History of Us celebrates Norwich abolitionist Amelia Opie

Sir Tony Robinson joined locals to delve into the history of the Calvert Street area for More Four show Tony Robinson's History of Us on Monday night.

And as much as Calvert Street is home to ordinary folk, one former citizen is a little less ordinary than the rest.

Born Amelia Alderson in 1769 in Calvert Street, Amelia Opie was a writer who published a vast amount of literary works during the Romantic period.

She was also well known for being a leading figure in the abolition of slavery - her name was the first of 187,000 presented to the British parliament on a petition from women to stop the practice.

With Norwich and Britain's prosperity built on what the programme described as a time of repression, inequality and slavery, Amelia Opie dedicated a large part of her life to fighting for the rights of the dispossessed.

"She would visit workhouses. Later in life, she set up a refuge for reformed female sex workers," Rachel Daniel of the Norfolk Museum Service explained in the show.

"She was one of the founding members of the women's anti-slavery group here in Norwich. 

"They also organised a boycott of sugar and targeted merchants and shops that were linked to the slave trade.

"And because of this, she was one of the first women - and one of the only women - to be invited to the anti-slavery convention in London."

Hidden among a sea of men, Opie is immortalised in a painting depicting meetings of this kind.

Many claim that Opie was a spiritual inspiration for the suffragettes, a movement which helped give women the right to vote. 

The city centre thoroughfare which connects Castle Meadow to London Street has since been named Opie Street in her honour, with a small statue atop what is now Cafe Gelato depicting her in her later Quaker years an ode to her impact on Norwich and the wider world.

By her death in 1853, slavery had been abolished and other movements she championed had seen successful.