Magpie Road
I am probably giving away too much about where I live in Norwich by writing about this, but that’s probably going to be hard to avoid. Near to me is a part of the old city wall, complete with part of a tower, which was revealed some years ago by the demolition of the old Magpie Printers building.
I was pleased to read in the EDP last week that there’s going to be a nice public space in front of the wall. As at the time of writing, there’s an iron fence and a gate in front of it, and I have felt for a while that it’s a bit of a wasted opportunity. The city walls of Norwich are not listed buildings as is frequently the case; they come under a much more long established regime. For all of you law geeks out there (and why wouldn’t you be a law geek, if you’re reading this blog?) scheduled monuments have been a part of English law since the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 (the Marquess of Salisbury’s government, if you’re interested).
The Norwich City Walls were not on the original list, such an accolade being reserved for prehistoric sites such as Avebury, Stonehenge and the like. These days, the law on Scheduled Monuments is covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. Basically, the Secretary of State decides what goes on the list (there are criteria to follow); at the moment it’s the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
I don’t pretend to know exactly how government responsibilities are dished out, but it looks like at the moment it’s John Whittingdale MP (Secretary of State) who has overall control, with the assistance of Ed Vaizey MP (Minister for the Arts). If the site is on the list, there are quite heavy restrictions on what you can do with the property. For a start, it’s a criminal office (with a penalty of an unlimited fine) to carry out most works to the property (including demolition).
The Secretary of State has to give consent for most works, with the help of Historic England (unlike planning permission which is dealt with locally). For anyone interested in the archaeology/history of the city walls, who perhaps think that they could be Indiana Jones if only they could find the right hat, a summary of the survey of the whole city walls by Purcell Miller Triton can be found here . It’s nice that this small part of the old walls at Magpie Road are going to now be made use of.
David Richards 25/01/16