There’s a new walking tour on the scene here in the City of Stories, and for visitors and locals alike it’s a must-try. Introducing Norwich Story Walks! Taking you on an eccentric whirlwind of storytelling across the city, this tour is unlike any other, telling tales of both fact and fiction to bring the history of the city to life. We’re hearing from Siv Sears, Founder of Norwich Story Walks, to find out more.
The aim of Norwich Story Walks is to entertain as well as inform. A Norwich Story Walk uses theatre and storytelling to make tales from the city’s past come to life. People find it hard to hold their attention on a list of dates and events when on a guided tour, but stories draw listeners in and captivate them.
I want people to have fun on my tours – to laugh and feel emotional connections to what they hear, so this has been a key consideration in designing the story walks.
While my character on the Walks is officially beyond time and space, I myself moved to Norwich in 2015 and was immediately taken by how much history it has and how many stories there were emanating from its pores. I moved here to work as a teacher, but I’ve always done a range of other things, too. I think the teaching background helps me to instinctively know how to communicate information to people in a way that holds their attention.
I worked in running escape games from 2018-2020 and loved giving people experiences relating to the history of the area. It was thrilling to be a gamemaster and add drama into people’s enjoyment.
I then saw an advert for somebody to run ghost walks in 2021 and saw off trained actors to get the job. Having done that for a couple of years and seen how much appetite there is, both locally and among visitors for walking tours to explore the city, I decided to go it alone and start Norwich Story Walks.
I’ve deliberately stayed away from ghost stories out of respect for my former employers, but, honestly, there are so many great stories here that you don’t need to bring ghosts into things. The Norwich Weird and Wonderful Story Walk is like a ghost walk with no ghosts – dramatic and entertaining, but ghoul-free!
For summer 2024 there is The Norwich Weird and Wonderful Story Walk, which involves a carefully curated collection of some of the strangest tales connected to this great old city. It’s 90-minutes long and starts from City Hall. We are sometimes able to end at Norwich’s most weird and wonderful bar (can you guess?) – if the walkers elect for it.
Next Spring, the plan is to launch Norwich Her Story Walk, which will look to celebrate the lives and achievements of a bunch of daughters of the city. So much of history focuses on the accomplishments of men, but Norwich has some really prominent women in its history, so we are well placed to focus on the female side of things. The idea gets really good feedback from people who come on The Norwich Weird and Wonderful Story Walk, so I am sure the appetite is there to hear about these women.
Having said that, there is also a Norwich His Story Walk in the works, but the Her Story Walk will come out first.
That’s really tough. There are so many to choose from. I feel like I don’t want to commit… But what I will say is that I love how many of the stories from the city’s past involve people standing up for the masses or for the disadvantaged, whether that is Robert Kett marching his rebels to the city in protest against the loss of common land, or Elizabeth Fry fighting for better prison conditions, or Harriet Martineau advocating for social reform to stem inequality and injustice… and there are even more than that!
I also love the stories related to the city welcoming immigrants and refugees, such as the Strangers or Jewish money lenders, even if the motivation was economic. The city has a past to be proud of and I love being able to bring that to life for visitors and locals alike.
I think the steps of City Hall, overlooking the marketplace as being the absolute centre of the city and a place with a magnificent view – you can see Norwich Castle, Norwich Cathedral (sort of), the Guildhall, the award-winning Norwich Market, varied architecture in the buildings all around there, and you can pick up whatever you fancy from the range of food and drink available under the colourful canopies. So, I’d suggest starting there.
Then it all depends on what you are into – shopping in The Lanes or Chantry Place and Castle Quarter, staying out and watching the world go by from a pub or café on the Market, or maybe going for a wander around the city.
If going for a wander, I’d suggest starting by heading through the Royal Arcade, past the City of Stories artwork and onto the Castle for a bit of exploration, and another great view can be found over at Mousehold Heath. From there, you could head back through the wonderfully independent Norwich Lanes to the marketplace or weave your way past Elm Hill to the Cathedral, or even make a beeline for the River Wensum and follow its banks round past The Cow Tower… there are a bunch of possibilities, and I haven’t even mentioned exceptional spots like Dragon Hall or The Plantation Gardens. Talk about a difficult question!
Why come on a Norwich Story Walk? Because I will have thought all of this through for you and weaved a route through some of it while regaling you with tales that bring the streets to life.
Absolutely, but perhaps in a different way. For locals, I say come and get new eyes on an old city. One of the most common things I hear from locals who come on The Norwich Weird and Wonderful Story Walk is how they have lived here for years, but never seen some of the things they see on the tour. Plenty of people say they had ‘kind of’ heard one or two of the stories, but now have a much better grasp of them and everybody without fail (so far!) has said they have learned something they didn’t know.
There seem to be a fair amount of people who have moved here in recent years, perhaps since the pandemic, who are eager to learn more about all the history they have seen and got them intrigued. Norwich Story Walks are a great way to dig into it all and then be able to walk the streets with a deeper connection to what has gone before.
www.norwichstorywalks.co.uk is the place to go to book on a tour.
You can find my regular public walks listed there at just £10 per person (kids go free), but it’s also possible to book a private tour, which start at £100 for up to 10 people and can be tailored to your group and designed to start and/or finish at locations of your choice, for example I can pick you up from a bar and end you at a restaurant.
I like to try and include some kind of bespoke tale for every private booking, whether it be something that relates to a date like someone’s birthday, themes like an employer/organisation, location relevant to visitors, or something else entirely. It’s another way of making people feel engaged and connected as part of their experience. I’d even hand deliver a dramatic invitation to somebody who is, for example, being given a private tour as a gift experience (for a fee, mind you!).
Oh yeah – gifts! Due to customers asking for them, gift vouchers are also available to buy on the website in case anybody wants to gift a tour – either public or private. I think this is a great idea. It can be so hard to know what to buy people sometimes and so many physical gifts go to waste or don’t hit the mark with the recipient – why not gift an experience instead?
