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Norfolk: Hickling

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Kelly's Directory of Norfolk and Suffolk 1912

[Transcription copyright © Ray Martin]

HICKLING is a large and scattered parish, 3 miles north-east from Catfield station on the Midland and Great Northern joint railway, 8 miles from Worstead station on the Norwich and Cromer section of the Great Eastern railway, 16 north-west from Yarmouth, 3 south-east from Stalham and 18 north-west from Norwich, in the Eastern division of the county, Tunstead and Happing petty sessional division, Happing hundred, Smallburgh union, North Walsham county court district, rural deanery of Waxham (Happing division), and archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich.

About one-third of the parish may be said to be marsh and common lands; the marsh lands are drained by water mills. Hickling Broad, an expanse of water about 700 acres, is used by small craft to communicate with the River Bure.

The CHURCH of St. Mary is a very fine building of flint and stone, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower, 90 feet in height and containing 5 bells: the nave was thoroughly restored in 1875 at a cost of £1,877, and in the following year the chancel was restored at a further cost of £573: in 1890 the tower was restored and the bells re-hung, two being recast, at a cost of about £600, by Major G. N. Micklethwait in the memory of his brother, who was for 40 years vicar of the parish: there are nearly 500 sittings. The register dates from the year 1653. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £270, including 16 acres of glebe, situated in the parish of Acle, with residence, in the gift of John Digby Mills esq. B.A. of Bisterne, Hants, and held since 1889 by the Rev. Arthur Adam Taylor Crosse B.A. of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

The vicarage house was built in 1850 by the patron, at a cost of about £1,400. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. The poor's land of 83 acres produces about £50, which is distributed in coals, and the widows' acre produces £3; other charities are also distributed annually.

A pleasure fair held on the 23rd of April is now obsolete. The inhabitants are employed in agriculture or in the neighbouring North Sea fisheries. Hickling PRIORY was founded by Theobald de Valoins or Valence in 1185, for the canons of the order of St. Austin, and dedicated to St. Mary, St. Austin and All Saints: Robert Botyld, alias Wymondham, became the last prior in 1503, and with three of the canons subscribed to the King's supremacy in 1534, when the revenues were estimated at £137: the ruins of the priory are gradually decaying. John Digby Mills esq. B.A. is lord of the manor and the principal landowner. The soil is fair mixed; subsoil, sand and clay. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley. The area is 3,948 acres of land and 296 of water; rateable value, £5,455; the population in 1911 was 761 in the civil and 721 in the ecclesiastical parish in 1901.

Parish Clerk, Augustus Myhill

Post, M. O. & T. Office - James Turner, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Norwich, via Stalham, are delivered at 7 a.m. & 4.45 p.m. (5.45 p.m. July to Sept. partial delivery only); dispatched at 6.45 a.m. & 3 & 4.45 p.m. (5.45 p.m. July to Sept.); no delivery or dispatch on sunday. Letter Box, Hickling hall, cleared 7.10 a.m. & 2.50 p.m.

Letter Box, Hickling Heath, cleared 4.45 p.m. Oct. to June & 5.45 p.m. July to September

Public Elementary School (mixed and infants), erected in 1861, & enlarged in 1874 & 1880, for 160 children; average attendance, 155; the school has an endowment of £250 left by the Rev. John Wells & invested in Consols; there is a teacher's residence, erected & furnished in 1879 at a cost of £325; John Prickett, master

Carrier.- Walter Wallace, to 'Duke's Palace', Norwich, wed. & sat. returning at 5 p.m.

PRIVATE RESIDENTS
         Crosse       Rev. Arthur Adam 
                        Taylor B.A.  vicar, Vicarage
         Edgell       Herbert        The Thatched cottage
         Elphicke     Brett A.       Broad house
         Ridgway      Edward         Red house
         Smith        Herbert Norman Hickling hall
 
COMMERCIAL
         Abagail      William        shopkeeper
         Balls        William        farmer
         Beales       Albert         shopkeeper
         Beales       George         farmer
         Beales       George, jun.   apartments
         Bell         James          farmer
         Bilby        Frederick 
                        Lewis        farmer & landowner, Poplar farm
         Carpenter    Harry          Pleasure Boat inn
         Chapman      Arthur H.      farmer
         Chapman      Ernest         farmer, The Heath
         Chapman      Josiah         farmer, The Green
         Chapman      Lewis          farmer
         Clarke       Mrs Elizabeth  farmer
         Deary        Arthur         thatcher
         Disney       Robert J.      farmer, Whinmere hall
         Dunham       Herbert        farmer
         Flatt        William
                        Charles      coal dealer
         Fox          Peter          butcher
         Gaze         John           farmer
         Gaze         Juby           farmer
         Gibbs        Frederick      blacksmith
         Gibbs        Herbert Henry  shopkeeper
         Harvey       George         gamekeeper to H. N. Smith esq
         Lambert      Bros.          bricklayers, builders & contractors
         Lambert      Frederick      boot maker
         Markin       Mrs Kate       butcher
         Martin       John William   grocer
         Myhill       Edward         carpenter, builder, wheelwright &
                                       general contractor, overseer &
                                       collector of rates, taxes &c. clerk
                                       to Parish Council, The Hollies
         Myhill       George         farmer
         Myhill       Lewis          farmer
         Neal         George William farmer, Stubbs & Hall farms
         Newman       John           farmer & landowner, Priory farm
         Nudd         Thomas         marshman for the commissioners of
                                       drainage
         Pollard      Robert         blacksmith, The Green
         Powles       Edward George  Greyhound P.H.
         Pratt        Henry          Bull inn
         Sadler       Matthew        farmer, Winmere
         Skipper      John           farmer, The Heath
         Taylor       Leonard        vermin destroyer
         Turner       James          grocer, draper, flour & offal dealer,
                                       & general stores, Post office
         Turner       Richd. Frank   farmer, The Green
         Turner       William        wheelwright
         Vincent      Robert         vermin destroyer
         Wallace      Walter         carrier
         Whittleton   Leonard        farmer, Heath
         Wright       Henry          farmer
         Youngs       George         farmer, Brightmere
 

See also the Hickling parish page.

Copyright © Pat Newby.
February 2000