Research your home in Norwich

This guide describes some specific sources available for tracing the history of a property in Norwich.

It should be used in conjunction with our guide Tracing the History of Your House which offers more general advice.

Most British houses started being numbered with the introduction of the Postage Act of 1765. House numbering in Norwich is recorded as early as 1783 but it did not become widespread until the 19th Century, so you may need to identify your property in relation to other buildings around it.

The earliest maps of Norwich held by the NRO date from the 16th Century. Use the 'Maps' search facility on NROCAT to locate them.

The Norfolk Heritage Centre at the Millennium Library in Norwich has good collection of printed plans for Norwich (see the  Norfolk Heritage Centre Norwich Map Index (PDF) [386KB] for details)

N/EN 12 Building Control Plans and Indexes, Jul 1877-1989:

The building control plans commence in 1877 and include plans of new developments such as houses, cinemas, public houses and the like and plans of additions or alteration to existing properties, for example the alteration of shop fronts and windows and the construction of garages, outhouses, and so on.

Indexes were compiled by the City Engineer's Department, and these are listed at N/EN 12/2, although in many cases the title of the plan and the index entry are not sufficient to properly identify the property today.

Planning applications are held for 1949-76, 1980-6 (see list N/P 2).

Building control plans, 1877-1933 (part) are indexed on the online catalogue. After this, the catalogue only gives plan reference numbers, so you will need to consult the finding aids available in the search room for these very large series:

• Indexed registers to building control plans, 1893-1952 (see list N/EN 31, available on microfilms MF 977-978)
• Indexes to building control plans, 1877-1927, 1937-66 (see list N/EN 12/2). A typescript list and index of plans, 1877-94, is available on the search room shelves with list N/EN 12.
• Indexed registers to planning applications, 1949-74 (available on microfilms MF/X/281-283).

For indexes after these dates, contact CNC Building Control Consultancy and Norwich City Council's Planning Department.
We have only a selection of city building control plans and planning applications from 1967 onwards, but this selection does include the plans of most new buildings.

All plans from May 1967 to the present day (with a very few exceptions) have been microfilmed by Norwich City Council. You can consult microfiche copies of the building control plans by making an appointment at CNC Building Control Consultancy.

For microfiche copies of planning applications, make an appointment with the planning department of Norwich City Council.

The microfiche copies of building control plans numbered 32941- 44825 (May 1967 to March 1974) were filmed with the planning applications and are available at the planning department, rather than at CNC Building Control Consultancy.

N/EN 4/1-240 Air Raid Precautions: Rolled Plans

These plans show air raid shelters, first aid and wardens' posts, fire stations, anti-landing and anti-invasion precautions, etc. Reference to plans 1-240 is by a contemporary manuscript index, N/EN 4/241, to which pencil ticks have been added to show which plans are in the Norfolk Record Office. Tickets should be made out for N/EN 4/ and the number given in the index.

N/HI Norwich City Council: Home Improvement Grant Office 1919-1983

Grants for domestic residential improvements. Due to their bulk, a 10% sample of these files have been kept, with files ending in zero (where surviving) and those relating to buildings in ancient parts of the city retained.

The first council house built in Norwich was on Angel Road in October 1920, with the Mile Cross estate being the first major housing estate built by the Norwich Corporation.

Plans for specific council houses are not usually held but you may find designs for different house types and estate plans in the following series:

• N/EN 7 Plans, City Engineer’s Department, 1766-1987
• N/EN 12 Building Control Plans and Indexes, 1877-1989
• N/EN 24 Deposited Plans of Proposed Streets and Building Programmes, 1876-1954
• N/AR 4 Plans of Areas of Norwich, City Architect’s Department, 1927-1986
• N/AR 7 City Architect’s sketches, 1939-1957

It is quite rare to find architectural drawings for ordinary houses built before the late 19th century. This was when building control regulations required plans for new developments and major alterations to be submitted for approval to the local authority.

Notable collections include:

• ACC 2020/11 and Berry, Crane and Noble 07/12/1993
  Berry, Crane and Noble (formerly Buckingham and Berry) of Norwich, architects: Architectural plans and photographs, mainly mid-late 20th century.
• Norwich Architects department:
  N/AR 4 Plans of Areas of Norwich, including housing estates
  MF 575 Microfilm of Plans of Historic Buildings (City Architect's microfilm no. CA 54), 1921-1992
• Norwich City Council Engineers’ plans, including slum clearances: N/EN 7 (Also see N/TC 53-54 for other records of slum clearances.)
• For property in and around Cathedral Close you should consult the records of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich (DCN).
• Also see the records of Cecil Upcher, architect, who specialised in the repair and restoration of ecclesiastical property, BR 37, 1871-1965

There are a limited number of these for urban areas as ancient cities and boroughs didn’t have tithes.

