Gazetteer

ACLE. - A small town on the Bure with a station m. W. from Yarmouth. Its fourteenth century church contains a fine oak screen and an ancient font. A few remains of Weybridge Priory, founded by Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, in the reign of Edward I. for canons of the Augustinian Order, are to be seen in the parish. This is a well-known Broadland angling resort, and a convenient place for obtaining yachting necessaries. Rowing boats may be hired here. The inns where yachtsmen and other visitors find accommodation are the King's Head, Queen's Head, and Bridge Angel.

Acre, South. - A parish in the valley of the Nar, 4 m. N. from Swaffham station. The church, an ancient building in the Early English style, contains some sixteenth century brasses, and, among others, a monument to Sir Edward Barkham, Lord Mayor of London in 1621, and another to Sir Eudo Harsicke, dating from about 1248.

Acre, West. - A village in the valley of the Nar, 3 m. N.E. from Narborough station. Near the church are the ruins of a priory founded by Ralph de Toni in the reign of William I.

Alborough. - A village 5 m. N. from Aylsham. In its church are some fifteenth century brasses.

Alburgh. - A village 1 m. N. from Homersfield station. The church is mainly in the Perpendicular style, but contains some Early English portions.

Alby. - A scattered village 5 m. N.E. from Aylsham.

Aldeby (p. 188). - A village in the Waveney Valley, with a station on the Beccles and Yarmouth line. The church is in the Early English style and has a fine Norman doorway. Some remains of a small priory, founded in the reign of Henry I., form part of the Priory Farm buildings.

Alderford. - A village m. E. from Lenwade station. The church is a small structure in the Early English style.

Alethorpe. - A parish of one farm m. N.E. from Fakenham.

Alpington. - A village 6 m. S.E. from Norwich.

Anmer. - A village m. E. from Dersingham station. The church, a flint and stone building in the Perpendicular style, stands in the park of Anmer Hall.

Antingham. - A village 2½ m. N.W. from North Walsham. The river Ant has its source here at a spot known as Antingham Ponds. There are two churches in the churchyard, but one, that of St Margaret, is in ruins, only the tower and part of the nave remaining. St Mary's is in the Decorated style.

Appleton. - A decayed parish adjoining Flitcham.

Arminghall. - A village 2 m. S. by E. from Norwich. The church is chiefly Early English. The old Hall, now converted into cottages, has a finely sculptured porch. An old house near the church bears the inscription - '' Pray for the soul of Master William Ely, who caused this to be made into a hospital in the year 1487."

Ashby St Mary. - A village 3 m. S.W. from Buckenham station. The church, a flint structure in the Early English style, has a fine Norman south porch.

Ashby-cum-Oby. - A united parish 2 m. S.S.W. from Potter Heigham station. The church has all but disappeared.

Ashill. - A village 3 m. N.W. from Watton station. The church is a Gothic structure with a clerestoried nave. Its nave and chancel are divided by a carved oak screen.

Ashmanhaugh. - A parish 2 m. N. from Wroxham station.

Ashwellthorpe. - A village with a station on the Wymondham and Forncett line. Its Early English church contains the tomb of Sir Edmund de Thorpe, who was envoy from Henry V. to the Duke of Burgundy, and slain at the siege of Lover's Castle in Normandy, his body being brought here for burial. The recumbent effigies of the knight and his wife are fine work, engraved by Stothard. The north chapel has five stained windows, with the arms of the Thorpe, Bourchier, Knyvet, Wilson and Berners families, also a brass dated 1561. The font was given to the church in 1660 by Lady Knyvet. The Hall, a modernised Elizabethan mansion, has been the seat of the Thorpe, Bourchier, Knyvet and Berners families. A ballad quoted by Blom- field in his " History of Norfolk" relates how, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, a stranger appeared at Christmas time at this hall and caused an acorn to turn suddenly into a great oak, the branches of which filled the hall. The tree was felled, but could not be removed until two goslings came and drew it away.

Ashwicken. - A parish m. N. from East Winch station.

Aslacton. - A village 2 m. N.W. from Tivetshall station. The church is mainly Norman, with a round tower supposed to be Saxon.

