Ignite Plumbing & Heating
500 Years of Plumbing History Within 5 Miles of Norwich
From the Romans at Caistor St Edmund to Victorian sewers under Tombland — the extraordinary plumbing history on our doorstep.
Caistor St Edmund — Roman water infrastructure
Just 3 miles south of Norwich city centre, the Roman town of Venta Icenorum (now Caistor St Edmund) featured a sophisticated water supply system. Excavations have revealed lead pipe sections, a public bathhouse, and evidence of a pressurised distribution network serving the town's estimated 2,000–3,000 inhabitants.
Medieval Norwich — the Wensum as water source
Medieval Norwich drew water from the River Wensum via a series of conduits. The Great Hospital on Bishopgate (founded 1249) had its own water supply pipe — one of the earliest examples of piped water supply in England outside London.
The New Mills waterworks
Built in 1430, the New Mills on the Wensum pumped water to a lead cistern near the market place, from which it was distributed around the city. This system, remarkable for its age, served Norwich for nearly 300 years.
Victorian sanitation crisis
Like all Victorian cities, Norwich faced a sanitation crisis as its population exploded in the 19th century. Typhoid and cholera outbreaks in the 1830s and 1840s prompted the construction of a modern sewerage system. The brick-lined sewers beneath Tombland and Magdalen Street date from the 1850s — and some are still in use.
The Waterworks Company
Norwich's first dedicated waterworks company was established in 1852, pumping water from Mousehold Heath. The pumping station built on Lakenham Road in 1882 used Cornish beam engines and served the city until 1938. The building survives.