Anybody who wished to trade freely in medieval Norwich had to become a freeman.

It’s an old tradition that freemen had the right to be hanged with a silk noose!

Ed Balls’ ancestors were Norwich Freemen between 1404 and 1913, but the succession has lapsed and he is no longer eligible.

During Queen Elizabeth I reign, Norwich Freemen devised one of the earliest schemes of poor relief in the country. It later served as a model for national schemes.