Return to villages index
Paddy's home page
1891 Census Names Index
White's 1854
White's 1845 [GENUKI-NFK]
Holy Trinity chapel, Spooner Row [Simon Knott]
Catholic church of Our Lady & St. Thomas of Canterbury [Simon Knott]
Chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury [Simon Knott]
North Mill smockmill, Silfield tower mill and Betwick postmill [Jonathan Neville]
Wymondham Archeology [Norfolk Heritage Explorer]
Wymondham Village pages
Kett's Rebellion [BBC]
More on Wymondham [GENUKI-NFK]
More Parish Information [Geoff Lowe & Andrew Rivett]

Norfolk - Wymondham

Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk, 1883, pp.567-70.

[Complete entry. Transcription Copyright © E.C.("Paddy") Apling]

Note: The town is pronounced "Wynd'em".

WYMONDHAM is a small market town, large parish and junction railway station on the line from London to Norwich: the lines branching from here are those on the west to Dereham and on the east to Forncett, joining the Ipswich and Norwich line. The town is head of a county court district, and polling place for the Southern division of the county: the parish is divided, for parochial purposes into six divisions, viz., Wattlefield, Suton, Silfield, Downham, Market Street and Town Green: it is 99 miles by road and 115½ by rail from London, 9½ south-west-by-west from Norwich, 20 north from Thetford and 11 south-east from East Dereham, in the Forehoe hundred and union, rural deanery of Hingham, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The town stands in an elevated situation and the houses are irregularly built, showing some antiquity, and it is lighted with gas from the works near the Fairland. The church of St. Mary the Virgin, a large noble edifice, was formerly part of a monastery, a portion of the ruins of which still remains: the octagon tower, at the east end of the church, is in good preservation: the spacious and lofty square western tower, containing 5 bells, was built by the parishioners in monastic times, on accounts of disputes between the regular and secular clergy as to their respective rights to ring the bells in the abbey tower: the interior has a lofty carved roof, supported by full-length figures of angels: the north aisle roof was repaired in 1845: there are several monumental tablets to the families of Burroughes and Jermy: the portion used as a chancel was restored about the year 1868, under the direction of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The register dates from the year 1615. The living is a vicarage, the vicarial tithe rent charge being commuted at £799 4s. 8d. with some glebe lands, in the gift of the Bishop of Norwich and held since 1854 by the Rev. Robert Eden M.A. honorary canon of Norwich, late fellow of Corpus Christi college, Oxford. The rectorial tithe rent charge (in the hands of a lay impropriator) was commuted at £2,192 15s. 4d The Primitive Methodist chapel, Town green, is a building of red and white bricks, the front having stone dressings with some carving, and was erected in 1870-1, at a cost of (including the site) £1,300, since which galleries, class rooms and sunday school room have been added and there are sittings for 500 persons: in 1877 a minister's house was erected adjoining the chapel: there is a small chapel at Silfield, erected in 1867, in connection with this denomination. The Congregational chapel, Fairland, is a brick building erected about the year 1710, since when it has been enlarged and the interior refitted in 1877; it will seat 550 persons. The Wesleyan chapel, Damgate street, is a brick building, erected in 1879. The Baptist chapel, Back lane, was erected about the year 1800, and will seat about 200 persons. Near the Bridewell is a small building in which meetings are held by a few friends professing simple Christian faith. The Society of Friends have a meeting house situated about one mile from the town, on the Crownthorpe road, to which a burial ground is attached. A Cemetery of 9 acres was opened on May 1st, 1882; the cost of the ground was £650 and 2 mortuary chapels £1,765; it is under the control of a Burial Board of 9 members formed in 1878. There are several charities left for the benefit of the poor, the principal of which is the town Lands Charity. The charity property is vested in the official Trustee of Charity Lands and now administered by 9 (the original number, being 13) trustees, of whom the Earl of Kimberley is chairman: the income amounts to about £250 yearly, out of which £60 is paid to the master of the Free Grammar School, £15 clerk's salary, £12 for apprenticing one or more boys of the parish, £7 6s. to the poor of the hamlet of Suton and repairs of the Grammar school, master's house and other buildings, the balance being added to the fuel allotment account. A sum of about £104 a year, derived from the fuel allotments which comprise 53 acres of land is expended in the purchase of coals, which are sold to the poor at reduced prices and delivered at their homes. The old County Female Prison, or House of Correction, is situated at the entrance of the town from Norwich, and has been converted into a police station, with superintendent's residence and magisterial court house, the female prisoners are now received at Norwich Castle. A Fire Brigade was established in 1882 and the engine house erected in the Market place; they have two manual engines and other necessary appliances. The market cross, in the centre of the town, built in 1616, is an octagonal building, supported on wooden pillars at each angle: in 1863 it was repaired and is now appropriated as a news, reading room and library, the latter containing about 500 volumes: it is an object of curiosity, on account of its antique appearance and its carved devices, representing different articles of turnery, which originally formed one of the staple branches of the trade in this place, but has declined for many years: an extensive turnery business is, however, now carried on with improved machinery. The market, on Friday, is unimportant and little business is now transacted. Three fairs are held annually, on the 14th of February, May the 17th for cattle, and on October the 12th for pleasure. Formerly a large trade was carried on by the inhabitants in the manufacture of paramattas, nets, satins and crapes, for Norwich houses, but it is now nearly extinct. St. Thomas à-Becket's chapel, an interesting ecclesiastical structure in the Town green, was restored by the trustees of the Town Lands Charity and is used for entertainments of a various character, being the only place available in the town for such purposes. Here is an extensive brewery, belonging to Messrs. William Cann & Co. Stanfield Hall is an ancient mansion in the Tudor style, having a large entrance hall, with richly groined roof and is encompassed by a moat: it occupies the site of the original manor house, erected about the twelfth century and stands in a park of about 70 acres: it is now the property of the heirs of Mrs. Gwyn and in the occupation of Colonel George Wilson Boileau F.R.G.S., F.R.Z.S., D.L., J.P. Burfield Hall, the residence of Maj.-General Henry Beville C.B. is about 2 miles south on the London road; it is a Queen Anne building, erected in 1709, and contains a fine entrance hall and old oak staircase, many of the rooms are panelled and some of the walls are of considerable thickness, it was originally surrounded by a moat, traces of which still remain. Gunvil Hall, now a farm house, in the Elizabethan style, formerly surrounded by a moat, is occupied by Mr. George Bowhill. There are several manors in this parish, the principal of which are those of Grisaugh, Cromwells and Rustens, of which Colonel Charles Robert Hobart, of Bath, is lord; Queen's manor, of which Mrs. J. de R. B. Clarke is lady; and Gunvils, of which E. W. R. Clarke esq. is lord: the other manors are Brockdish, Stalworthye's and Burtfield Hall, Stanfield Hall and Wymondham Hethersett. The principal landowners are the Earl of Kimberley, Edward William Routh Clarke esq. Colonel Hobart and the trustees of the late H. N. Burroughes esq. The number of acres is 10,613; rateable value £26,994; the population of the whole parish in 1881 was 4,556.

