|
The parish of St Michael at Thorn lies in the south of
the mediaeval city of Norwich. The parish is centered on Ber Street which
runs from the city centre to the former Ber Strete Gate and thence to
the south-east. Like most Norwich parishes the church served a very compact
area surrounded by the other parishes of the area. St Michael's parish
largely consisted of a short stretch of Ber street and the steeply descending
streets towards the River Wensum. The area was characterised by manufacturing
and trade with a substantial contingent of weavers.
St Michael's church was, unfortunately, a victim of enemy action during
the second World War; the church took a direct hit from a bomb and was
so damaged that a decision was taken not to preserve what remained. In
the 1960s it was still possible to see chunks of flintwork from the church
but even these have been removed by later development. There are a few
surviving images - notably on George Plunkett's site
- these show a fairly typical flint church largely Perpendicular in style
but topped off with a curiously slim tower. All is sadly now lost.
With the destruction of the church unfortunately came an equally sad loss
for genealogists; the parish registers were in the church on that sad
day when bombs struck and were destroyed. The only record that survives
is the Bishop's Transcript copies which cover a run from 1813 to 1853.
Indexes indicate that 1865 also survives but this was not present on the
appropriate fiche. The Bishop's Transcripts are always of a poor standard
of preservation and those for St Michael at Thorn are rather poor even
by those standards. The period 1837 to 1841 in particular is almost wholly
faded and most entries in that period are largely guesswork and should
be treated as such. The whole set is probably the hardest record set to
transcribe yet attempted and comes with an accuracy health warning. Mistakes
will have occurred in the preparation of this transcript and there may
be many. You have been warned.
|
