200 Years Ago in Norwich : The Great Cheese Mystery

I really love this article from the Norwich Mercury in January 1825, primarily for the randomness of what happened.

“On Tuesday se’nnight a man and a boy in a blue cart and with a bay horse were observed, about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, to go to the foot of St. James’s-hill, near the barracks, and to throw down the contents of the cart, which they covered with mould, and then went away. Some boys playing near the spot, on the following morning, discovered the articles, which proved to be very old and excellent Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucester, Wiltshire, and Dutch cheeses. In the course of the next day another load was discovered in a gravel-pit on Mousehold. The news of these discoveries soon attracted large parties of persons to the two spots, and the entire quantity of cheese, amounting, it is believed, to between a ton and a ton and a half, very quickly disappeared among the inhabitants of the city adjacent to the places where the cheese was discovered. One person has now cheese in his possession of the value of eight pounds. F. Stevenson and other persons have been making enquiries among the grocers and cheese factors of this city, but no robbery has been committed here which can account for the secretion of so enormous a quantity of this article.”

I love the word ‘sennight’, meaning week or the last seven days. I really struggle to comprehend how nearly a ton and a half of cheese appeared, although I can’t imagine that the owners were too pleased with those boys playing near the spot who found it. I can though imagine the surprise and delight of Norwich residents who went on a cheese hunt to see what they could find themselves. As Wallace said, “we’ll go somewhere where there’s cheese!”