At WATTLEFIELD, 3 miles south, is a chapel of ease, built by John Mitchell esq. Wattlefield Hall is a building of the present century, in the Elizabethan style, and stands in about 40 acres of pasture and wood and is the seat of Edward William Routh Clarke esq. Spooner Row, formerly inhabited by makers of spoons and other wooden ware, is in this division. There is a small Wesleyan chapel here, built in the early part of the present century. There is likewise a small station on the main line of the Great Eastern railway, but at which few trains stop.

SUTON adjoins the town on the south-west, SILFIELD on the east and south-east, and DOWNHAM on the north and north-west, each extending about 3 miles from the town. Kimberley Hall, the seat of the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, is in Downham division.

_____

POST, MONEY ORDER & TELEGRAPH OFFICE, Savings Bank & Government Annuity & Insurance Office (open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.).— Mrs. Sarah Harriot Postle, postmistress, Market place. Letters received from London & all other places by night mail at 1.50 a.m. & by day mail at 1.20 p.m. & dispatched to London, Norwich & by night mail at 10.20 p.m. & day mail at 11 a.m. A foot post at 6 a.m. to Hethersett, Barnham Broom, Tacolneston, Wreningham, Morley, Spooner Row, Wicklewood & Barford, & returns at 8 p.m. Box closes at 9 p.m. Letters received until 10 p.m. with an extra ½d. stamp affixed.

SUB-OFFICE, Suton (opposite the King of Prussia).— John Barker Perfect, receiver. Letters dispatched to Wymondham at 6.25 p.m. week days

COUNTY MAGISTRATES FOR THE PETTY SESSIONAL DIVISION OF FOREHOE.

Petty Sessions are held the first & third tuesdays in every month at the Old Bridewell at 11 a.m. The following places are included in the Petty Sessional division: Barford, Barnham Broom, Bawburgh, Brandon Parva, Bowthorpe, Carleton Forehoe, Colton, Costessey, Coston, Crownthorpe, Deopham, Easton, Hackford, Hingham, Honingham, Kimberley, Marlingford, Morley St. Botolph, Morley St. Peter, Runhall, Welborne, Wicklewood, Wramplingham & Wymondham

INSURANCE AGENTS —

FOREHOE INCORPORATION.

[DIRECTORY:—]

Transcription Copyright © E.C."Paddy" Apling, August 2000; links updated April 2011. .

Return to villages index
Paddy's home page
1891 Census Names Index
White's 1854
White's 1845 [GENUKI-NFK]
Holy Trinity chapel, Spooner Row [Simon Knott]
Catholic church of Our Lady & St. Thomas of Canterbury [Simon Knott]
Chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury [Simon Knott]
North Mill smockmill, Silfield tower mill and Betwick postmill [Jonathan Neville]
Wymondham Archeology [Norfolk Heritage Explorer]
Wymondham Village pages
Kett's Rebellion [BBC]
More on Wymondham [GENUKI-NFK]
More Parish Information [Geoff Lowe & Andrew Rivett]