Introduction
St Augustine’s is, arguably, the last parish within Norwich's medieval boundary to retain a distinctive identity. It is, for example, the only area of the city still commonly referred to by its parish name. The reason for this is partly accidental: St Augustine's has always had a marginal feel, cut off by the River Wensum from the main hub of cultural, economic, religious and political activity south of the river; a geographic factor compounded in modern times by the completion of the Inner Ring Road, which cut a swathe through the northern city centre in the late 1960s, effectively cutting off St Augustine's from the main body of Norwich.

St Augustine's distinctive identity is also partly deliberate, for this area has long been regarded as Norwich’s backyard; a part of the city identified in bygone years as Ultra Aquam or Norwich ‘Over-the-Water’. For centuries it has been a place where activities and people found inconvenient or intolerable south of the river have found the space to take
root and grow.

Rus in Urbe - the Countryside in the City
For well over 1,000 years the land now covered by the parish of St Augustine's was primarily used for agriculture: for growing root crops, fruit and grain, and for grazing cattle and sheep. The earliest known settlers here - in the 2nd century AD, during the Roman occupation of Britain - were almost certainly farmers. This occupation lasted until well into the 19th century when St Augustine’s was the last parish within the city's medieval boundary to still have substantial plots of land in use for growing food on a commercal basis in nurseries and orchards. Even today the name of a modern housing scheme in the parish, The Lathes, borrrows that of a farm worked here over
600 years ago.

Trade and Industry
Co-existing alongside its more rural aspects
St Augustine's has also been home to some of Norwich’s chief trades and industries, including metal working, brewing, weaving, dyeing, boot and shoe making and even banking.

In late Saxon times it is thought that East Anglia's first mint may have been established near here, north of the river, producing coins for King Aethelstan I, while evidence of iron smelting being carried on here in the early Middle Ages has been uncovered in the Botolph Street area.

Whilst St Augustine's has long been hard-working and industrious, it has never been either fashionable or rich. In the 16th and 17th centuries many people, including economic migrants and religious refugees from France and the Low Countries, known collectively as the 'Strangers', found homes and work here, mainly in the worsted-weaving trade where they introduced new skills and techniques known as the 'New Draperies' which helped ensure Norwich's textile trade's economic survival for another two centuries.

In 1775 brothers John and Henry Gurney, members of the famous Norfolk Quaker family that produced the prison reformer Mrs Elizabeth Fry, opened the first ever branch of Gurneys Bank in Pitt Street (or Tooley Street as it was then known). Their bank was a direct ancestor of the international banking giant, Barclays. Later the area was home to several of Norwich's celebrated silk shawl manufacturers and later still to a number of large boot and shoe factories,
all now gone.

A Place of Refuge for Religious Minorities

Sport and other Revels

Red Steeplers - then and now and yet to be
Three centuries ago, St Augustine's church, with its distinctive red brick tower, earned its parishioners their proud nickname 'Red Steeplers'. Today the
St Augustine's Community Together group is working to promote St Augustine's proudly distinctive character as a great place to live, work and play by conserving, cherishing and celebrating its heritage and by helping to build a safe and sustainable community for future generations of Red Steeplers.