Displaying items by tag: Maids Head Hotel - All Things Norfolk

Leap Year brings with it the gift of an extra day, a bonus 24 hours that needs to be celebrated. Not only that, those born on the 29th of February have a rare opportunity to celebrate their birthdays. Imagine a birthday that arrives only once every four years. This demands recognition and the opportunity to celebrate with loved ones.

For centuries, Leap Year has also been seen as the chance for females to propose to their partners. Legend has it that St Bridget, a 5th century nun, made a deal with the patron saint of Ireland St Patrick. They agreed that women could propose to men on this day every four years! So let’s celebrate birthdays, new engagements or simply just the fact there is the gift of an extra day in this year’s calendar and let’s really make it count!

The Maids Head is committed to transforming Thursday, 29th February 2024 into a memorable day, and our Stay and Dine sleep offer is set to make it truly exceptional.

The Maids Head Hotel in Tombland, Norwich, is the new permanent home for The Norwich Panorama, created by John Moray-Smith in the mid 1940s for Morgans Brewery.

The Norwich Society acquired the Panorama in 2016 to both save and restore the panel. The magnificent 2.5 metre by 1.5 metre panel is now on display next to the entrance to the Maids Head's Wine Press Restaurant.

The three-dimensional panel depicts the view of Norwich from St James Hill. It was commissioned by Morgans Brewery for the Cock Inn on King Street. Following the Inn’s closure in the mid 1970s, the panel was moved to Caistor Hall Hotel, where at some point after 2010 it was damaged and placed into storage. The Norwich Society bought the panel in 2016, and with the support of the Paul Bassham Charitable Trust, the John Jarrold Trust and the Norwich Heritage Fund, paid for its restoration.

The Maids Head Hotel, in Tombland Norwich, has acquired a rare 1950 Bentley Mark 6, left hand drive convertible, with a Park Ward body. Only four of this particular model were made and only two survive. 

The Mark 6 was Bentley's first post war luxury car and was manufactured between 1947 and 1952.

This is the hotel's second classic car; earlier this year a 1963 Bentley S3 was purchased and has proved very popular, taking hotel guests on chauffeur driven explorations of the city. The bride and groom at weddings hosted by the hotel are also able to take a spin in the Bentley, with resident chauffeur Dave Currums, and have photographs taken at Pull's Ferry, at St James Hill, overlooking the Anglican Cathedral and the city centre and in the Market, buying an ice cream.

‘Matthew Shardlake’ (Paul Dickson) and Maids Head Hotel General Manager, Christine Malcolm unveiled a plaque outside the hotel on Friday, August 2 to celebrate the Maids Head appearing in CJ Sansom’s best-selling novel Tombland.
 
Tombland is the seventh in CJ Sansom’s series of historical novels featuring Tudor lawyer Matthew Shardlake. In the book, he heads to Norwich to look into the circumstances of a horrific murder and stays at the Maids Head, before getting engulfed in Kett’s Rebellion in the summer of 1549.     
 
“We have been offering a special Shardlake’s Norwich package since February,” said Christine Malcolm. “Guests on the package are given a copy of Tombland and have the option of booking a Shardlake tour with our resident tour guide, Paul Dickson.”
 
“The package has proved very popular, with Shardlake fans heading to Norwich from all over the UK, “ continued Christine. “We have even had visitors from Norway who love the series. It’s the first visit to Norwich for many of our Shardlake guests and the feedback that we get is that they love the city and can’t wait to return.”

Staff at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich are celebrating today, having won two awards at the 2019 Norfolk and Suffolk Tourism Awards, staged on Thursday night, at Open in Norwich.

The hotel picked up Best Independent Hotel, along with the Investing in the Future accolade. The wins at the Tourism Awards follows hot on the heels of last November's Best Employer win at the Norfolk Business Awards.

Christine Malcolm, General Manager said: “We have been privately owned by the Chaplin family for the last six years. During that time we have embarked on a phased multi million pound renovation programme to ensure that the historic building meets the expectations of 21stcentury visitors" 

The Maids Head Hotel in Tombland, Norwich, has achieved a Four Star Silver Award, for the first time, in its 2018 AA overnight inspection. The hotel's Wine Press Restaurant has retained its Two AA Rosettes for culinary excellence. The Maids Head is the only hotel in the City of Norwich with a Four Star Silver Award.

The Maids Head's Silver Award was secured thanks to an increase in the AA merit score to 83% and acknowledges the quality of the hotel's physical attributes. The Silver Award is given to highly recommended hotels and was introduced in 2015. 

A framed Edwardian watercolour of the exterior of the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, painted by Walter Hayward-Young in 1908 for a series of postcards of the hotel, has been discovered in a loft in Surrey.
 
Graham O’Connell, who lives in Frimley Green, Surrey, bought the painting 20 years ago in Camberley, along with a number of other paintings, drawings and documents. He was tidying up items in his loft, found the painting and decided to offer it to the Maids Head.

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