Gazetteer page 2

Beeston Regis. - A coast parish 3 m. W.N.W. from Cromer. The church has a fine roof, and contains some remains of a painted screen. Within the bounds of the parish are the ruins of an Augustinian priory founded by Lady Elizabeth Cressy in the reign of King John.

Beeston St Andrew. - A village 2½ m. W. from Salhouse station. The church has disappeared.

Beeston St Lawrence. - A parish 3 m. W. from Wroxham station. Its ancient flint and stone church contains some fine monuments of the Preston family, whose seat was until recently at Beeston Hall, and who distinguished themselves as supporters of the Royalist cause during the civil wars. Jacob Preston of Beeston waited upon Charles I. during his imprisonment, and received from his royal master an emerald ring.

Beetley. - A parish 3 m. N. by W. from Dereham. In the church chancel are the remains of a finely carved piscina.

Beighton. - A village 2 m. S.W. from Acle station. Its church, a fine building in the Decorated style, contains a Norman font and ancient oak chest.

Belaugh. - A village on the Bure, 1 m. W. from Wroxham station. The handsome screen in the church gave offence to a Puritan trooper, who '' rubbed out" the faces of the twelve Apostles. Belaugh Broad (12 acres) is in this parish.

Bessingham. - A parish 6 m. E.S.E. from Cromer. A mound here called " The Castle " was probably a Roman camp.

Besthorpe. - A scattered village 1 m. N.E. from Attleborough. Its church is a cruciform Decorated building containing a fine monument to members of the Drury family, whose seat was Besthorpe Hall. This hall was built in 1590. The crests of Sir William Drury and Viscount Kilmorey are over its east front. The walls of an old tilting ground may be seen near the hall.

Bex well. - A parish 1¼ m. from Downham Market. The church is in the Norman and Early English styles, with a round tower surmounted by an octagonal belfry. The pulpit is of Caen stone, and is adorned with an alabaster figure of Christ bearing the Cross.

Billingford. - A village 1½ m. E. from North Elmham station. The church is a flint building in the Early English style, with a clerestoried nave of four bays. There are piscinas in the chancel and north aisle, and near the south doorway is a mutilated stoup. Beck Hall, in this parish, was an hospital for poor travellers, founded by William de Bee in the reign of Henry III.

Billingford or Pyrleston. - A straggling village 3 m. E. from Diss.

Billockby. - A parish 2½ m. from Acle station. The church is partly in ruins.

Bilney, East. - A village 3 m. W. from North Elmham station. Part of the church tower was thrown down during Kett's Rebellion. The cottage in which lived Thomas Bilney, who was burnt as a heretic at Norwich in 1531, stands in the village, and contains a curiously carved ceiling of black wood.

Bilney, West. - A village 1½ m. E. from East Winch station.

Binham. - A large village 5 m. S.E. by E. from Wells. Its priory church and ruins.

Bintree. - A parish 2 m. E. from County School station.

Bircham, Great. - A village 3 m. S. from Docking station.

Bircham, Newton. - A small village 2 m. S. from Docking station.

Bircham Tofts. - A village 3 m. S. from Docking station.

Bittering, Little. - A village 3 m, N. from Wendling station. Its Early English church contains a Norman font and Jacobean reading desk and manorial pew. The site of an old manor house here is surrounded by a moat.

Bixley. - A village 3 m. S.E. from Norwich. The church (of St Wandregesilius) is a modern building, with an ancient embattled tower.

Blakeney. - A small coast town m. N.N.W, from Holt station. Its church, which stands on an eminence south of the town, is a fine building in the Early and Later English styles, with a clerestoried nave and lofty tower. The chancel roof is vaulted and beautifully groined in stone. At its N.E. angle is a turret, said to have been used for showing a beacon light to mariners at sea. On the east side is an arch and two aumbries; on the north side the remains of an Easter sepulchre. The oak roof of the nave is very fine; the rood screen remains in its place; and the north and south tower buttresses bear the arms of the sees of Norwich and Thetford. There are some remains of a Carmelite monastery here. It was founded by John Stormer in 1290, and in the fourteenth century had for its friar John de Baconthorpe, a learned metaphysician who was made Provincial of the English Carmelites

Blickling. - A village 2 m. N.W. from Aylsham station. It is believed to have been the birthplace of Anne Boleyn. Blickling Hall, one of the finest mansions in England, and Blickling Church, are fully described in Itinerary X.

