Norwich Avenue

When Spotswood was developed in the 1970s and its streets named, there was a fashion to source street names in old Plymouth. The original Norwich Avenue is a pleasant street lined with Plane trees. Presumably its name is borrowed from the English city.

Norwich straddles the River Wensum. The regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk, Norwich is promoted as a vibrant and attractive city, and a hotbed for the arts, culture and music. It boasts a Norman Cathedral and a 12th Century Castle, as well as an open-air market. The city's medieval centre of cobbled streets remains largely intact.

The University of East Anglia is located there. Students and tourists alike should find it reassuring that Norwich is in the county with the lowest crime rate in the whole of England. The football team is Norwich City.

There is a breed of terrier named for Norwich. While small and friendly dogs, their coats require regular maintenance.  In fact the breed has two coats - a harsh, wiry topcoat and a soft warm undercoat. A process called stripping, which involves pulling the oldest hairs from the coat, is needed to  keep the coat looking good, with the correct range of colours, as well as keeping the coat healthy. The breed was the mascot of Cambridge students.

Norwich once had three railway stations. East Anglia's worst rail crash occurred at Thorpe St Andrew between Norwich and Brundall in 1874, killing 25 people and injuring 75.

Norwich was the home town of England’s first black circus entrepreneur, Pablo Fanque. You may recall his name from an obscure lyric in the Beatles’ song being for the benefit of Mr Kite: “The Hendersons will all be there; Late of Pablo Fanque’s fair. What a scene!”

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.