Norfolk: East Wretham and West Wretham

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

WRETHAM, (EAST and WEST,) about 6 miles N.N.E. of Thetford, are two adjoining parishes.

East Wretham has 194 souls, 2572 acres, a small village of its own name, and another called Stone Bridge, in a rivulet, nearly a mile E. of the church.

West Wretham has 103 souls, 3121 acres, a few scattered houses, and Wretham Hall, a neat mansion in [a] pleasant park, about a mile N.W. of the church. This mansion is the seat of Wyrley Birch, Esq., owner of both parishes, lord of the manor, and patron of the consolidated rectories, valued in 1831, at £550, and in the King's Books, one at £11. 12s. 3½d., and the other at £12. 11s. 3d. The Rev. F.L. Birch, M.A., is the incumbent.

East Wretham Church (St. Ethelbert,) is a small neat edifice; but that at West Wretham (St. Lawrence,) has been long in ruins. A new Rectory House has recently been erected, and the tithes were commuted in 1839 for £539 per annum.

DIRECTORY, (marked * are at Stone Bridge:)

         * Abbott    Mary                 shopkeeper
           Abbott    Mrs. Sus.
           Birch     Rev. Frederick
                       Lane, M.A.         Rectory
         * Chilvers  Robert               vict., Dog and Partridge
           Gayford   Samuel Kitton        farmer
         * Ovington  Henry                corn miller
 

Those in West Wretham are,

           Abbott    Edward               land agent and farmer, Thorpe Hall
           Birch     Wyrley, Esq.         Hall
           Birch     George Wyrley, Esq.  Forest Lodge
           Palmer    Lucy and Sons        farmers, Foulmere
 

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
September 2007