Attleborough. - A small market town 15 m. S.W. from Norwich, with a station on the Norwich and Thetford line. The church is a fine structure chiefly Early English, but partly Norman, It has a clerestoried nave and two chapels; and contains some fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth century monuments and tablets. Its ancient western screen is of very elaborate workmanship. The choir which was originally the chapel of a college founded by Sir Robert Mortimer in 1387 has disappeared; the existing one was built some time later. In the central aisle is buried Captain John Gibbs, who, in the days of Charles II., for a wager, drove a light chaise and four horses up and down a deep hollow called the Devil's Ditch, on Newmarket Heath. The chief inns are the Royal and the Griffin.

Attlebridge, - A village on the Wensum, with a station on the Norwich and Melton Constable line. The church is a small Perpendicular flint building.

Aylmerton. - A coast parish 3 m. W.S.W. from Cromer. Its Perpendicular church has a thirteenth century round tower and contains an old oak screen and a chancel rail adorned with curious poppy-heads. There are some rumtof a chantry chapel on the north side. On the hills between Aylmerton and Runton are traces of an entrenchment called a Roman camp. Near by are the famous "Shrieking Pits," of which there are said to be at least 2000. They are believed to be portions of the dwellings of some pre-historic inhabitants of East Anglia. Similar pits are to be seen on Beeston Heath and at Weybourne, places in this neighbourhood; and at Marsham near Aylsham; also in other counties, more particularly in Oxfordshire and on Dartmoor.

Aylsham. - An ancient market town on the Bure, with stations on the Great Eastern and Great Northern and Midland Joint railways. It occupies a very pleasant position in the midst of a well-wooded district called the "Garden of Norfolk." The church is believed to have been founded by John of Gaunt. Aylsham stations are the nearest to Blickling Hall, one of the finest country houses in Norfolk, described in Itinerary X. The River Bure is navigable to wherries as far up its course as Aylsham. The chief inns are the Black Boys and the Dog.

Babingley. - A parish included in the Prince of Wales's Sandringham Estate, 2 m. E. from Wolferton station. The church, which stands in a meadow near the railway, is a building in the Decorated! style, supposed to occupy the site on which St Felix built the first Christian church in East Anglia. It contains the remains of a Norman sedilia in the chancel. Near the few cottages in this parish is a portion of an old wayside cross.

Baconsthorpe. - A parish 3 m. E.S.E. from Holt station. Its church, chiefly Perpendicular, contains some interesting monuments of the Heydon family, dating from the fifteenth century. Opening into the vestry is an Easter sepulchre. Baconsthorpe Hall, the old home of the Heydons, has been allowed to fall into decay; but is still a picturesque relic of the Tudor period.

BACTON. - A coast parish 5 m. N.E. from North Walsham station. This parish comprises the hamlets of Bacton Green and Bromholm, and is famous for its ruins of Bromholm Priory. The "Rood of Bromholm," as the relic was called for which this priory was renowned, purported to be a piece of the true cross. It was said to have been carried away from the Imperial chapel at Constantinople by an English chaplain of the Emperor, Baldwin of Flanders. On reaching England the chaplain offered to sell the relic to the Benedictines of St Albans, who, however, doubted its authenticity and refused to purchase. It was eventually accepted by the prior of Bromholm; and in 1223 such miracles were ascribed to it that its fame spread all over the country and even to the Continent. Henry III. visited the priory in 1233. About two centuries later, Sir John Paston, a member of a well- known Norfolk family, who had distinguished himself in London, was buried in the church. On the latter occasion, according to Harrod, "A barber was occupied five days in smartening up the monks for the ceremony." Someehing further about this famous priory will be found in the chapter " By the Wild North Sea."

Bagthorpe. - A village 4 m. S.E. from Docking station.

Bale. - A parish 2 m. N.E. from Thursford station.

banham. - A village 3½ m. E. by S. from Eccles Road station. It has a fine Perpendicular church in which is a wooden effigy of its founder, Sir Hugh Bardolph. The village is an important centre of cider-making, which has been carried on here for nearly 200 years.

Banningham. - A scattered village 2½ m. N.E. from Aylsham.

Barford. - A village 5 m. N. by W. from Wymondham. The church is a small building with two altars at the east end of the nave.

Barmer. - A parish 4 m. S.E. from Docking station.

Barney. - A village 3/4 m. from Thursford station.

