GENUKI: Norfolk: Thompson, Norfolk

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

THOMPSON, anciently called Thomestone, half a mile W. from Stow Bedon Railway Station, and 3½ miles S. by E. of Watton, is a scattered village and parish in Wayland union, hundred, and petty sessional division, Attleborough county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, Watton polling district of West Norfolk, Norwich archdeaconry, and Breckles rural deanery. It had 360 inhabitants in 1881, living on 3375 acres, and has a rateable value of £2993 10s. The soil chiefly belongs to Lord Walsingham, lord of the manor, and Henry D. Hemsworth, Esq., impropriator of the tithes.

The CHURCH (St. Martin) comprises nave, chancel, south porch, south transept, and square embattled tower with three bells; and contains a piscina, an old rood screen, and the stalls which were erected for the use of a College or Chantry, founded here in the 23rd of Edward III., by Sir Thomas de Shardelow and his brother John, for six chaplains, to pray for the souls of their ancestors. This college was granted to Sir Edmund Knyvett at the Dissolution. In the church is a large painting, representing Joseph's coat brought to Jacob, presented by the late William Hales Tooke, Esq.

The perpetual curacy was augmented from 1767 to 1824, with £800 of Queen Anne's Bounty, and is now worth £49 a year, in the patronage of the trustees of the late H.D. Hemsworth, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. William Smyth Thorpe, B.A., of Shropham.

The common was enclosed in 1815. The Church Land is let for £44 a year, which is applied in the service of the church and poor. Thompson Hall Cottage was pulled down in 1851, and its materials used in the erection of Merton Rectory, which is situated within the bounds of this parish.

Here is a Primitive Methodist District Chapel. The NATIONAL SCHOOL was erected in 1874, by Lord Walsingham, and supported by his lordship.

LETTERS through Thetford, viâ Watton, which is the nearest Money Order Office, arrive at 8 a.m. Wall Box cleared at 6 p.m.; Sundays at 10 a.m.

         Brown      James          farmer, Hill Field farm
         Baker      Wm. Benjamin   farmer, miller, and corn merchant,
                                     Thompson mills
         Blake      -              victualler, Chequers
         Chase      Henry          farmer, Church farm
         Collen     Robert         farmer
         Crook      Robert         farmer
         Crook      William        farmer and dealer
         Downes     James          shoemaker
         Land       Edwd.          farmer, Buttershall farm
         Leggate    Abraham Pratt  farmer and parish clerk, Little Green
         Leggate    Miss Martha    Natl. schlmstrs
         Lincoln    Jno. Andrews   fmr. College frm
         Matthews   Mrs Eliza      farmer, Brick Barn farm
         Nunn       Thomas         blacksmith
         Ransom     George         grocer and draper
         Tolman     Samuel         shopkeeper
         Whalebelly James          farmer; h Watton
         Williams   Frederick      tailor

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Norfolk: Thompson

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