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Norfolk: Stokesby with Herringby

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

[Transcription copyright © Juanita Hadwin]

STOKESBY-CUM-HERRINGBY is a parish on the north bank of the Bure, containing the village of Stokesby, 7 miles W. by N. of Yarmouth by the Ferry, and 2 miles E. of Acle. The parish is in East Flegg hundred, East and West Flegg union and petty sessional division, Yarmouth county court district and bankruptcy district, Great Ormesby polling district of North Norfolk, Flegg rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry.

It had 333 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 2119 acres of land. The soil is chiefly low but fertile marsh, bounded on three sides by the Bure and the stream which divides the two Fleggs. G.R. Copeman, Esq., of Hemsby, is lord of the manor, but William Bagg, Esq., as lord paramount, claims a fine of £5 per annum from the Hall estate. The other principal landowners are Messrs. T.W. Daniel, J. Steward, H. Blake, and W. and F.W. Waters, and the Earl of Rosebery.

The CHURCH (St. Andrew) is a thatched structure, consisting of nave, chancel, south porch, and square embattled tower containing one bell. The nave was re-roofed in 1856, and the entire fabric was restored in 1858, at a cost of about £600. A new pulpit and reading-desk, beautifully carved in oak, and a well-executed reredos, were erected by the rector and his late brother, and the new carved oak benches, tesselated pavement, &c., were at the expense of the parish. The Worship family has inserted a painted window in the chancel, and caused texts in fresco to be painted on the walls. The tower is Early English, but the windows are all of the Decorated period, with the exception of a Perpendicular insertion on the south side. The font, eastern gable, and porch are modern. The cradle roof of the nave is a copy of the ancient one, but of less solidity. The sedilia are three graduated seats cut in the sill of a window. Some of the ancient benches remain at the west end for the use of the children, and are of unusually good design. The backs are pierced with tracery of four varieties under a line of Tudor flowers, and the elbows of the poppy-heads bear figures of quaint design.

During the restorations several extraordinary mural paintings were discovered, representing the seven deadly sins and other subjects, but they have all been obliterated. Here are several brasses and the matrices of others which have been removed. On the south side of the chancel is a knight in plate armour, with a lady by his side. The Register dates from 1558.

The rectory, valued in the King's Book at £13 6s. 8d., and now at £539, has 46A. 3R. of glebe, and is in the patronage of the Rev. Thomas Beard, M.A., and incumbency of the Rev. John Alexander Dolan, M.A., who has a handsome rectory-house, built in 1849, at a cost of £2000, and commanding fine views of the surrounding country. The tithes have been commuted for a yearly rent-charge of £536 5s. 2d.

A SCHOOL BOARD was established here in 1875, and consists of Messrs. John Palmer (chairman), G.S. Gibbs, A.F. Knights, and George Bond. Mr. F. Burton, solicitor, Yarmouth, is clerk. New schools were erected in 1876, at a cost of £600, to accommodate 80 scholars.

Here is a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1811.

After the enclosure in 1721, Major England, then lord of the manor, gave an allotment of 20A. 2R. of marsh land, for the poor parishioners to graze their cows upon. It was exchanged in 1812 for 21A. 30P. In 1841, J.C. Norton, Esq., greatly improved his mansion at Hillborough Farm, and erected a steam engine for draining the marshes.

HERRINGBY, the south-eastern division of the parish, now belongs to William Waters, Esq. At the Domesday Survey it had five salt-works, and was afterwards celebrated for its college or hospital, endowed with £44 a year, and founded in 1475, by Hugh Attefenn, for 'a master, three priests, eight poor folks, and two servants.' At the Dissolution this establishment was granted to Sir Thomas Clere. Some remains of the college may be seen in the Hall, the pleasant residence of William Waters, Esq., but the site of the chapel is occupied by a bullock-shed.

A square enclosure discovered a few years ago in making a drain in the Herringby marshes, has been conjectured to have been one of the Salinæ or salt-works mentioned in Domesday; and on digging the foundations of a draining mill near this, a submerged thicket was discovered, with roots in situ, but the branches, &c., broken in small pieces; the wood was alder, ash, &c.

The parish of Herringby was annexed to Stokesby for ecclesiastical purposes in the reign of James I., in consequence of its church having gone to decay.

POST OFFICE at Mr. G.B. Herrington's, Stokesby. Letters from Great Yarmouth arrive at 9 a.m., and depart at 5 p.m.

         BECK       Geo. M.        fmr. Herringby; h Ormesby
         BENNS      Noah           shoemaker
         BLAND      Wm.            bricklayer & mkt. gardener
         DOLAN      Rev. Jn. Alex. rctr. Rectory
                      M.A.
         FOWLER     Wm.            wheelwright
         FROSDICK   James          shopkeeper, pork butcher, miller,
                                     and overseer
         FROSDICK   Richard        blacksmith
         HERRIDGE   Edwd.          Board school master
         HERRINGTON Geo. Brunning  postmaster and sexton
         KETT       Peter Mellish  farmer, Hall farm and butcher,
                                     Beeston St. Andrew's
         KNIGHTS    Ambrose        farmer & market gardener
                      Frosdick
         PALMER     Benjamin       market gardener
         PALMER     James          market gardener
         PALMER     John           farmer, market gardener, and overseer,
                                     Glebe farm
         PALMER     Mr John, jun.
         POWLEY     Benjamin       market gardener
         ROGERS     James          market gardener
         SELF       James          farm bailiff
         SMITH      Charles        shopkeeper
         SMITH      William        farm bailiff
         THIRTLE    Elijah         farmer, carrier, & vict. Ferry Inn
         WATERS     Wm.            land owner, Herringby hall
 

CARRIER. - Elijah Thirtle, to Yarmouth, Wed. and Sat.


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See also the Stokesby with Herringby parish page.

Copyright © Pat Newby.
November 2003