The Aylsham Snail Trail

The Town Hall, built in 1857 and extended in 189, is one of the most recognisable buildings in Aylsham. It was originally built as a Corn Hall.

This building was at the centre of the site of the Angel Inn in the 16th Century. It became Starling’s Ironmongers and the Cellar beneath the shop was home to basket makers. The opera singer Kathleen Destournel lived here.

The site originally had two medieval timber framed buildings which was subdivided into 2 properties in the 19th centuryIt is best remembered as Clarke’s hardware store.

The North Norfolk Supply Stores - a department store -was named after Henry Page who founded the shop in the 1880s. Giant lettering on the front of the shop dominated the market square. Joseph Thomas Clover, a pioneering anesthetist was born close to this site in 1825

It is likely that beer selling was going on here since Henry VIII and possibly even earlier. This coaching inn on the route between Cromer and Norwich had stabling for 40 horses.

The Laxen family ran this shop as a Saddle and Harness Makers until the early 1920s. Richard Arthur Laxen emigrated to Canada and was one of the founding members of Aylsham in Saskatchewan.

This building was used, from 1836, as a chemist shop. The strange model above the shop front is actually an apothecary’s still and was a trade sign.

In 1372, Lord of the Manor, John of Gaunt, provided money to the villagers of Aylsham for the building of a large new church. dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels, which was built on the site of an earlier much smaller church.

This building was built in 1890 by Benjamin Cooke, a miller in the town, for the grand sum of £400 and was donated to the church and used as the Parish room.

The pub on this site was initially known as The Globe. It took the name The Red Lion in 1701 giving the name to the road it stands on which had previously been known as Market Street, George street or Bull Street. It closed in 1972.

A mill has probably stood on this site since Saxon times and it is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086. The Parmeter family owned the watermill for many years from 1771 to the middle of the 19th century. It was finally vacated in 1967 and has now been converted into private houses.

Staithe is a Norse word for a landing stage and it was the area of warehouses and storage used for goods arriving at, and leaving from, the Basin carried by Wherries. The MNGN railway – opened in 1883- ran just a short distance from here with trains running to the Midlands and through to Great Yarmouth.

The recreation Ground and Pavilion in Aylsham were given to the town by the Goulder family as a memorial to their three fallen sons lost in the first world war.

This site was home to a pub called “The Bull” which was later converted into the town Gaol or Bridewell. It was a ‘house of correction’ for vagrants but became a prison for short-term sentences for minor offences, anti-social behaviour.

The railway opened here on 1st January 1880 and in 948, the station was officially renamed “Aylsham South” The Line closed to passenger traffic in 1952.

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The Aylsham Roman Project, a community-orientated organisation, has uncovered remains of Roman kilns and settlement on this site.

Aylsham Union Workhouse was built in 1849, served 46 parishes and was designed to house over 600 inmates, although it rarely housed more than 150. The Cottage Hospital, or to use its full title “The Aylsham And District War Memorial Cottage Hospital” opened here in 1956.

The Drill Hall was a busy place and provided food, shelter and a meeting place for troops billeted in the town in WWII.

County cinema was opened in September 1937 by Lady Walpole and the big picture was “Rhodes of Africa”. The Cinema closed in September 1960, and reopened again as a youth centre in 1965.

The pump was opened on Thursday 29th May 1913 as a memorial to John Soame (1834-1910), who served on the Parish Council.

During the reign of Edward III, it was ordered that archery must be practised on Sundays. The Buttlands/Buttslands were used to enable every man and boy to practice archery regularly.