The Norwich Society

Events TALKS

TALK Manifestations of Madness at the Norfolk Asylum by Julie Jakeway

  • Thu 25 Apr 2024
  • Open to all
  • The Forum, Millennium Plain, NR2 1TF
  • 10:30 am
  • £8.00 non-members / £4.00 members

A look at life within Norfolk County Lunatic Asylum in the years 1851 - 1870, including case studies of women whose lives, through poverty, debility, and physical exhaustion, brought them to the asylum for a period of refuge.


Julie Jakeway was educated at Carew School, Ealing. An MA in local history from Leicester University stimulated her interest in Victorian asylums, her dissertation being on the subject of Norfolk Asylum. Her subsequent research into the personal histories of many of the patients led to the publication of her book, Manifestations of Madness.

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TALK Balloon Mania in Norwich 1784-1840 by Ian Smith

  • Thu 23 May 2024
  • Open to all
  • The Forum, Millennium Plain, NR2 1TF
  • 10:30 am
  • £8.00 non-members / £4.00 members

The appearance in Norwich from 1784 of balloons filled with hot-air, later with hydrogen and much later with coal gas was greeted with growing enthusiasm among the population which quickly developed into ‘balloon mania’. This talk will examine the impact of balloon mania on city life and how these early balloon ascents rarely went smoothly. It will identify some of the worst mishaps and also look at how hoaxers took advantage of the often-credulous population

Since completing a post-retirement BA and MA at the UEA, Ian Smith has pursued his special interest in Georgian Norwich.

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