Norfolk: Great Hautbois

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

[Transcription copyright © Pat Newby]

HAUTBOIS (GREAT), on the north side of the Bure, 8 miles N.N.E. of Norwich, is a small village and parish in Aylsham union, South Erpingham hundred and petty sessional division, Aylsham county court district, Coltishall polling district of North Norfolk, Norwich archdeaconry and Ingworth rural deanery. It had 190 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 610 acres of land. The rateable value is £1168.

Lady Durrant and Rev. J.C. Girling and E. Birkbeck, Esq., M.P. (who is lord of the manor), are the principal owners of the soil. Chalk of a superior quality having been found in the parish, large lime works were opened in 1879 by Mr. C.M.G. Girling, and a large trade is now done throughout Norfolk and Suffolk by means of the railway and river to which the works are in close proximity.

The old church of St. Theobald is in ruins, and a new CHURCH (Holy Trinity) was erected in 1863-4, after designs furnished by the late Thomas Jeckyll, Esq., at a cost of upwards of £1000, the greater part of which was given by the present rector. It is of Early English architecture, and comprises nave with aisles, chancel, south porch, organ-room, vestry, and bell turret over the chancel arch. It contains a fine old font, formerly in the old church. The roof is waggon-headed, and the floor is laid with encaustic tiles. All the windows, except the west one, are filled with stained glass as memorial windows, and there is a fine stone pulpit.

The ancient round tower and the walls of the old church are still standing, at some distance from the village, and its chancel has been fitted up as a mortuary chapel, the churchyard being the only cemetery in the parish.

The rectory, now united with Coltishall, valued in the King's Book at £4. 6s. 8d., is in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. John Colk Girling, M.A., who has a handsome residence, built in 1860. The tithes were commuted in 1839 for £218. 10s. per annum, with 13 acres of glebe land.

This parish is united with Coltishall School Board. At the head of Hautboys, or, as it is vulgarly called, Hobbies Causeway, there stood a hospital, founded about 1235 by Sir Peter de Alto Bosco, for the reception of travellers and poor people, and licensed by the Pope to have a chapel bell and chaplain. In 1312 Sir Robert Baynard converted his manor house here into a castle, of which the foundations alone remain.

POST from Norwich.

See also Coltishall.

         Bales    Richard        shoe maker
         Farrow   Robert         basket maker
         Girling  Chas. Mends    farmer, surveyor, limeburner
                    Gibson         and merchant, Grove farm
         Girling  Rev. John      rector of Coltishall with Great
                    Colk, M.A.     Hautbois, and Surrogate, The Rectory
         Herne    Robert         farmer
         Hood     Charles        farmer
 

See also the Great Hautbois parish page.

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
January 1999