Mosaic city crest preserved for the future

Conservation work has been carried out to preserve an unusual mosaic crest of Norwich City’s coat-of-arms for the future.

The mosaic, which is made from hundreds of tiny square tiles known as tesserae, used to welcome visitors as part of the Victorian floor decoration in the old entrance area of Norwich Castle.

The conservation work is part of the castle's £13.5m Royal Palace Reborn project.

As well as transforming the Castle’s iconic Keep, the project will see a new entrance door and changes to the reception area, including a new floor.

The museum project team wanted to reuse the mosaic and conserve it as an important link with Norwich Castle’s Victorian transformation from county gaol into a museum.

The conservation work has been completed and it is now in storage before it is reinstalled in a new position in the reception area.

The mosaic was probably installed in the early 1890s when the building, which had been a prison for more than 500 years, was transformed into a museum by local architect Edward Boardman.

Nothing is known about the designer of the mosaics, or the company or individuals who worked on the floors.

The mosaic shows the official crest of arms for the city of Norwich and the design also includes two branches of olive or laurel leaves on either side of the crest.

Dating to a similar period, mosaics of the city arms can also be found in the entrances to the Guildhall and the Norwich University of the Arts, and the design appears in medieval carvings and stained glass and on 20th century buildings around the city.