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Norfolk Hundreds

White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845

SOUTH ERPINGHAM HUNDRED

[Transcription copyright © Richard Johns]

Is a highly cultivated district, finely interspersed with woods, streams, villages, churches, and many handsome seats. It is of a crooked spiral figure, about 16 miles in length, exclusive of a narrow strip at its northern extremity, terminating at West Beckham; and varying from 9 to less than 5 miles in breadth, extending to within 3 miles of the ocean. It is bounded on the south by Taverham, on the west by Eynesford and Holt, on the north by North Erpingham, and on the east by Tunstead Hundred. The river Bure flows through it, from Corpusty to Belaugh, receiving in its course many tributary streams, watering a fertile valley, which in some places is broken into bold and picturesque acclivities. In 1773, an act was obtained to make the Bure navigable from Coltishall up to Aylsham, a market town, nearly in the centre of this Hundred, which forms, in ecclesiastical matters, the Deanery of Ingworth, in the Archdeaconry of Norwich.

PETTY SESSIONS, for the whole Hundred, are held at the Black Boy, Aylsham, every Tuesday; and Mr. Fredk. Roe is clerk to the magistrates. The fee of it remained in the Crown till 1226, when Henry III. granted it to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, at which time the Hundred Court was held at Cawston Park Gate.

It contains 38 parishes, of which the following is an enumeration, shewing their population in 1841, the annual value of their lands and buildings, as assessed to the County Rate in 1843, and their territorial extent, in assessable acres.

PARISHES. Pop. Annl.
Value
£.
Acres.
Alby  2991448  715
Aylsham244810,4784102
Baconsthorpe  32616381348
Banningham @  3291680  908
Barningham(Ltl.)  22911961225
Beckham (West)  1791034  723
Belaugh  1641072  826
Blickling @  35624442081
Booton  24117301011
Brampton *  263  990  482
Burgh St. Mary *  3141562  789
Buxton *  713 28241204
Calthorpe   21416561028
Cawston11304248 3805
Colby @  3461870 1075
Coltishall   8973412 1129
Corpusty  4491340  927
Erpingham @  47526081348
Hautboys (Great)  162  936  589
Hevingham *  89334002793
Heydon  32116601717
Ingworth  152  956  496
Irmingland  13  840  704
Itteringham @  35118141442
Lammas-with- }
Ltl. Hautboys  }
  257}
    42}
1634  811
Mannington    20  590  548
Marsham *  698 2214 1384
Oulton @   4091898 1675
Oxnead *    561244  641
Saxthorpe  3421952 2073
Scottow  5393504 2068
Skeyton *  3512018 1227
Stratton-Straw-}
  less *          }
  27716361217
Swanton-Abbot *  501 1700  946
Thwaite  170 1044  482
Tuttington   2271620  822
Wickmere  3071612  975
Wolterton    431142  722



Total15,50076,64448,058

[There is more information about individual parishes]

All the above parishes are in Aylsham Union, except Baconsthorpe and West Beckham, which are in Erpingham Union, and Booton, which is in St. Faith's Union. All are in Aylsham Police Division, except Belaugh, which is in Dereham Division. The population of the Hundred, in 1831, was 14,898. Its annual value, as assessed to the PROPERTY TAX, was £56,205, in 1815, and £85,527, in 1842.

* @ AYLSHAM UNION comprises 35 parishes in South Erpingham, and 11 parishes in Eynesford Hundred. (See page 344. [this is in Eynesford Hundred description]) These 46 parishes comprise an area of 106 square miles; and in 1841, had 20,056 inhabitants, of whom 9869 were males and 10,187 females. Their average annual expenditure, during the three years preceding the formation of the Union, was £20,391; but in 1838, it was only £9652. For the quarter ending Dec. 1844, it was £2569.

The Union Workhouses are at Buxton and Oulton, both of which are old Houses of Industry; that at Buxton, 4 miles S.S.E. of Aylsham, being built before the year 1800, for nine incorporated parishes, (marked * in the foregoing table;) and that at Oulton, 3½ miles N.W. of Aylsham, being altered in 1804, as a Workhouse for the six parishes marked @ in the foregoing table.

After the formation of the Union, in 1836, these houses were altered and enlarged, at the cost of about £1200. That at Buxton has room for about 400 paupers, and that at Oulton for about 100. Only the aged and infirm are sent to the latter, where the average weekly cost of each inmate, for food and clothing, is 2s 11.; but at Buxton it is 2s. 0½d. The Union has two chaplains and eight surgeons; and Mr. Wm. Hill, of Marsham, is Union Clerk and Supt. Registrar.

The Masters of the Workhouses are, Mr. Thomas Potter, at Buxton, and Mr. E. F. Barnaby, at Oulton. Mr. J. Wright and Mr. A. Sands are the district registrars and relieving officers. In the months of Oct. Nov. and Dec. 1844, no fewer than 18 persons died in this Union, each of them above 80, and three of them above 90 years of age.


Notes

Some placenames in the transcription (of pages 450 to 451) above are given below together with their standard spelling :-
Barningham(Ltl.)/Little Barningham,  Beckham (West)/West Beckham,  Burgh St. Mary/Burgh next Aylsham,  Hautboys (Great)/Great Hautboys (Great Hautbois),  Ltl. Hautboys/Little Hautboys (Little Hautbois),  Stratton-Straw-less/Stratton Strawless, Swanton Abbot/Swanton Abbott,  Thwaite/Thwaite All Saints


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Copyright © Mike Bristow.
April 2006