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Norfolk: Smallburgh

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

[Transcription copyright © Pamela Littlefair]

SMALLBURGH, 5½ miles S.E. by S. of North Walsham, and 12 miles N.E. by N. of Norwich, is a village and parish in Smallburgh union, Tunstead hundred, Happing and Tunstead petty sessional division, North Walsham county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, Stalham polling district of North Norfolk, Tunstead division of Waxham rural deanery, and Norfolk archdeaconry. It had 504 inhabitants in 1881, living on 1255 acres, and has a rateable value of £2476.

The soil belongs chiefly to W.F. Windham, Robert Cooke, and John Postle, Esqrs.; but Sir J.H. Preston, Bart., is lord of the manor, in which the fines are certain. The Old Hall is now occupied by a farm bailiff. The spacious white brick mansion called the New Hall, about a mile south of the village, now the residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Postle, was built by William Postle, Esq., in 1837. Holly House, another neat modern mansion, is the residence of Mr. John Postle. Nearly a mile E. of the village is Wayford Bridge, on the river Ant, near which there is supposed to have been a Roman Station, and where there is a wharf for corn, coal, malt, &c.

The CHURCH (St. Peter) comprises nave, chancel, and south porch. It has a brick belfry with one bell, and formerly had a tower, which fell down in 1677. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the King's Book at £10 4s., in the gift of the Bishop of Norwich, and incumbency of the Rev. Henry Thomas Griffith, B.A., who has a good brick residence. The glebe is 28A. 1R. 17P., and the tithes were commuted in 1838 for £430 per annum.

The Primitive Methodists and Wesleyan Reformers have chapels here.

The National School is a brick building, erected in 1855.

The Church Land is 11A. 2R. 27P., let for £24, to which is added £1, from part of an allotment set out as a common staith. The Poor's Allotment, awarded in 1820, is 43A. 21P., on which fuel is cut. Petty Sessions are held at the Workhouse, every alternate Tuesday, for the division (see page 34 [which is the entry for Happing and Tunstead in Norfolk Petty Sessional Divisions]), and the magistrates usually sitting here are Sir J.H. Preston, Beeston; J. Preston, Esq., Beeston; Robert Rising, Esq., Horsey; John Lubbock, Esq., Catfield; Robert Baker, Esq., North Walsham; and Edward Cubitt, Esq., Honing.

The parishes of Happing and Tunstead, with the exception of North Walsham, were incorporated for the support of their poor in 1785, when they erected a HOUSE OF INDUSTRY, at Smallburgh, which was altered and enlarged in 1836 and subsequent years, and has now room for about 800 paupers, but averages only 73. Attached to this large workhouse are 24 acres of arable land. The expenditure of the 41 incorporated parishes, on their in and out-door poor, was £4367 in 1839, and £4381 in 1842; and their total average annual expenditure at the present time is nearly £3976. They comprise an area of about [blank] acres, and a population of 14,328. Thomas Wells, Esq., of Sco-Ruston, is chairman; and Mr. Hy. Riches Barnard, of Worstead, is clerk to the Board of Guardians of Smallburgh union, and superintendent registrar.

Messrs. George Gedge, of Honing, and Lewis Myhill, of Ingham are registrars of marriages; and Messrs. J.A. Gordon, of Ludham, William Fredk. Dix, of Smallburgh, John Clowes, of Stalham, and George Ward, of Worstead, are registrars of births and deaths. The relieving officers are Mr. Lewis Myhill, for Happing district, and Mr. George Ward, of Worstead, for Tunstead district. Mr. George Amies and Mrs. Elizabeth Amies are master and matron; and the Rev. John B. Vale, M.A., of Crostwight, chaplain to the workhouse.

The following enumeration of the parishes in the union shows their territorial extent, their population and inhabited houses in 1881, and present rateable value:-

Parishes   Acres   Population Rateable
value £
Parishes   Acres   Population Rateable
value £
Ashmanhaugh
Bacton
Barton Turf
Beeston St. Lawrence
Bradfield
Brumstead
Catfield
Crostwight
Dilham
East Ruston
Edingthorpe
Felmingham
Happisburgh or Hasbro
Hempstead
Eccles
Hickling
Honing
Horning
Horsey-next-the-Sea
Hoveton St. John
Hoveton St. Peter
Ingham
665
1,770
1,599
519
757
789
2,393
777
1,563
2,494
710
1,886
2,168
907
397
4,334
1,400
2,567
1,880
1,541
952
1,503
 
w
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
w
}
}
 
 
 
w
 
 
 
162
464
374
46
228
122
631
80
426
667
190
395
536
173
 
824
321
435
199
295
138
452
903
2,640
2,276
839
1,074
1,272
3,305
879
2,666
4,260
1,067
3,045
3,625
1,752
 
5,393
2,219
3,674
1,256
1,904
1,448
2,593
Irstead
Lessingham
Ludham
Neatishead
Palling-next-the-Sea
Paston
Potter Heigham
Ridlington
Sco-Ruston
Sloley
Smallburgh (W)
Stalham
Sutton
Swafield
Tunstead
Walcott
Waxham
Westwick
Witton
Worsted
 
Total
1,065
639
2,977
1,905
905
1,445
2,527
635
471
719
1,247
1,792
1,383
826
2,291
735
2,087
1,043
1,746
2,603
62,607
 
 
 
 
w
w
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
w
w
 
 
 
w
148
176
796
578
459
252
404
195
89
264
504
852
378
178
420
121
147
181
253
765
14,348
1,166
1,162
5,387
3,389
1,481
2,240
3,323
1,147
860
1,438
2,476
4,071
2,256
1,477
4,199
1,405
1,982
1,366
2,375
4,537
95,827

W, the Workhouse is situated here; w, the area includes water.

POST OFFICE at Mr. Edward Gibson's. Letters, viâ Norwich, arrive at 6.10 a.m., and depart at 4.10 p.m. Neatishead and Stalham are the two nearest Money Order Offices, the latter is the nearest Railway Station, on the Y. & N.N. Railway, and Telegraph Office, distance three miles; and Worstead Station, on the G.E. Railway.

Amies      George & Mrs
Elizabeth     master and matron of Union workhouse
Baldwin    Robert          bricklayer, builder, contractor and 
brickmaker
Bristow    John            plumber & glazier
Cole       Walter Joseph   farmer
Coman      Miss Ann        Natl. schlmistress
Cooke      Robert          farmer, &c. Manor hs
Dix        Miss            schoolmistress, Workhouse
Dix        Wm. Frederic,   surgeon, registrar of births & deaths, 
M.R.C.S.,       medical officer to Smallburgh union
L.S.A.          & workhs. & public vaccinator
Empson     George          blacksmith
Gibson     Edward          postmaster
Grand      William Saul    shopkeeper
Griffith   Rev. Henry
Thomas, B.A.  rector, Rectory
Hillersdon Mr S.G.
Jones      Samuel          beerhs. & bricklayer
Knights    Elijah          farmer
Knights    Henry           shopkeeper & beersllr
Lacy       Mrs.            shopkeeper & beer retailer
Long       George          shoemaker
Long       James           vict. Crown Inn
Long       William         parish clerk
Lowne      Edmund          wheelwright, &c
Postle     John            farmer and owner
Postle     Mrs Elizabeth   The Hall
Postle     William         farmer
Yaxley     James           shopkeeper

See also the Smallburgh parish page.

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
December 1997
November 2011: Updated with table of parishes, acres, populations and rateable values.