GENUKI: Norfolk: West Harling, Norfolk

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William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883

HARLING (WEST), a parish of scattered houses, from 1 to 2 miles W.S.W. of East Harling, is in the hundred and union of Guiltcross, Attleborough county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, Guiltcross and Shropham petty sessional division, Harling polling district of South Norfolk, Rockland rural deanery, and Norfolk archdeaconry. It had 118 inhabitants in 1881, living on 3034 acres, and has a rateable value of £1308. The soil principally belongs to Sir George Edmund Nugent, Bart., J.P., who is lord of the manor.

The Hall, a large and handsome mansion, which stands in a well-wooded park on the southern acclivity of the small river Thet, is occupied by Reginald Gervis Hargreaves, Esq., Lyndhurst, Hants, as a shooting-box.

West Harling formerly consisted of several small manors, which, in the time of William the Conqueror, were held as a berewic of the capital manor of Kenninghall. About 1564, it was sold to B. Gawdy, Esq., of Mendham, in Suffolk, and through him it passed to the Birdwell family, and ultimately to Nicholas William, Baron Colborne, who used it as his country seat down to his death in 1854, when the barony became extinct, and the estates passed to Sir George Nugent, who, in 1830, had married the second daughter of the late lord. Nearly the whole of the parish is farmed by Mr. Timothy Colman, who resides at Eastfield House, East Harling.

The CHURCH (All Saints) is a small ancient building, with ivy-clad porch on south-west, containing tower and one bell, one stained glass window in the tower, mural tablets of the late Lord and Lady Colborne and their son, and three fine brasses, one of a priest and two of the Birdwell family, who resided here in an embattled mansion, which was demolished in 1725. Here is a stone coffin, supposed to contain the remains of the founder of the church.

The rectory, valued in the King's Book at £9 18s. 4d., and now at £212, and the tithe rent-charge is £91, is in the patronage of the Hon. Lady Nugent, and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Arthur Pratt.

Here was anciently a hamlet called Middle Harling, with a church (St. Andrew), which was levelled in 1543.

In 1616, Dorothy Gawdy left 11A. 2R. 38P. of land in Garboldisham, and 3A. 1R. 2P. in Banham, to provide coats and petticoats for the poor of West Harling. The present proceeds of the Banham land is £4 10s., and the other is distributed under a new scheme.

LETTERS from Thetford, viâ East Harling, which is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office.

         Bennett    Charles          farm steward to Mr. Timothy Colman,
                                       Hall farm
         Hargreaves Reginald Gervis  The Hall, and at
                                       Cuffnalls, Lyndhurst, Hants
         Kerridge   Nathan           parish clerk
         Pratt      Rev. Thomas
                      Arthur         rector, The Rectory
         Riches     Jeremiah         gamekeeper, The Keeper's lodge

From ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS on pages 13-16:

The Rev. T.A. Pratt is deceased, and the Rev. Edward George Boultbee Inge is now the rector.

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Norfolk: West Harling

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William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883