Manual Ref* | NFnnCR009 Show 2 images | 1132 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Title* |
Robert Bacon Discovering Iceland |
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County | Norfolk | District Council | North Norfolk | |||||||||||||||||||||
Civil Parish or equivalent | Cromer | Town/Village* | Cromer | |||||||||||||||||||||
Road | Prince of Wales Road | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Precise Location | West Side of the road | |||||||||||||||||||||||
OS Grid Ref | TG217421 | Postcode | NR27 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Previous location(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Setting | On Building | Access | Public | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Commissioned by |
Private Company, under chairmanship of B. Bond-Cabbell | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Design & Constrn period |
1890 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of installing |
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Owner/Custodian |
Private | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Surface Condition |
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Structural Condition |
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Vandalism |
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Inscriptions | TOWN HALL | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Description (physical) |
The former Town Hall is a two storey building, with the council chambers on the first floor, lit by large windows framed by bonded fluted Doric piers, set over a rusticated doorway and under a triangular pediment. According to Kelly’s Directory: ‘it was erected in 1890 by a Limited Company, from the designs of Mr G.R. Skipper F.R.I.B.A of Norwich, at a cost, including the site, of £2,000, is a structure of red brick, the front being relieved by ornamental brick work and a band of panel, including the shields of arms of persons of distinction and families connected with the locality. The account in the EDP identifies the planned coats-of arms as: Sir Nicholas de Weyland, first lord of the manor, Sir Bartholomew Read, Lord Mayor of london in 1502, who endowed the Goldsmiths’ School at Cromer; Robert bacon, a mariner of Cromer, to whom is ascribed the discovery of Iceland; Lord Suffield, lord of the manor Cromer Gunners and others; B. Bond-Cabbell, Esq., lord of the manor of Uffords Hall, Cromer, and the families of Wyndham, Buxton, Hoare, Gurney, and Barclay. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Description (iconographical) |
The relief shows a square rigged caravel, with crows’ nest and top sails surrounded by huge walls of ice with seals at the sides. This reflects the local legend, first recorded by Blomefield in 1775 that: ‘Robert Bacon, a mariner of this town of Cromer found out Iceland, and is said to have taken the prince of Scotland, James Stuart, sailing to France for education, in King Henry the Fourth's time.’ The account was repeated in other early nineteenth century guides to Norfolk, including John Chambers’ 1829, A general history of the county of Norfolk, p. 154. As with the rest of the north Norfolk coast the sea has receded but in 1565 Cromer had been listed as a landing place with a pier, with 117 householders. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Photographs |
Date taken:
7/2/2012
Date logged: |
Photographed by: |
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On Site Inspection |
Date: 7/2/2012 |
Inspected by: |
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Sources and References |
'Cromer Town Hall, Laying the Foundation Stone', EDP, 4 January 1890, information from Alistair Murphy, Cromer Museum; Francis Blomefield, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: North Erpingham Hundred: Shipden and Cromer, volume 8, first published 1775, from 1805 edition, 102-107, british-history.ac.uk; Cromerdictionary.co.uk, outline history; Kelly’s Directory of Norfolk, London, 1894, p.91 accessed 10/02/2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Database |
Date entered: 19/2/2012 |
Data inputter: |