1977 Plan of Bowthorpe Shopping Centre Photograph in Frame
An interesting copy of a 1977 plan of the first phase of the main shopping centre of Bowthorpe estate. Located to the north of Bowthorpe Hall, the main shopping centre of the new development was designed to be a focal point of the three villages of the wider Bowthorpe estate. Each of the villages (Thee Score, Chapel Break and Clover Hill) was designed to be a self-contained village with primary schools, local shops and village hall, with an employment area to the northwest.
The centre of the Bowthorpe estate is shown in this plan with a main store (originally Sainsburys now Roy’s), with smaller adjoining shops forming a mall with a petrol station to the north. With future development noted in this plan of additional shops (which have now been built), a pub (which has been built in a slightly different location ‘The Norkie’), a medical centre (now built as the Bowthorpe Medical Centre) and a church (which is built further to the south as Bowthorpe Church Centre).
Heritage and Archaeology is the study of the human experience through the environment we form; be it historic churches, historic villages, to the wide landscape we form such as the Norfolk broads. This map helps show an interesting time period of confident formation of place which are relevant to today as the Bowthorpe Estate is still being developed through the continuation of the Three Score development.
It is not only an interesting insight into the post 1950’s development of Norwich, it also remains an active area of study for planning and anthropologists in the development of a sense of place and community; what has succeeded and what has failed.
Click below images to enlarge…
Blog by Karl Hanson, Senior Archaeologist at Parker Planning Services
Our Archaeology Services: Archaeology Consultancy & Project Management (parkerplanningservices.co.uk)
