A: Hi, I’m Andrew 

S: and I’m Steph.

A: Welcome to a Christmassy episode about The Norfolk Coach, which was a coach that travelled between Norwich and London at Christmas.

There is a famous 1820 etching of the Norfolk Coach at Christmas made by Robert Seymour, an English artist who illustrated some of Charles Dickens’s novels. The etching humorously depicts a horse-drawn stagecoach being pulled through snowy streets and piled high with hampers, pheasants, turkeys and probably other game being sent from Norfolk to London for the festive market.

S: Dickens is actually among those who wrote of The Norfolk Coach, especially in his novel, David Copperfield.

In a totally separate 19th Century tale the Norfolk Coach at Christmas is also mentioned.

“It was Christmas Season in Legendary Times when a man from Norwich decided to give money to the poor, but he had little knowledge of how to perform his act of charity.

He hired a beggar. After a long talk the rich man had assured himself that the beggar was capable of the deed. They made a list of the needy, but the rich man was still unsure of the beggar’s trustworthiness. As a test the beggar was given a small amount of money and told to wait for the Norfolk Coach to arrive and purchase all the bread, fish, and foul and give it away.

The money was soon gone, but the money did not buy enough for all the names on the list. The beggar returned to the rich man for more money but was refused. When the rich man heard how the beggar solved the dilemma, he rewarded him with double the funds. The moral of the story being that people from Norwich were never selfish, dullards or simple-minded.”