One of the oldest streets in Norwich, Elm Hill retains all of its Tudor character to the present day. Largely rebuilt following the great fire of 1507 many of the buildings in the street are genuine Tudor houses. There are, in fact, more Tudor houses in Elm Hill than there are in the whole of the City of London! But behind the beauty of the Hill lies stories of death, horror and religious fervour.

Elm Hill.

When the great fire of 1507 broke out a family living in one of the houses was trapped upstairs. The husband managed to open one of the bedroom windows and lower his wife and children to safety. However, before he was able to make his own escape he was overcome by the smoke and choked to death. His charred body was found in the upstairs room when the fire had finally been brought under control.

A rebuilding programme was undertaken and new houses soon occupied the old plots. The owners of the new houses built where the husband had died soon began to report strange noises and footsteps coming from the room upstairs. Today the building is the Strangers Club and the upstairs room is used as a snooker room. Even now, when the club has closed and all the members have left, staff will often hear the sound of ghostly footsteps walking on the wooden floor upstairs. Whenever they go up to investigate they find only an empty room.

Just across the street in Wrights Court stands an antiques shop which is often visited by another ghostly presence. In the late 1800s an outbreak of diphtheria hit the City coinciding with a strike by local gravediggers. Bodies were being piled up at the back of courtyards to await burial including the yard at Wrights Court. By the time the gravediggers went back to work there were eight bodies piled on top of each other in the Court. However when they came to collect them only seven remained. The body of an old lady had vanished, apparently, into thin air.

Elm Hill.

The owners of the antiques shop will tell you of the shadowy figure they often see walk past their shop window when they are in the back room. The door will open, the bell will ring and they will hear footsteps wandering around on the shop's wooden floor. However, when they come to investigate the shop is always empty, is it just the old lady returning?

Towards the top of Elm Hill the door to an old monastery remains. Set up by Father Ignatius in 1694 the monastery soon became a talking point of the City. Ignatius was a real Hellfire and Brimstone preacher often accosting people as they passed his door with threats of eternal damnation if they didn't follow his religious code. A woman who passed his door became involved in an argument at the end of which he cursed her, a few steps down the Hill she fell down dead. Some months later two gardeners involved in a dispute with him were both found dead in their beds on the same morning. A mob intent on forcing him to flee the City came to the monastery at night with lit torches intending to burn him out. However, as they rounded the corner of Elm Hill a torrential downpour extinguished their torches.

Finally the local people managed to force him out of the City to which he was never to return, or at least not while he was alive. Following his death, however, there have been several sightings of him wandering up and down Elm Hill carrying his big black Bible still cursing people as they pass by. For such a short street, Elm Hill certainly has more than its fair share of ghosts.

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This ghostly tale has kindly been provided by Ghostly Dave - visit his Norwich Ghost Walk website here.