The Heartsease is a

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States ...

located in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and takes its name from the

heartsease ''Viola tricolor'' is a common European wild flower, growing as an annual or short-lived perennial. The species is also known as wild pansy, Johnny Jump up (though this name is also applied to similar species such as the yellow pansy), heartsea ...

, a common

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

wild flower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the w ...

Location

The estate is approximately north-east of the city centre and is bounded by Heartsease Lane to the west, Woodside Road to the east, Plumstead Road B1140 and Salhouse Road form the southern and northern boundaries respectively.

History

Heartsease estate was originally agricultural land close to

Mousehold Heath Mousehold Heath is a freely accessible area of heathland and woodland which lies to the north-east of the medieval city boundary of Norwich, in eastern England. The name also refers to the much larger area of open heath that once extended f ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century it was used by the

Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

as a drill ground. In October, 1914 it was taken over by the Royal Flying Corps to become RAF Mousehold Heath. By 1933, it became the first

Norwich Airport Norwich Airport is an international airport in Hellesdon, Norfolk, England, north of Norwich. In 2017, Norwich Airport was the 28th busiest airport in the UK and busiest in the East Anglia region. Norwich Airport has a CAA Public Use Aero ...

, however by

WW2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

it had fallen into disuse. Several local companies manufacturing

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

were based at the aerodrome including Boulton and Paul. Work began building the estate after WW2 and was completed by the mid-1950s. Much of the housing is

terraced In agriculture, a terrace is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming. This type of landscaping is therefore ...

, mixed with two-storey blocks of

flats Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

and

maisonettes An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

. With the addition of three tower blocks built in the 1960s and some infilling in the subsequent years.

St Francis church

The church is dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and was designed by J P Chaplin and opened in 1957. Located in the centre of the estate at Rider Haggard Road, the church frontage is adorned with a bronze sculpture depicting St Francis.

Schools

Heartsease High School was part of the original design for the estate and was later replaced by the Open Academy which relocated to new buildings in September 2010 at the cost of £21 million.

Amenities

Amenities on the estate included shopping parades, two churches, schools,

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

(closed) and essential services.

Notable people

* Stuart Ashen, comedian, reviewer of mostly low-quality products, writer, actor, animator and internet personality.IMDb Stuart Ashen
Retrieved 31 March 2015

References

{{Coord, 52.643, 1.334, display=title Areas of Norwich Norwich Housing estates in England