Norfolk Hundreds

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

TUNSTEAD HUNDRED

Is of a crooked oblong figure, extending about 13 miles southward from the sea coast, between Happisburgh and Mundesley, to the river Bure, and averaging from five to six miles in breadth. It is generally a well cultivated district of rich loamy land, highly productive in wheat and barley, and broken into a pleasing variety of hills, vales, and plains, interspersed with tracts of fertile marshes, and watered by several "broads" and rivulets, most of which are tributary to the small river Ant.

This river intersects and bounds this Hundred during its whole course from Antingham to the Bure, and was formerly navigable only as high as Dilham; but by deepening the channel, and cutting a canal, upwards of seven miles in length, in 1825-6, at the cost of £32,000, the navigation has been extended to North Walsham, and the bounds of Antingham; thus affording an easy transit for the produce of this and adjoining Hundreds, to Yarmouth.

TUNSTEAD AND HAPPING HUNDREDS form the Deanery of Waxham or Waxton, in the Archdeanery of Norwich, and their 24 parishes, except North Walsham, (which is in Erpingham Union,) where[sic] INCORPORATED for the support of their poor, in the 25th of Geo. III., when they erected a HOUSE OF INDUSTRY, at Smallburgh, which was altered and a little enlarged in 1836, and has room for about 500 paupers. Attached to this large Workhouse is 24A. of arable land. The expenditure of the 41 incorporated parishes, on their in and out-door poor, was £4367, in 1839; £4381, in 1842; and £1433, for the quarter ending September, 1844. They comprise an area of about 57,700 acres, and a population of 15,436 souls, of whom 7588 were males, and 7848 females.

John Postle, Esq., is chairman, and Mr. Jno. Barnard, of Worstead, is clerk to the Board of Guardians and Directors. Mr Washington Smith is master of the Wockhouse[sic] and Superintendent Registrar, for the incorporated parishes. The Rev. Thos. Dix is chaplain; and Messrs. James Bean and Robt. Rising, are relieving officers and registrars of births and deaths; the former for Tunstead District, and the latter for Happing District.

Tunstead Hundred is bounded on the north by the ocean and North Erpingham, on the east by Happing, on the south by Walsham, and on the west by South Erpingham and Taverham Hundreds. It contains 26 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.

	+===================================================+
	|                        |        | Annl.  |        |
	|    PARISHES.           |   Pop. | Value. | Acres. |
	|                        |        |   £.   |        |
	+---------------------------------------------------+
	| Ashmanhaugh                180      1006      644 |
	| Bacton                     513      2680     1585 |
	| Barton-Turf                408      2448     1509 |
	| Beeston St. Lawrc.          48       882      518 |
	| Bradfield                  195      1054      719 |
	| Crostwight                  69       346      688 |
	| Dilham                     488      2866     1540 |
	| Edingthorpe                195      1264      700 |
	| Felmingham                 408      3112     1863 |
	| Honing                     344      2206     1024 |
	| Horning                    467      3790     2524 |
	| Hoveton St. John           317      1746     1766 |
	| Hoveton St. Peter          137      1302      815 |
	| Irstead                    170      1136      838 |
	| Neatishead                 697      3052     1878 |
	| Paston                     298      2524     1318 |
	| Ridlington                 212      1186      597 |
	| Sco-Ruston                 115       822      482 |
	| Sloley                     291      1452      637 |
	| Smallburgh *               634      2568     1171 |
	| Swafield                   167      1434      817 |
	| Tunstead                   488      4144     2261 |
	| Walsham (North*)          2655    10,942     3808 |
	| Westwick                   192      1378      834 |
	| Witton                     280      2526     1720 |
	| Worstead                   834      4504     2404 |
	+---------------------------------------------------+
	| Total +                 10,802    62,827   34,696 |
	+===================================================+

[There is more information about individual parishes]

* Smallburgh included 135 persons in the Workhouse of the incorporated parishes of Tunstead and Happing, which comprise all the above, except North Walsham, which is in Erpingham Union.

+ Tunstead is in Aylsham and Ludham Police Divisions. Its population, in 1831, was 10,593; and its annual value, as assessed to the property tax, was £39,139, in 1815, and £50,595 in 1842.

PETTY SESSIONS, for Tunstead and Happing Hundreds, are held every Thursday, at North Walsham, and every Tuesday at the Workhouse, in Smallburgh. Mr. Philip Millard, of the former place, is clerk to the magistrates. The TUNSTEAD AND HAPPING AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION holds its meetings at North Walsham, where there is also a Farmers' Club.

From ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS on page 816, ERRATA section:

Page 474, sixth line from bottom, read 42, not 24 parishes.

This is Paragraph 3, first sentence in this page.

For more information see :-

General description and layout of Hundreds.
Other hundred descriptions from White's 1845.

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