Blofield. - A parish and head of a union 1¼ m. from Brundall station. Its fifteenth century church has four statues as pinnacles to the tower, and contains some interesting monuments, one to a member of the Paston family.

Blo'norton. - A village on the Ouse, 6 m. S.E. from Harling Road station.

BodhAM. - A parish 3 m. E. from Holt station.

Bodney. - A parish 7 m. S. from Swaffham. It has an ancient church in the Early English style, with traces of Saxon workmanship. The Hall was occupied by a community of French nuns during the Revolution.

Booton. - A village 1 m. S.E. from Reepham station.

Boughton. - A village 1 m. N. from Stoke Ferry station.

Bowthorpe. - A parish on the Yare, 3½ m. W. from Norwich. The church is in ruins.

Bracon Ash. - A village 2 m. N.W. from Flordon station. The Hall, which occupies the site of an earlier building in which Queen Elizabeth is said to have stayed, stands in a very ancient park which pays the rector £5 a year, the computed value of a buck or doe, in lieu of all tithes. The Berney family, who still hold the hall, are of Norman descent and settled in Norfolk before the Conquest, giving their name to a manor and parish in West Norfolk.

Bradenham, East. - A village 3½ m. S. from Wendling station.

Bradenham, West. - A village 3 m. S. from Wendling station. The church, an ancient flint building in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, has, in the chancel, an inscribed stone to Thomas Cayley, a rector to whose ancestors the manor was granted by the Earl of Warrenne at the Conquest. There is also a memorial window to members of the Haggard family. Bradenham Hall, built in 1772, occupies an elevated position, and was the birthplace of Mr H. Rider Haggard, the novelist.

Bradfield. - A parish 1½ m. S. by E. from Gunton station.

Bramerton. - A picturesque parish on the Yare, 4½ m. S.E. from Norwich. The church, rebuilt in 1462, contains memorial windows to the Blake family. The Wood's End Inn is largely patronised by boating parties. The Hall, from about 1400 to about 1760 the seat of the Corys, has been partly rebuilt. The Grange is an old Elizabethan building with a fine oak staircase.

Brampton. - A village on the Bure, 2½ m. S.E. from Aylsham. The old Hall is now a farm-house.

BRANCASTER. - A coastline village 5 m. W.N.W. from Burn- ham Market station. The church is a flint building in the Perpendicular style, with a clerestoried nave and fine embattled tower. This place is the site of the Roman station of Branodonum, which was garrisoned by Dalmatian cavalry commanded by an officer called the " Count of the Saxon Shore." Scarcely a trace of this encampment, which was connected by a Roman road with a station at Caister near Yarmouth, is now to be seen. The links of the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club are on a common near the beach.

Brandiston. - A village 2 m. Si from Cawston station. The Hall, an enlarged Jacobean mansion, erected in 1647, contains some good carving.

BRANDON. - A small market town with a station 6 m. W. from Thetford. Part of this place is in Suffolk. Its church contains some Norman work. The manufacture of gun-flints is still carried on here, considerable quantities being made for export to the Arab tribes of Africa. The neighbourhood is noted for its prolific production of flint implements, both prehistoric and spurious. An extended reference to Brandon, its curious industry, and prehistoric remains is made in Itinerary IV.

Brandon Parva. - A parish on the Yare, 2½ m. N. from Hardingham station.

Breckles. - A village 1½ m. S. from Stow Bedon station. Its church contains a Norman font, fine carved oak screen, Norman arch, an hour glass, a carved oak pulpit, and some good oak benches with carved poppy heads. Ursula, wife of Sir William Hewyt, was buried here in 1658 in an upright position. A black marble tablet marks her grave and bears the words '' Stat ut Vixit Erecta." The Hall, a sixteenth century mansion, is now a farmhouse.

Bressingham. - A straggling village on the Suffolk border, 3 m. N.W. from Diss station. The church, rebuilt in 1527, has a clerestoried nave and lofty embattled tower, and contains good oak carving in its roof, pulpit, reading-desk, and pews.

Brettenham. - A village on the Thet, 4 m. E. from Thetford. The church is a modern one; the original structure was destroyed by fire in the seventeenth century.

