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Norfolk: Hickling
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William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883
[Transcription copyright © Peter Green]
HICKLING is a scattered village and parish, 18 miles N.E. by E. of Norwich, and 4 miles E.S.E. of Stalham. It is in Smallburgh union, Happing hundred, Happing and Tunstead petty sessional division, North Walsham county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, Stalham polling district of North Norfolk, Happing division of Waxham rural deanery, and Norfolk archdeaconry. It had 823 inhabitants in 1881, and has a rateable value of £5393. The parish comprises 4334 acres, nearly 2000 of which are marshes. About 1½ mile S. of the church is Hickling Broad, an extensive lake, upwards of three miles in circumference, and navigable for small craft to the Thurne and the Bure.
Henry N.S. Micklethwait, Esq., is the principal landowner and lord of the manors of Hickling Overhall, Hickling Netherhall, and Hickling Stannow, for which he holds a court baron in December. The principal landowners are Rev. S.N. Micklethwait, and John Borrett, T. Slipper, J. Newman, S. Neal, G.V. Barber, W.N. Burroughs, Esqs. Hickling Hall, an ancient and commodious house now occupied by Arthur Borrett, Esq., has recently been restored and reroofed.
Hickling had anciently a market, and has now a holiday fair on April 23.
The CHURCH (St. Mary) is a handsome structure, seating 300 persons, and consisting of nave with aisles, chancel, south porch with parvise, and a fine square embattled tower, 90 feet high, with five bells. The nave and chancel were thoroughly restored in 1875 and 1876, mainly at the expense of the late Rev. J.N. Micklethwait, at a cost of more than £2450. The chancel screen was removed, but an ancient altar-tomb remains. The tower, which is almost architecturally perfect, still needs judicious restoration.
H.N.S. Micklethwait, Esq., is also impropriator of the rectorial tithes, and patron of the vicarage, which is valued in the King's Book at £5.3s.4d; and from 1782 to 1784 was augmented with £400 of Queen Anne's Bounty, and £200 given by John Micklethwait, Esq., and the Rev. John Wells. Those sums were laid out in the purchase of 17 acres of marsh land at Acle. The Rev. Sotherton Nathaniel Micklethwait, M.A., is the incumbent, and has a commodious residence, built in 1850 at a cost of £1400. The rectorial tithes have been commuted for £814, and the vicarial for £352 per annum. The Rev. George Sharley, who resides at Ingham, is curate.
In the outbuildings of a farmhouse, about half a mile north of the church, are the remains of a PRIORY, which was founded in 1185 by Theobald de Valoins, for canons of the order of St. Austin, and granted at the dissolution to Sir W. Woodhouse. The last remaining window of the priory was taken down in 1825, and forms a porch to the farmhouse.
The Wesleyans and the Primitive Methodists have each a chapel in the parish. The latter was rebuilt in 1882 at a cost of about £500.
In 1803 the Rev. John Wells left £250 Consols, now yielding £7.10s. per annum, for the education of poor children. The present schoolroom was built in 1861 to accommodate 70 children at a cost of £420, and enlarged for an extra 50 children in 1874 at a further cost of £135. In 1879 the present patron, H.N.S. Micklethwait, Esq., expended upwards of £300 in the erection of a neat and convenient red brick residence for the teachers.
In 1682 James Scambler left the yearly sums of 10s. to the poor, 2s. to the parish clerk, and £2.2s. to the vicar for a sermon. The Poor's Allotments, awarded at the enclosure in 1805, comprise 83A.2R.30P., about 70 acres of which are let for £55 a year; and the remainder is let in half-acre lots to poor people, free of tithes and poor's rates, at rents amounting to £25 a year. The whole produces about £80 a year, which, after payment of the drainage rate, &c., is distributed in coal, together with the interest of £106, which arose from the sale of two poor-houses in 1811. The rent of five roods of land, called the Widow's Acre (£3.10s.), is distributed among poor widows.
POST OFFICE at James Turner's. Letters from Norwich, via Stalham, arrive at 7.45 a.m., and are despatched at 2.45 p.m. The nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office is at Stalham.
Applegate James farmer, Stubb
Barber Geo. Vincent farmer, Stubb
Bates Benjamin carpenter and joiner
Beale George coal dealer and carter
Beales Geo. vict. Pleasure Boat Inn
Beales Richard market gardener
Beevor George butcher and carrier
Beevor Robert farmer, Stubb
Beckett Arthur butcher & parish clerk
Bell Samuel porkbutcher
Bishop Mrs Mary porkbutcher and farmer
Bishop William farmer, butcher and carrier
Borrett Arthur farmer, The Hall
Borrett Mr. John landowner, The Hall
Chapman Josiah farmer
Deary Thomas thatcher
Dove John shopkeeper
Fenn Jas. Wm. frmr. Longmoor farm
Fenn Mrs Mary
Garrett Israel Royal miller and landowner (G.& Whittleton)
Garrett &
Whittleton millers & frmrs
Gaze Mrs Jane shopkeeper
Gibbs Alfred Geo. frmr, Church farm
Gibbs Frederick blacksmith and victualler, White Horse
Gibbs Herbert Hy. grocer and draber (sic)
Gibbs Horace farmer
Gibbs John shopkeeper
Gibbs Samuel blacksmith
Goose Thomas carrier
Harmer Robert bricklayer
Harvey Robert farmer and overseer, Gay's farm
Lambert James bricklayer
Lambert Mrs Jane farmer
Mason Robert shoemaker
Micklethwait Rev.Sotherton
Nathanl.M.A. vicar, Vicarage
Myhill Edwd. whlwright & carpenter and
assistant overseer
Neale Samuel farmer, Stubb
Newman John farmer and owner, Old Priory
Newman Samuel farmer
Payne William threshing machine owner and
vict. Greyhound Inn
Pratt Robert shopkeeper & farmer
Prickett John National schoolmaster
Ready Rev. Henry, vicar of Palling and
B.A. rector of Waxham
Sharley Rev. Geo. curate; h. Ingham
Slipper Thomas farmer and owner, Winmere Hall
Taylor Miss Mary
M.H. day school
Taylor Mrs Maria shopkeeper
Trory William farmer, owner, and corn merchant,
The Villa
Tuck Thomas shopkeeper and farmer
Turner James grocer, draper and post office
Turner John wheelwright & carpenter
Whittleton Leonard farmer
Whittleton Thos. millr. (Garrett & W.)
Wilkins Charles farmer
Wiseman John farmer
Woolston James porkbutcher, flour dealer,
market gardener and carrier
Woolston Robert shoemaker
CARRIERS - Thomas Goose to Norwich on Saturdays, and George Beevor, William Bishop, and James Woolston to Yarmouth on Saturdays.
See also the Hickling parish page.
Copyright © Pat Newby.
June 1999