SHROPHAM is a parish, 3 miles north-west from Eccles Road and 4 north from Harling Road stations, both on the Thetford and Norwich section, and 3 south-east from Stow Bedon station on the Thetford and Swaffham line of the London and North Eastern railway, 5 south-west from Attleborough and 11 north-east from Thetford: it gives its name to the hundred, and is in the Southern division of the county, Wayland rural district, Guiltcross and Shropham petty sessional division, county court district of Wymondham, rural deanery of Rockland, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The lordship of the hundred is held by the exors. of Lionel Robinson, esq. J.P. and carries with it certain peculiar rights. The church of St. Peter and St. Andrew, Bradcar, has long since disappeared. The church of St. Peter is plain building of flint with stone dressings, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch, and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells, rehung in a new frame in 1900: the nave was releaded in 1910: there is a mural tablet over the south chancel door to the Rev. J. W. Watson, 40 years vicar of this parish (1886-1926): a stained window on the south side of the chancel commemorates the Robins family, a member of which (the Rev. William Robins) was vicar for 35 years (1851-86); he gave the altar furnishings: the east window is partly filled with stained glass: a brass tablet on a marble slab commemorates the eleven men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: the north aisle was restored in 1867, and there are 250 sittings. The register dates from the year 1723. The living is a vicarage, with that of Larling annexed, joint gross yearly value £578, including 10 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of Sir George Guy B. Nugent, bart., and Mrs. A. S. M. Hemsworth, and held since 1930 by the Rev. Joseph Davidson, of London College of Divinity. there is a Methodist chapel, built in 1884. The rent of 35a. Ir. 39p. originally left in trust to the vicar, churchwardens and overseers for the poor, is now in the hands of the Parish Council, the proceeds of the fuel allotment of 58 acres, amounting to about £51, are distributed annually among the poor in coals or money. Shropham Hall, the property and residence of the Rev. George R. Garner, M.A., is a mansion of the early Georgian period and style, standing in a park of 50 acres. the principal landowners are Rev. George R. Garnier M.A. the trustees of the Great Hospital, Norwich, who are lords of Pakenham's, Bradcar Hall and the rectory manors in Shropham, Mr. William Wernam, Messrs. Keeble & Co. and Mrs. Fairman Mann. The soil is light and variable: subsoil, various. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and roots. The area is 2,734 acres of land and 11 of water; the population in 1931 was 279.
Post, T. & tel. Call Office. Letters through Norwich. Great Hockham nearest M.O. Office.
Alden, Benj., dairy farmer.
Allen, Rt. & Son, grocers, & post office. Great Hockham 200.
Beales, Luther, farmer.
Beales, Robert, boot maker.
Bennett Rt. smallholder.
Bilverstone, Arth. poultry farmer, Low rd.
Brown Rt. Jn. & Son, baker.
Chaplin, Ernest Edward, blacksmith.
Colby, Clarence, farmer, Claypit farm.
*Porter, Geo. Turner, farmer, Church farm.
Sanham, Frederick William, small holder, Brick hill.
Three Horse Shoes P.H.
*Wales, Michl. Thompson, farmer, Manor farm. Great Hockham 237.
*Wernam, William, frmr. Grange farm.
White Horse P.H. (Rt. Bridges)
Woodrow, George, farmer, Mill farm.
Transcription © Copyright R.C. Tuck, February 1999; links updated February 2010.
1891 Census Names Index
Kelly's 1883
White's 1854
White's 1845; and 1883 [GENUKI-NFK]
Shropham postmill, Mill Farm smockmill and Mill Lane smockmill [Jonathan Neville]
Church of St. Peter and Paul ]local web-site]
Shropham archeology [Norfolk Heritage Explorer]
More on Shropham [GENUKI-NFK]
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