Norfolk Hundreds

White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845

GRIMSHOE HUNDRED

Is about 14 miles in length, and varies from 6 to 8 in breadth, bounded on the south by the Little Ouse river, which divides it from Suffolk; on the east of[sic] Shropham and Wayland, on the north by South-Greenhoe, and on the west by Clackclose Hundred. It is intersected and partly bounded on the north by the river Wissey, which, like the Ouse, is navigable for small craft. Its soil is chiefly sand, upon a substratum of chalk and flint; and much of it is still in open sheep walks and heaths, abounding in rabbits, except the western end, which forms part of the marshes and fens of the Great Bedford Level. (See page 608[in the Clackclose Hundred description].) The rabbits from the various warrens here, are, among epicures, distinguished for their delicious flavour, and still known by the name of Methwold or "Muel rabbits," though the large heath in that extensive parish was enclosed and cultivated in the early part of the present century.

Gun flints and whiting are manufactured at Brandon, a market town, on the Suffolk side of the Little Ouse, and at the south-east extremity of Grimshoe is the Borough of Thetford. The whole Hundred is comprised (together with South-Greenhoe,) in the Deanery of Cranwich, and archdeaconry of Norfolk; and its Petty Sessions are held on the first and third Mondays of every month, at the Crown Inn, Mundford. Mr. Robert Sewell, of Swaffham, is clerk to the Magistrates.

From its number of tumuli, it is supposed to have been a great seat of war between the Saxons and Danes. On the west-side of Weeting, is a bank and ditch, extending several miles, called the Fen-dyke, or Foss; and about two miles east of that village, on a rising ground, is a large Encampment, of a semi-circular form, comprising about twelve acres, and having numerous deep pits, dug in the quincunx form, and capable of concealing a large army from the view of persons passing the neighbouring roads. It has near it a long tumulus, and is commonly called Grime's Graves, from some Danish or Saxon general, who possessed and gave name to this Hundred, which contains 16 parishes, of which the following is an enumeration, shewing their population in 1841, the annual value of their lands and buildings, as assessed to the County Rate in 1843, and their territorial extent, in assessable acres.

[There is more information about individual parishes]

* Northwold includes Whittington hamlet, which has 178 souls.

+ Including wastes, this Hundred comprises more than 60,000 acres. Its population, in 1831, was 6380. Its annual value, as assessed to the property tax, was £40,244, in 1815, and £45,372 in 1842. The total annual value for 1842, includes £84 for a small part of Brandon, assessed with this Hundred.

UNIONS.- Buckenham-Tofts, Colveston, Ickburgh, and Stanford, are in Swaffham Union (see page 372 [in South Greenhoe Hundred description];) and all the other 12 parishes in this Hundred are in Thetford Union. It is in Stoke Ferry and Hockham Police Divisions.

Notes

Some placenames in the transcription (of page 391) above are given below together with their standard spelling :-
Croxton/Croxton (near Thetford), Feltwell St. Mry/Feltwell St. Mary, Hockwold with Wilton/Hockwold cum Wilton, Munnford/Mundford , Tofts (West)/West Tofts

For more information see :-

• General description and layout of Hundreds.
• Other hundred descriptions from White's 1845.

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Copyright © Mike Bristow.
April 2006