200 Years Ago in Norwich : Papered Pane Cut on Magdalen Street

In the latest in my riveting series of posts from 200 years ago, this was published in the Norwich Mercury in January 1824.

“On Monday evening some person or persons cut a hole in a papered pane of the shop window of Mr Steward’s repository, in Magdalen Street, and took through the same three bottles in japan ink. A similar trick was played a week or two since at the window of Mr Brown, baker, of the same street.”

I hadn’t heard of papered panes before, although having thoroughly researched the matter (looked briefly on Google), they seem to have been relatively common and were also a feature in the early United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greased_paper_window) for those who couldn’t afford glass or weren’t able to have anyone nearby who had the skills to make it. Indeed, glass windows in residential properties wasn’t much of a thing for the poorer classes until the early seventeenth century. Having paper windows certainly feels rather sub-optimal though, not least because some pesky people cut through them to steal stuff.

Anyway, I digress, more interesting posts to come.