Colney
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| Colney (pronounced 'Coney') is a small village which lies 3 miles west of
Norwich. It stands on higher
ground above the River Yare and historically was little
more than a cluster of cottages and a Saxon round-towered flint
church. Today, there are still relatively few houses but
the village is home to the Norwich Science Park (The Food
Research Institute and the John Innes), the BUPA
hospital, the new Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and the
Norwich City Football Club training ground. The link
with the football club is commemorated on the village
sign
Colney Village Sign
(with NCFC logo)
The village, as it existed in the nineteenth century,
is beautifully captured in Percy Lubbock's memoir
Earlham (1922). Lubbock, who later in life
became an art critic and biographer, grew up at
Earlham Hall. (The hall is now
occupied by the University of East Anglia's law school.)
St. Andrew's Church, Colney In chapter 9 he describes
the village and the church:
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| 'Then we wander on
towards Colney (be sure to call it Co'ney), which is
upon higher ground and is rather more of a village than
Earlham. There were scattered old cottages, red and
grey, with vines and pear-trees trained about their
windows, and presently a big farm to the left of the
road; but especially there was the church-tower, soon in
sight, which was a curiosity we were proud of. It is one
of those round towers of flint, smooth and bare, that
are not uncommon in East Anglia, I know; but to our eyes
it was rare and strange, and it gave character to a
village that otherwise hadn't really very much.' |
In chapter 10 - he describes how Colney was at the edge
of his known universe as a child:
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| 'Yet the village
of Colney always seemed to me slightly foreign and
strange. It lay upon the very limit of our ordinary
beat; our straggling walks took us no further out into
the world in that quarter, as it happened. The road ran
on, but so much had always delayed us by the way, in a
short mile or so, that it was time to turn round and go
home; beyond Colney was the unknown, and Colney itself,
I felt was never completely mine.' |
Above the church porch there is a fascinating memorial
stone to a waggoner called John Fox who lost his life
when his horses bolted.
In Memory of John Fox
The final section wisely states: 'If thou drivest a team
be careful & endanger not the Life of another or thine
own.'
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Links:
Read Earlham Online |
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More photographs of Colney |
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism