Although Dragon Hall dates back nearly 600 years, there is very little documented about the people who lived here.
What we do have is publicly available census records from 1841 citing the names, approximate ages and trades of people who lived in the building and its nearby Yards—Old Barge and St Ann’s. But there isn’t much more than that available. Prior to 1841, archaeologists and historians have pieced together Dragon Hall’s story from evidence found on the walls of the building, in the ground, and other civic records which tell us the general narrative of what life was like here after the Middle Ages—a period known as the Renaissance.
The Dragon Hall Heritage Volunteers are an invaluable source of information in this respect, pooling their collective knowledge to share and preserve the centuries of heritage you are standing on and fill in the gaps. In truth there is a period of around 300 years which we know very little about. Franca’s poem is a creative response to this idea of missing history, and an ode to the voices of the people who do not appear in the history books. The Missing Bits has multiple voices, how many identities can you pull out?
The Missing Bits
Where have they gone?
Where are we in history?
The Old Barge was my home,
My boys were born here
And their boys and girls were born here
Our joys, laughter and tears
Are in the walls of the Old Barge.
Why am I not remembered?
Where is my lovely wallpaper?
With which I adorned my bridal chamber?
It is a priceless piece of my history
What was my offence in history?
That I am so violently torn and scraped away.
Why am I not remembered?
I watched with great excitement and trepidation
as excavators and archaeologists
Tore away layers upon layers of history,
Of my dwelling at the Old Barge.
The joinings have been moved
I am inconsolable until my story is told
The dragon incomplete remains
And waits for the return of her sister dragons.
I am inconsolable; you may hear of hauntings and ghost stories
I am mourning, searching and restoring; my footprints,
my history has been violently scraped away.
And so, I hold on to the sister dragons until my place is found
In the history of Dragon Hall.
About the author
Franca Akue is a Lawyer and a postgraduate of the School of Global Studies at the University of East Anglia.
A Tapestry of Tales
Who lived at Dragon Hall? What have these old walls witnessed? Whose story hasn’t yet been told? These are the questions that formed the foundation of a project undertaken by the Story Makers, a group of a participants that generously gave their time and skills to discover, share and celebrate Dragon Hall’s heritage.
Combining historical research and creative practice, the Story Makers spent ten sessions engaging with Dragon Hall and the surrounding King Street area in a variety of ways, before using their creative skills to produce personal interpretations of the history they uncovered.
From poems to pamphlets, videos to pop-up books, we invite you to explore their work in our digital collection.
Stepping into Dragon Hall is made possible by Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Norwich Freemen’s Charity and Wolfson Foundation.
