Mousehold Heath (Heviskey Tan)

Mousehold Heath near Norwich is known in Romani as Heviskey Tan — the place of holes. George Borrow recorded in Romano Lavo-Lil that the last two practitioners of wholly traditional Romani life were buried there: 'some six feet deep beneath the moss of a wild, hilly heath — called in Gypsy the Heviskey Tan, or place of holes; in English, Mousehold — near an ancient city which the Gentiles call Norwich.' The old Romani who refused Christian burial chose this heath as their resting place, making it a distinctly named sacred site preserved in the Romani language itself.