{"product_id":"a-fine-city-norwich","title":"A Fine City: Local Secrets, Honest Stories \u0026 the Real Norwich","description":"\u003ch2\u003eFour hundred years ago this city took in strangers with nothing. It is still singing about them.\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1565 the wool trade was dying and Norwich was skint. The mayor stood up in front of the aldermen and said the answer was to invite foreigners in. Thirty master weavers from the Low Countries and their households. About three hundred people, off a boat, with a trade in their hands and not much else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey got called the Strangers. By 1582 there were four and a half thousand of them, roughly a third of the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd they brought their birds. Little yellow things in cages, hung up beside the looms, because they would sing along to the rhythm of the weaving. So when a football club went looking for a nickname, it did not have to look far.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/nor-desc-a-quote.jpg?v=1788433534\" alt=\"Every time that ground sings about a canary it is singing about a refugee's pet bird\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:24px 0;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/cart\/57959613235582:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#26241f;color:#f7f3e9;padding:16px 42px;text-decoration:none;font-size:18px;letter-spacing:0.5px;\"\u003eGet the book, £12.99\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size:14px;color:#787368;\"\u003eInstant download. Was £19.99.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThis is not a list of the top ten things to do.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no council leaflet in here. No \"why not stroll along the historic cobbles.\" What is in here is the stuff that makes people who have lived in Norwich their whole lives go quiet and say they never knew that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eElm Hill, the street on every postcard, was a slum in the 1920s with swimming baths planned for the north side. It survived by one vote. One. Kett, a farmer out of Wymondham, was hanged from the castle walls in 1549, and four hundred years later the city put a plaque up at the castle entrance calling him courageous and using the word reparation. It is still there, and almost everyone walks straight past it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBank Plain. St Andrews Plain. Every other city calls them squares. Norwich calls them plains, because that is Dutch, and the Strangers are still sat in the street signs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/nor-desc-b-getwhat.jpg?v=1788433535\" alt=\"What you actually get: the stories, the honest bit, the spot\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:24px 0;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAnd the view.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is one place where the whole city lays itself out in front of you at first light. Spires, flint, the cathedral, the lot, with almost nobody else there. It is completely free, and most people who live here have never stood on it at that hour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYou get the exact walk in, the exact spot and the exact timing, because turn up twenty minutes late and you have missed it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/cart\/57959613235582:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#26241f;color:#f7f3e9;padding:16px 42px;text-decoration:none;font-size:18px;letter-spacing:0.5px;\"\u003eRead it tonight, £12.99\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size:14px;color:#787368;\"\u003e25 chapters, 56 pages, on your phone in about a minute.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho it is for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePeople born here who reckon they know it all. People who moved here and want to stop feeling like a visitor. People who left and still get a lump in their throat when the spire comes into view from the train. And anyone coming for a weekend who does not fancy spending it doing exactly what everybody else does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/nor-desc-c-howitworks.jpg?v=1788433535\" alt=\"How it reaches you: buy it, check your email, read it anywhere\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;margin:24px 0;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eFree updates for life\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe city keeps changing. Openings, closures, prices, the things that quietly stop being true. Every time the book is updated you get the new edition, and you never pay for it again. Buy once, own every version.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/cart\/57959613235582:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#dab030;color:#26241f;padding:18px 48px;text-decoration:none;font-size:20px;letter-spacing:0.5px;\"\u003eBuy A Fine City, £12.99\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size:14px;color:#787368;\"\u003eWas £19.99. Instant download, free updates for life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;font-size:14px;color:#787368;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublished by Roots \u0026amp; Routes.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Roots \u0026 Routes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57959613235582,"sku":"RR-NOR-001","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/t-e-x-t_-t-o_-i-m-a-g-e-6d16296f-bc8f-4ba8-8c7b-dd9513509404.png?v=1788429750","url":"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/products\/a-fine-city-norwich","provider":"Roots \u0026 Routes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}