GENUKI: Norfolk: Weybourne, Norfolk

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

WEYBOURNE, or Waborne, 4 miles N.E. of Holt, is a small village picturesquely seated on the sea-coast, and sheltered on the other sides by a semicircular range of hills. Its parish is in Erpingham union, Holt hundred, petty sessional division, and county court district, Norwich bankruptcy court district, Holt polling district of North Norfolk, Holt rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry. It had 232 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 1614 acres. It has a rateable value of £1978.

The soil mostly belongs to the Earl of Orford, the lord of the manor and patron of the living; and partly to Wm. J.J. Bolding, Esq., and Mr. Wm. Thos. Bird. Here are seven small fishing boats, a fish-curing house, and a large brewery.

The latter is occupied by Mr. Bolding, who in 1857 discovered a Romano-British potter's kiln in a chalk pit near the eastern boundary of the parish. On the high ground above the village are traces of an ancient road leading to Salthouse heath, and clusters of singular pits or bowl-shaped hollows, varying from 8 to 20 feet in diameter, and containing heaps of stones with which their sides appear to have once been lined. (See p.56 [which is the section about Antiquities of Norfolk].)

The CHURCH (All Saints) comprises nave, chancel, south porch, and square embattled tower. The latter contains one bell, and is said to be of Saxon workmanship. The sedilia and piscina still remain, and at the east end of the church, which was formerly much larger, are some of the remains of a priory which was founded here in the reign of Henry II. for Augustine canons, and granted at the Dissolution to Richard Heyden. The Register dates from 1727.

The benefice is a donative, in the incumbency of the Rev. Wm. Bosworth, of Beeston Regis, and valued at £50 a year. The parish is exempt from episcopal jurisdiction; and the tithes were commuted, in 1839, for £300 per annum.

The submarine telegraph enters the water in this parish; and near the beach is a coastguard station. (See also Additions, &c. [below])

POST OFFICE at Mr. Wm. Allen's. Letters arrive at 8.20 a.m., and are despatched viâ Holt at 3.45 p.m. Holt is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office.

         Allen       Wm.                   grocer, draper, and postmaster,
                                             and farmer, Kelling
         Bird        William Thomas        farmer and miller
         Bolding     Wm. Johnson Jennis    brewer and maltster
         Bosworth    Rev. William          perp. curate; h Beeston Regis
         Cook        William               parish clerk
         Dady        David & Son (Wm. Hy.) frmrs
         Dixon       William               farmer
         Hammond     Mr Robert
         Mackerill   James                 coastguard office
         Monement    Mr William            The Cottage
         Monement    Mr William Bolding
         Pilch       Mrs. Mary             vict. Ship Inn
         Riseborough John                  blacksmith

From ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS on pages 13-16:

Hacon, son of Swan, and eldest son of Earl Godwin, held an estate here, which was given by William I. to Hugh de Lupus, the Conqueror's half-brother. Hugh enfeoffed Sir Ralph Meine Waring, or Manwaring. One of the Manwarings is supposed to have been the founder of the Priory, which was valued at the Dissolution, according to Speed, at £27 7s. 2d. In Domesday Weybourne is written Wabruna.

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Norfolk: Weybourne

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