BRADENHAM (WEST) is a scattered parish, 6½ miles E. of Swaffham, which comprises 422 inhabitants, 94 houses, and 1,682a. 3r. 20p. of land, of which 39a. are plantations and 26a. roads. W. M. R. Haggard and Barry Girling, Esqrs., are the principal land owners, and the former is lord of West Bradenham manor, and the latter of Bokenham Hall. The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, has a square tower, and the living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the King's book at £7 1s. 10d., in the incumbency of the Rev. Geo. Stone. The Bishop of Norwich is patron, and appropriator of the rectorial tithes, commuted in 1831 for £218 10s., and the vicarial for £169 0s. 9d. About a mile N. of the Church, is the Hall, the pleasant seat of W. M. R. Haggard, Esq., built in 1772, by T. Smyth, Esq., near the site of the Old Hall, which was a castellated mansion, surrounded by a moat. A National School for this and East Bradenham parish, and residence for the teacher, has just been erected, at a cost of £900, raised by subscriptions and educational grants, the site and playground being presented by W. M. R. Haggard, Esq.: about 120 children attend. The Fuel Allotment, 14a. 1r. 12p., awarded in 1802, is let for £15 9s. a year, which is distributed in coals. Of this land, 2a. 2r. 36p. is let in small plots to industrious labourers. Certain land left for the poor by several donors, was exchanged at the enclosure for 7a. 35p., and two cottages let for £15 a year, which is also expended in coals for the poor.
Post Office at Thos. Green's; letters arrive at 8 a.m., and are despatched at 5 p.m.
See also East Bradenham
1891 Census Names Index
South Greenhoe hundred
Swaffham union
Kelly's 1883
White's 1845; 1864 and 1883 [GENUKI-NFK]
Bradenham Archeology [Norfolk Heritage Explorer]
West Bradenham smockmill [Jonathan Neville]
More on West Bradenham [GENUKI-NFK]
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