Bob talks about the time he organised a medieval banquet in Jurnet’s Bar and his experience in reenactment that led up to it.
In 1983 I organised a medieval banquet, for a social club in Norwich, of which I was the treasurer. I’d been a member of various re-enactment societies, including the Civil War Society, so I’d experienced being in medieval banquets before. I’d thoroughly enjoyed them and I decided it was about time that the Inter-Varsity Club (IVC) had a banquet. I thought members would enjoy it.
The IVC is a national social group for graduates and professionals. It’s been around since 1947 and currently has about 30 clubs. I was one of the founding members of the Norwich IVC and when I left Norwich in 1984, I became the founder of the Basingstoke Club Unfortunately, the one in Norwich shut down about three years ago, but I’m still in contact with some of the people who were members as I was on the IVC national committee for the UK.
Finding the right venue
Now, there’s one thing organising a medieval banquet, it’s another thing finding a venue. I went round various places in Norwich looking for a suitable venue. The thing about a medieval banquet is that a lot of the enjoyment is about the atmosphere of the place. If you don’t get the venue right, you can do everything right with the food and everything else, but it will not quite hit the mark.
I was told by someone who’d been involved with the Wensum Lodge that there was this place called the Jurnet’s Club, and they said I should really go and have a look at it. I’d already tried various other venues, so I turned up at Jurnet’s Club to have a look, and I was amazed at the place.
It was absolutely perfect for what I wanted. I was looking for a place like a crypt. It had crypt-like capabilities, and there are very few places that have got that kind of facility. When I looked at it, that was it. It was a case of, this is it, we’re doing it here. I’m the treasurer. I can decide how much this is going to cost, and what can happen.
So, that was it. Decision made. I can’t remember what the exact terms of the deal were, but they were within the parameters that I knew I could sell tickets for and cover the costs. As with all the events that I’ve ever done of this nature, the most important thing before you book anything else has been to book the venue. If you can’t find the right venue, you might as well give up. So having found the venue, that was it.
The rest of the planning for the event went from there. We set a date which was 12th May 1983, and it was announced in the club programme that it would happen. I also knew at the time that there were some places in Norwich where you could hire costumes of various kind. So, in the announcement, there was information about where you could hire yourself a suitable costume for the event.
Medieval catering
I also organised all the catering so there was quite a lot to arrange, including what food was going to be made available as part of the banquet, the music, and everything else.
One of the features that I do remember particularly about the catering was that I was trying to be as close as I could to how they would have done it in medieval times. Only the very wealthy would have had plates, pewter plates, possibly. A lot of banquets and things like that, were done using a trencher.
A trencher is a flat bread, about the size of a large dinner plate. It’s about three inches thick, and it is split through the middle. This is where the term ‘the upper crust’ comes from, because the top part of the trencher, the bit that was in the main oven, was given to the high tables, and the people who were at the lower tables had the bit that was on the bottom of the oven, because they would pick up ash and all sorts from the oven. So, the upper crust went to the top people, the lower crust to the hoi polloi.
One of my first jobs once I had found the venue was to find a baker in Norwich who would be prepared to do a special order of trenchers, because obviously trenchers are not normally available.
I had described to the baker exactly how to make a trencher. The order was placed, and it was paid for in advance so that the baker knew that he didn’t have to worry about getting paid. There’s always some breakages of the bread, some get ruined and things like that, and there’s always the gannets that turn up at these things who will eat more than their fair share! So, you just slightly over-cater for everything. For 120 people, I ordered for 140, which was adequate. The way they were used, was to split them horizontally, so you ended up with two plates, and you ate your food off your trencher. The food was all kinds of meats and vegetables and some fruits. Some of the fruits were those that probably wouldn’t have been available in the Middle Ages, but I didn’t really care about that, because I like those fruits anyway, so we were going to have them!
A good night had by all
I wasn’t being a purist when it came to the organisation but tried to remain as close as possible in the most important features of it, and I think a really good night was had by all. It was a lovely evening, and there were lots of people. In fact, I think the majority of the people actually did hire costumes for the evening, and so they made the effort, and it went on till late.
The room needed to have a certain degree of roughness about it. There was always a problem with any place that is too finished and plastered. In the period of a medieval banquet, buildings were not that refined, and it needed to be like a crypt, a room below the stairs.
What I liked about Jurnet’s Club, what I remember of it, was the arched roofing and the fact that it gave a sort of cosy, comfy, enclosed feeling, which is what everyone loved about the venue. It went down exceedingly well. Also the size was right. At that time, the IVC had grown into quite a substantial club with over 160 members. For a big event like this, normally you could get at least half the members to turn up, so we were looking at at least 80 going along. As it was there were somewhere between 100 and 120.
I don’t know if Jurnet’s Bar had been used for that sort of event previously. I was in the Civil War Society that was based at the University and I’d had dealings with the Viking Society in Norwich as well, but I’d never heard of any event being held there by any of them. Presumably, that was because they didn’t really know about it as a venue.
In one case, I remember going to a banquet, organised by the Viking Society, which seemed to consist of various meats, rabbit, pork, pigeon, beef, lamb, and by the time you got through some of that, you were desperate for some vegetables. When I organised this banquet, I tried to make sure there was at least enough green stuff available so that they didn’t have to go through the same urgings as I had for something green to have with my meats.
Friendly skirmishes
I don’t know if the Viking Society still exists in Norwich. We used to practise up at Earlham Park and occasionally they would turn out for practice as well, at the same time, which was quite funny when you had a bunch of Civil War soldiers charging at a bunch of Vikings. It was all very friendly with a lot of play fighting between the two sides.
The right venue
After leaving Norwich I didn’t organise any more banquets. I did go to a banquet once, in a hotel opposite Windsor Castle. It was a banquet organised in the cellar of the hotel because that created the environment, but that was a commercial event.
There were no real venues anywhere near Norwich that would be suitable for doing that kind of thing. People look for them, but if they can’t find you, they’re not going to use you. I only happened to find out about Jurnet’s Club because of someone who used Wensum Lodge and had told me about it.
At that time it was in a very good state of repair. It didn’t really need anything done. We just needed to make sure we had enough tables and chairs and that we organised the food appropriately. As someone who’s organised social clubs for many years, I know some people would feel very uneasy about organising that kind of event but for me it was just par for the course really. I just knew exactly what to do.
I wanted to make it a little bit more authentic and I organised the trenchers, which everyone was quite surprised at. I recall at the beginning of the banquet having to tell people, not to eat the piece of bread in front of them which was about the size of a dinner plate. You have got to eat your meal off that, and then you can eat the bread afterwards. So many people were not aware what a trencher was and of of the origins of the expression ‘upper crust and lower crust.’
A unique facility
If the venue has now gone it is a very sad loss to Norwich because it was pretty much a unique facility. If I was running a business, let’s say, wanting to give people a bit more of an experience of life in other ages, then Jurnet’s Club would have been where I would have based myself.
Bob Clifford talking to WISEArchive in Norwich on 30th May 2025 © 2025 WISEArchive. All Rights Reserved.
