Norfolk: Little Massingham

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

[Transcription copyright © Pat Newby]

MASSINGHAM (LITTLE) is a parish on the Lynn and Fakenham Railway, 1 mile N. of Great Massingham, and 12 miles E. by N. of Lynn, and is in Freebridge Lynn union and petty sessional division, Lynn county court and bankruptcy district, Massingham polling district of West Norfolk, Lynn (Norfolk) rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry. The rateable value is £3462. The population in 1881 was 147, and the area 2278 acres. William Walker, Esq., of Lynn, is lord of the manor, and he and R. Dring, Esq., are the landowners.

The CHURCH (St. Andrew) comprises nave with aisles and clerestory, south porch, chancel, and western tower. It is of the Decorated period, but most of the windows of the aisles are Perpendicular insertions. The whole building has recently undergone a thorough restoration. The nave is filled with open benches, having well-carved poppies, and the chancel contains some good stalls. The pulpit is an octagon of Caen stone, and its shaft is surrounded by four pillars of Purbeck marble with richly ornamented caps. The sides are covered with acutely pointed arches with shafts of serpentine, above which is a wreath of flowers exquisitely carved. There is a hagioscope from the south aisle, and near it a piscina. The chancel contains a double piscina, a sedile, and a pix-box. Here are tablets of the Mordant, Stanford, and Godfery families. The registers date from 1558.

The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the King's Book at £9 13s. 4d., in the patronage of W. Walker, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Joseph Lloyd Brereton, M.A., prebendary of Exeter, who has 33 acres of glebe and a pleasant rectory house near the church. The tithes have been commuted for £557 a year.

The School is at Great Massingham.

POST OFFICE at George Turner's. Letters arrive at 7.30 a.m., and are despatched at 5.30 p.m., via Rougham (which is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office) and Swaffham.

         Brereton    Rev. Joseph Lloyd,  prebendary of Exeter, and chairman of
                       M.A.                the Norfolk and Devon County Schools,
                                           & Cavendish College, Cambridge,
                                           rector, The Rectory
         Burcham     William             farmer
         Chamberlain Edgar               vict, Raily. hotel, and cattle dealer
         Herd        Thomas              farm bailiff
         Mills       Thos.               stationmaster & coal agent
         Stanford    Henry               parish clerk
         Stratton    John                farmer
         Turner      George              postmaster
 

LYNN AND FAKENHAM RAILY. - Trains in connection with all parts several times a day.

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
April 2002