CHAPTER ONE

Instructional Voice:
We are at the foot of Norwich Castle on Castle Meadow. Use the map to follow the route along the red line. Click on red pins for the story and blue pins for augmented reality. The augmented reality is discoverable at the points on the map. Cross the road carefully at the pedestrian crossing and then walk down the slope of Arcade Street. In front of the Royal Arcade turn right onto Castle Street and proceed.

Imogen:
Somewhere here, not far from you, a river is flowing underground.

It wasn’t always hidden. Five hundred years ago the Great Cockey curled in view of the castle, and guided the steps of the people of Norwich just as the road guides yours today. It must have seemed immovable back then, irrefutable.

I wish I could describe this river for you, but I can’t. That is, I can describe it many ways but they are all invented. I could conjure up a fresh bright stream where livestock drank and wild garlic grew beneath the willow trees. I could tell you it was foul and stinking, that the city’s roaming hogs drowned in it, and rotted, until their bloated bellies brought them surfacewards again. Is that more accurate? It chimes better with our current taste for filth and pungency, the idea that any authentic past must have stunk to high heaven.

I can imagine so many different versions of how the Great Cockey might have been, and none of them are real. And yet it exists: at this very moment you walk with streams rushing below you, not lost but hidden, a hum of story beneath your own. Unseen as it might be, and half-remembered, the river guides your steps now: as you walk to our next destination, you are walking the ancient course of a river.

In the summer of 1468, a woman’s body was brought to Norwich. She had died aged 32, having dedicated the last years of her life to the Carmelite Friary in which she would now be buried. Her name was Lady Eleanor Talbot. She was the sister of the Duchess of Norfolk, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and she was pivotal to the succession of the English throne. And yet nobody seems to have heard of her.

Think of this walk as a pilgrimage. We will visit the burial place of Eleanor Talbot, and contemplate the relics of medieval Norwich – the walls Eleanor might have touched; the sights she might have seen. We will try to retrieve her memory.

Instructional voice:
At the junction of Castle Street and London Street you will find the first augmented reality point. Click on blue pin 1 on the map and allow access to your camera. Pointing your camera at the tree and circular bench, what can you see?

Chapter Two