Nineteenth-century lead parish boundary marker plates
in Pitt Street, Norwich
Parish boundary markers such as this can be seen all over Norwich, if you know where to look. In this case these three mark the boundary between the parishes of St Augustine's and St George's Colegate in Pitt Street.  It was important for citizens in the 18th and 19th centuries to know which parish they were living in as this affected such matters as the amount of rates they had to pay and which church they had to have their baptisms, marriage banns read and the burial of their dead, as well as the payment of poor relief and even which fire engine's water pump came to put out their house fires.
For more information on this fascinating aspect of Norwich history read Beating the Bounds in Georgian Norwich by David A. Berwick, published by Larks Press in 2007.

Photo © S. J. McLaren, 2007