Bridgham. - A village in the vale of the Thet, 2 m. S.W. from Harling Road station. The church is a large building in the Early English style, with a Norman south porch,

Briningham. - A village 1 m. N. from Melton Constable station.

Brinton. - A village 2 m. from Melton Constable station. The church contains Saxon and Norman work, but has been considerably restored and enlarged in later styles.

Brisley. - A parish 3 m. W. from North Elmham station. The church contains some sixteenth century brasses and an ancient rood screen.

Briston. - A large village 1 m. E. from Melton Constable station.

Brockdish. - A village on the Waveney, 4 m. S.W. from Harleston. The church benches are ornamented with some handsome poppy heads, and there are also some remains of a painted rood screen. A house here called " The Grove," built in 1672, has a fine oak staircase.

Brooke. - A village 6 m. S. by E. from Trowse station. The Lodge is an Elizabethan mansion.

Broome. - A village 1¼ m. N.W. from Ellingham station. A fine carved oak reredos was presented to the church in 1891.

Brumstead. - A parish 1 m. N. from Stalham station.

BRUNDALL. - A village on the Yare, with a station, 6½ m. E. from Norwich. This is a noted Broadland resort. It affords excellent fishing, boats being obtainable at Coldham Hall and the Yare Hotel, where is also accommodation for visitors. In the church is a curious font covered with lead, supposed to date from the twelfth century. In Bradeston Church, now included in Brundall parish, is Saxon workmanship, and a brass to Osbert, a son of John Berney of Reedham, who was wounded at the siege of Caister Castle in 1469.

Buckenham Ferry. - A village on the Yare, 8 m. E. from Norwich. Its station is the nearest to Rockland Broad. The arms of the family of Gonsalve, lords of the manor until the end of the sixteenth century, may be seen in the carved wainscot of the old Hall, now a farmhouse.

Buckenham, New. - A small town 5 m. S.E. from Attleborough. The church is a fine building in the late Perpendicular style, and has a clerestoried nave of five bays and embattled tower. Inn: George.

Buckenham, Old. - A village 3 m"; S. by E. from Attleborough. An ancient earthwork known as " Bunn's Bank" divides Old Buckenham from Attleborough. It can be traced for nearly three miles. Here are also a few traces of an Augustinian priory, founded by William D'Albini, a follower of the Conqueror, on the site of a castle which stood within similar earthworks to those at Castle Acre and Castle Rising. Some remains of a dungeon are all that is left of this Norman stronghold, but the earthworks, overgrown with trees, are practically undisturbed.

Buckenham Tofts. - A small parish 6 m. N.E. from Brandon station.

Bun well. - A scattered village 4 m. W. from Forncett station.

Burgh. - A village on the Bure, 2 m. S.E. from Aylsham. The upper stage of its church's chancel has a range of fine lancets, arcaded on the inside; the lower stage has continuous arcading. An Early English archway in the north wall opens into a chapel. This striking work dates from about the year 1200.

Burgh-Apton. - A scattered village 3½ m. from Loddon and 5 m. S. by W. from Buckenham station.

Burgh, Flegg. - A parish 2 m. S.W. from Martham station. It formerly consisted of two parishes (Burgh St Margaret and St Mary). Only a small portion of the tower of St Mary's Church remains. St Margaret's is a flint building in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, with a Late Norman doorway.

Burgh St Peter. - A village on the Waveney, m. from Carlton Colville station by ferry and marsh footpath. The church has a curious tower, consisting of five storeys, each smaller than the one immediately below it. The interior of the church somewhat resembles a cloister, being about no feet long and little more than 14 feet wide. There is a riverside landing-stage here, where boating parties on the Waveney land to obtain a closer view of the church.

Burlingham, North. - A scattered village 1½ m. N. from Lingwood station. The church, a flint building in the Gothic style, contains some remains of a good carved oak screen.

Burlingham St Peter. - A parish 1½ m. N.E. from Lingwood station.

Burlingham, South. - A parish adjoining Lingwood station. The church, a small thatched building, contains a fifteenth century pulpit, on hour-glass stand, and a fifteenth century rood screen, There are also some interesting frescoes, one of the fourteenth century portraying the murder of Thomas a Becket.