Barnham Broom. - A village 2½ m. N. from Kimberley station.

Barningham, Little. - A village 3 m. from Corpusty station.

Barningham Norwood. - A parish 5 m. E. by S. from Holt.

Barningham Winter. - A parish 4½ m. E.S.E. from Holt. The church, partly in ruins, stands in the park of Barningham Hall, a mansion in the Tudor style, with a fine west front with double dormers. The house was built by Sir Edward Paston in 1612, but at the beginning of the nineteenth century was enlarged and its south front altered according to the designs of Humphrey Repton, the landscape gardener.

Barsham, East. - a parish 3½ m. n. from Fakenham. a portion of the tower of an earlier church forms the porch of the present one. The fine Tudor Hall erected in the reign of Henry VII., and formerly the seat of the Calthorpe family, is now a farmhouse partly in ruins. Even now it is considered "one of the richest examples of ornamental brickwork " extant, and some of its handsome chimneys and turrets are in good preservation.

Barsham, North, - A small parish 1½ m. from Walsingham station. The church contains a stone coffin dug up in an adjacent field.

Barsham, West. - A parish 2 3/4 m. S. from Walsingham station. The church is chiefly in the Gothic style, but some parts of it are Saxon and Norman. Its tower has disappeared.

Barton Bendish. - A village 4 m. N. from Stoke Ferry station. There were formerly three churches here, but one of them, that of All Saints, was pulled down a little more than a century ago. St Andrew's Church is a decorated structure with a fine late Norman doorway, and two Norman windows in the north side of the nave. The rood-loft staircase is intact. Some of the benches are nearly 300 years o Id. Si Mary' s Church has in its western gable a Norman arch once a doorway to AU Saints. It contains some remains of a mediaeval painting. Barton Bendish Hall, for a long time the seat of the Berney family, contains portions of an earlier mansion purchased by the Hare family in the reign of Charles II. It is now a farmhouse.

Barton Turf. - A village 4 m. N.E. from Wroxham station. Its church is a fine Perpendicular building noted for its painted rood screen, on the panels of which are depicted St Appolonia, St Zita, St Barbara, and the Heavenly Hierarchy. A screen in the south side bears paintings of Henry VI., St Edward, St Edmund, and St Olave. Here are also some good fifteenth century brasses, and a mural tablet to Anthony Norris, an antiquary whose M.S. collections are now in the possession of the Frere family. Barton Broad, a fine sheet of water connected with the river Ant, is in this parish. Boats for rowing on the broad may be hired here, and good fishing enjoyed.

Barwick. - A parish 2 m. E. from Docking station.

Bawburgh. - A village on the Yare, 4 m. W. from Hethersett station. The church (of St Mary and St Walstan), is chiefly in the Perpendicular style, but with a Norman tower. In it are several old brasses and a good carved screen. St Walstan was a local saint said to have worked as a field labourer in this neighbourhood. He was buried here in the eleventh century, and his tomb was the resort of many pilgrims. St Walstan's Well, on the Rectory Farm, was at one time reputed to possess great healing powers.

Bawdeswell. - A village 3 m. S.E. from Foulsham station.

Bawsey. - A parish, with a station called Gayton Road, m. E. by S. from Lynn. The church is in ruins.

Bayfield. - A parish on the Glaven, m. N.W. from Holt station. The church is an ivy-clad ruin.

beckham, east. - a parish 2½ m. S. from Sheringham station.

Beckham, West. - A parish 2½ m. S. from Sheringham station.

Bedingham. - A parish 4 m. N.W. from Earsham station. The church is a large Perpendicular building, with two chapels formerly used by the inhabitants of two adjoining hamlets. The heart of a member of the Bruce family who died abroad is said to be buried under a stone in the church.

Beechamwell. - A village 5 m. S.W. from Swaffham. Its Early English church has an ancient round tower, and contains two fifteenth century brasses. A curious earthwork about 9 miles long, known as the " Devil's Dyke," is to be seen on the western side of this parish. It extends from Narborough to Caldecott.

Beeston. - A large village 2 m. N.E. from Fransham station. The church has a carved screen. The rectory house was formerly surrounded by a moat. It was burnt down in the reign of James I. and rebuilt on the same site.