• DN/TA 887 Norwich St Clement
• DN/TA 983 Norwich St Peter Parmentergate
• DN/TA 984 Norwich St Peter Southgate
• DN/TA 985 Norwich St Julian
• DN/TA 986 Norwich St Etheldreda
• DN/TA 987 Norwich St John Timberhill
• DN/TA 988 Norwich All Saints
• DN/TA 989 Norwich St John Sepulchre

Maps and plans can also be found in the records of private collectors and antiquaries. Good examples include the antiquarian material collected by Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, prince of Lahore, who lived at Elveden in Suffolk and had a passion for the history of the region. DS 183-260 of this collection comprises plans and sale particulars for small estates or developments in Norwich.

Great Hospital estates NCR 4

HNR 721 Norwich Hospital's plan book 17th century-18th century: Plans of estates belonging to the Boy's and Girl's hospitals, St Helen's, Doughtys, City of Norwich, and the Great Hospital.

NCR 16e/1-109 Norwich Corporation Maps and Plans, nd [1767]-1845:

Many of them are plans of proposed public undertakings, such as railways, new waterways and major buildings deposited with the Norwich clerk of the peace (a post held, almost without exception until 1835, by the town clerk of the day). Some are simply plans of estates owned by the corporation or by city charities, but many others appear to relate to proposed speculative developments of Corporation-owned sites in and around Norwich (particularly on the city walls or in the ditch waste outside the walls).

The census returns name the occupants of each house on the night of the census from 1841 onwards. Our guide Tracing Your Family Tree has further information on using and accessing census returns.

Norwich registers of electors, 1920-80, are in N/TC 66 in the online catalogue. Registers of electors for the County are in C/ERO, on microfiche from 1845-1915 and on microfilm from 1918-1974.

The Norfolk Heritage Centre in Norwich also has a series of parliamentary electoral registers from 1834, with gaps. Download a list of the electoral registers held at the Norfolk Heritage Centre (PDF) [57KB].

See Electoral registers and poll books for more information.

The NRO has a good series of poor rate books arranged by ward, but they do not include street names until the 1830s. The location is given after 1835 and from 1855 the arrangement is by street rather than by ratepayers’ name. They list owners and occupiers liable to pay. 

NCR 20c/4-19 Poor Rate Books, Easter 1633-Easter 1680

N/T rate books, include council housing in some of the later volumes:

• N/T 23 Poor and General District Rate Books 1825-1955 (sampled after 1921; first and sixth year of each decade retained)
• N/T 27 General Rate Books 1955-1957
• N/T 33 Parochial Poor Rate assessments 1718-1830

NCR 7k/1-13 National taxes, including Commonwealth subscriptions, Hearth and Poll Tax with other Royal Aids 1588-1702

NCR 23a Land and Window Tax Assessments 1665-1832

Registers of duties on land values, known as Domesday Books, c1910, were prepared by the Inspector of Taxes in accordance with the provisions of the Finance Act 1910, (see list P/DVL), and provide a comprehensive survey of property for a single year. They include a brief description of each property, the names of its owner and occupier and its value. ‘Domesday’ book P/DLV 1, 1910

There are large numbers of title deeds held at NRO, contained within the collections of solicitors and conveyancers. Many of them are unlisted but if you know the name of the firm who dealt with the sale, you can look through the records we hold for them.

• Norwich City Council Town Clerk’s deeds, N/TC D1 & D2, 1551-1976
  Enrolment of deeds and other records in the City Courts, NCR 1, finding aids are the docket books listed in NCR 3e
• There are some enrolled deeds in the records of the Quarter Sessions, in C/Sca 1
• ACC 2005/388 Norwich Survey includes files of record cards, plans and photographs of Norwich buildings (arranged by street) relating to the medieval city and enrolled deeds.
• NCR 4 City title deeds, inherited and deposited wills, and other town-clerk's papers, 1240-1912

You can find a detailed description of property, and sometimes plans or photographs of large or significant buildings, in sale particulars. There is no single collection for these types of records. Search the catalogue using the genre term ‘sale particulars’, plus a key word such as street or parish name.

Picture Norfolk at the Norfolk Heritage Centre, has thousands of photos of Norfolk life and history, showing Norfolk places, people and events from the past 200 years.

George Plunkett's Photographs of Old Norwich online collection of photos, curated by his son, and taken between 1930 and 2006.

Directories, published intermittently for Norfolk from the early 19th century, include the addresses of many private residents and tradesmen. They are selective, but they can help to identify a street in records which do not name them and are also useful to identify when streets were being built . Once you have this information you can then check the relevant dates in the building control plans.

Collections of these publications can be found in the Norfolk Record Office search room library and at the Norfolk Heritage Centre (NHC) in the Millennium Library.

You can find Special Collections Online on the University of Leister website.

The Norfolk Public Houses website has an excellent section on Norwich pubs.