Norfolk: Sporle with Palgrave

William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845

SPORLE-WITH-PALGRAVE, the former a long village of detached houses, and the latter a small hamlet, are distant 1½ mile from each other, and 2½ miles N.E. by N. of Swaffham. They form one parish, containing 773 inhabitants, and about 4,153 acres of land, a great part of which, with the manor, belongs to St. Catherine's Hospital, London.

There was a PRIORY at Sporle, founded in the time of Edward I., as a cell to the monastery of St. Florence, in Anjou, but it was dissolved, with other alien priories, in 1420, and afterwards granted to Eton College, with which are vested the appropriation of the tithes and the advowson of the vicarage, valued in the King's Book at £10.3s.6d., and in 1831, at £181, with the rectory of Palgrave annexed to it. The foundations of the priory may still be traced by removing the grass.

The CHURCH (Virgin Mary,) is a lofty and spacious building, with a tower at the west end, containing three bells. It is neatly pewed, and has a fine Gothic font, with an highly ornamented cover. There was anciently a church at Palgrave, where Mr. T. Matthews, has a neat Elizabethan mansion, erected in 1844.

Sir Matthew Holworthy, at some date unknown, left £600 to purchase land, the rents to be paid to the vicar for preaching a sermon here every Sunday afternoon, except the winter quarter. This land is now let for £80 a year. The same donor also left 10A.2R.22P., for schooling poor children, and it is now let for £10. The Fuel Allotment, awarded in 1806, is 91A.3R.17P., let for £52 a year, with a house, built out of the rents, at the cost of £400, in 1818.

Here is a National School, and Baptist and Primitive Methodist Chapels.

           Hodson     Greenwood    vict. Hare and Hounds
           King       Richard      vict. Chequers
           Thompson   Thomas       beerseller
 
             Blacksmiths.
 
           Osborn     Robert
           Payne      George
 
             Corn Millers.
 
           Trundle    Wm.
           Walker     Daniel
 
             FARMERS.
         * are Owners.
 
           Bowles     Jno.         Palgrave
         * Farrer     Edmd.
           Girling    Thos.
           Hall       Martin
           Kiddle     William
         * Matthews   Thos.        Palgrave Hall
           Moore      Wm.
         * Pearson    Wm.
           Tann       William
           Wells      Thos.        Gt. Palgrave
 
             Shoemakers.
 
           Cousins    James
           Moore      Robert
 
             Shopkeepers.
 
           Hall       Saml.        tailor
           Whisker    Thomas
           Wingfield  Rd.
 

From ERRATA on page 816:

"Rev. Thomas Jones, A.B., vicar of Sporle-with-Palgrave."

See also the Sporle with Palgrave parish page.

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
May 1999