The Country Maid Companion Blog Part Five

Finn Marchant smirked. Whatever the young master wanted, he got.

Well, she was not going to be his latest amusement, Grace decided.

Last time in The Country Maid, Grace accidentally sparks the interest of Finn Marchant. Now, she’s been whisked off on a carriage tour around Norwich, with only Robert keeping an eye that this unashamed dandy’s flirting doesn’t cause a scandal.

The places Finn points out exist and can be visited today, and here’s how their journey would progress nowadays. Unfortunately, there isn’t a carriage option on Google maps!

The Coachmaker’s Arms is one of the many pubs in the city that has been serving drinks as far back as the 1600s. It was originally a coaching inn, where travellers, stagecoaches and mail coaches would stop off to rest or replace their horses.

The land it was built on was originally an asylum, but its most well-known ghost is actually a lookalike Dick Turpin. This highwayman lurks at the end of the bar, scrounging drinks off customers and bar staff, but by the time someone gives in and pours an ale out, he’s vanished!

A woman dressed in black has also been spotted, though most hear her arrival. Glasses and bottles will mysteriously plummet and shatter.

The Guildhall has been around since the early 1400s. On the east face is a flint and freestone pattern which resembles a chequerboard.

Norwich Guildhall was where important government work took place, including the assizes, council meetings and holding criminals between trials. There were two levels to this prison, the free prison, where criminals were held without having to be chained up and the crypts for those deemed at risk of causing further violence.

The Guildhall was in use as a government building until 1938 when it was replaced by City Hall. Now, it is the site for weddings, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival and it once even hosted an Escape Room puzzle game.

While the Assembly House does get a mention in this part, I’ll go into its varied history later on during the Christmas arc. For now, I’ll just write that it was considered the heart of the city’s upper class social scene during the 1800s.

“In the distance is Cow Tower. One of our old medieval fortifications,” Finn said. “An illegal duel was fought there over a river girl who disguised herself as a lady.”

Those of you who have read my past serials in The People’s Friend magazine might recognise this anecdote from a scene in Beyond the Masquerade. Laura Meadows, river girl, disguises herself as a lady to seduce a lord, with events culminating in a duel outside Cow Tower.

Cow Tower is a late 14^th century medieval fortification by the River Wensum, on a bend of the river that would have been vulnerable to enemies. It’s of the earliest artillery towers in England and would have housed gunmen and protected them from attack while they fired down arrows on the enemy.

During the time period The Country Maid is set, many of Norwich’s medieval structures were being demolished to make way for more houses, but this tower survived and still stands tall thanks to later restorations. You cannot go inside, it’s gated off, but you can walk past and I often did this while walking into the city.

Grace’s tour is interrupted. She spots her sister in the crowd and darts out of the carriage and into a narrow entranceway, only to end up in what was considered the slum part of the city – the Norwich Yards. She’s surrounded by a gang demanding a toll.

Will the trio return to Marchant manor unscathed?

Part 5: Jane is dragged out for a ride around the city, with Robert joining to keep an eye. Luckily Freddie is content with preening and having a woman compliment him. They pass an undesirable part of the city and Jane swears she spots her sister vanishing down an alleyway. She leaps out of the carriage and a local gang surrounds her, demanding a toll for trespassing.