places

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 385

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Review by HB.

From traces of Palaeolithic life along the coast to deserted medieval villages and a Cold War airfield, A History of Norfolk in 100 Places is a whistle-stop tour of the county’s most intriguing buildings, archaeological sites, and historic landscapes.

Each ‘place’ is assigned its own entry and discussed in historical and archaeological detail over a handful of pages with full-colour images. The entries are clustered into themed sections (‘The Neolithic and Bronze Age’, ‘Churches and Chapels’, etc.), each of which begins with an introduction, which helps to situate the sites within wider historical and geographical contexts. ‘Further reading’ lists are appended to each introduction and to the entries for individual places.

The authors have focused on including sites that are clearly visible, and which can, for the most part, be visited (access details and postcodes are appended to each entry). Particularly helpful for trip-planning purposes is the map on p.10, which colour-codes the places by era (excluding those in Norwich and King’s Lynn) and plots them alongside their entry numbers in the book.

A History of Norfolk in 100 Places, David Robertson, Peter Wade-Martins, and Susanna Wade-Martins, The History Press, £17.99, ISBN 978-0750993661.