Geograph - photograph every grid square

Kett's Heights > Link is one of the hidden gems of the city of Norwich, with its only access being an iron gate (open during the day) located about half-way up Ketts Hill, adjacent to the former Mount Zion church. In the 12th century, the area was covered in dense woodland when Losinga, the first bishop of Norwich, had a clearing made at the top for the construction of a priory and a chapel > Link. The chapel, founded outside the precinct wall of St Leonard's Priory, was dedicated to St Michael and is described as having been about 42ft (13 metres) long and about 18ft (5.50 metres) wide and of oblong shape. From its western end it was possible to look across the city of Norwich below, views which can still be enjoyed today although the city has much changed since. By the time Robert Kett > Link and his army camped on Kett's Heights in 1549 during their siege of the city, the chapel was, however, no longer in use and Kett used the ruins as his headquarters. In the 19th century the ruined chapel was known as'Kett's Castle' or 'Old Father Tyme' because the ruins of the north and west walls resembled the face of an old man when seen at a distance. A substantial part of the chapel's north wall is still standing.

A garden is first documented to have been laid out in the 1830s by William Tadman > Link the then superintendent of the newly established gas works at the bottom of Gas Hill, of which Kett's Heights then formed part. The terraces, walls and steps > Link were constructed of materials from the gas works and they were still in place in the 1940s (as indeed they still are today), by which time the gardens had been transformed into allotments. Pigs were kept in a ruined stable block > Link located about half way up the hill, an adjacent concrete-lined pond > Link served for watering the livestock, and a water tank was situated further up, by the boundary wall. Part of the allotment gardens had been planted as an orchard, where pear and apple trees also grew. Greenhouses had been added on to the chapel ruin.

The narrow paths, interspersed by flights of steps, wind their ways up the hill to the highest point, where St Michael's chapel stood. A few metres to the north-west stands a beacon > Link which can be seen from the city when lit. After the war the site was neglected and soon became overgrown, and eventually forgotten. In 1970, an anonymous donor gifted it to the council, and the paths and steps were cleared and reclaimed from nature. This work was carried out by the Norwich Wildlife Group, workers on the Manpower Services Commission Community Programme, and members of the public. When completed, the site was opened to the public on 30 April 1988. Today, the Friends of Kett's Heights are looking after it, in cooperation with the Norwich Wildlife Group.

Created: Sat, 6 Jul 2019, Updated: Tue, 9 Jul 2019