Norwich is a city of superlatives. In the Middle Ages it was England's largest walled city and today it boasts more surviving medieval churches than any town in Europe. Moreover, during the 17th and 18th centuries it was recognized as Britain's richest provincial city. In this book Brian Ayers shows how it has developed over the past 1000 years from the small villages on the banks of the Wensum. Part of the English Heritage series in which leading archaeologists and historians bring the past to life by interpreting the greatest historic monuments in which Britain is so rich, the book highlights the Norman castle, the 11th-century cathedral, the numerous medieval churches, the architectural evidence of Jacobean and Georgian prosperity and the buildings of the great Victorian industries. The book stresses the social and economic development of the city as well as its physical growth.