Norfolk Hundreds

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

WALSHAM HUNDRED

Is a long, narrow district, of an irregular figure, bounded on the south-east by the river Yare; on the north, by the river Bure, which separates it from Tunstead Hundred; and on the south and west, by Blofield and Taverham Hundreds; extending about 15 miles north-west from the confluence of the two rivers near Yarmouth, and varying from two to eight miles in breadth.

A considerable portion of the soil is low marshy land, and was frequently subject to inundation, particularly in the vale of the Bure, which extends the whole length of the Hundred; but the commons and marshes have been nearly all enclosed, and well drained, during the present century.

At the Norman Conquest, this Hundred was called Walesha, from the watery nature of its soil, and was then held by the Crown. Henry I. transferred a great part of it to Eborard, Bishop of Norwich, as a life-hold, at an annual rent of 100 shillings. In the time of Edward II., John de Clavering was seized of many manors here and in Blofield, and one court was held for both these Hundreds, which together form the Deanery of Blofield, in the Archdeaconry of Norwich.

A House of Industry was erected at Acle, in 1788, for seven parishes, to which ten other parishes were afterwards united, but the house was burnt down in Nov. 1834.

Walsham Hundred is crossed both by the Norwich and Yarmouth Railway and Turnpike, and contains thirteen parishes, of which the following is an enumeration, shewing their population, in 1841, their annual value, as assessed to the County Rate in 1843, and their territorial extent, in assessable acres.

	+========================================================+
	|                        |        |   Annl.  |           |
	|    PARISHES.           |  Pop.  |   Val.   |    Acres. |
	|                        |        |    £.    |           |
	+--------------------------------------------------------+
	| Acle                       864       5828         3165 |
	| Beighton                   288       2568          996 |
	| Halvergate                 495       5722         2636 |
	| Hemblington                284       1630          663 |
	| Moulton                    235       2068         1001 |
	| Ranworth-with }            290                         |
	|  Panxworth +  }            141       3614         2444 |
	| Reedham                    614       5048         3271 |
	| Tunstall                   116       2748         1598 |
	| Upton-with-    }                                       |
	|   Fishley      }           528       3936         2112 |
	| Walsham (South)                                        |
	|   St. Mary                 388       2152         1285 |
	|   St. Lawrence             225       3562         1867 |
	| Wickhampton                139       2708         1602 |
	| Woodbastwick               283       2572         1418 |
	+--------------------------------------------------------+
	|    Total                  4890     44,156       24,058 |
	+========================================================+

[There is more information about individual parishes]

+ Fishley and Panxworth are ecclesiastically separate parishes.

The whole Hundred is in BLOFIELD UNION, and in Ludham and Loddon Police Divisions. Its population was 4525, in 1831, and its annual value, as assessed to the property tax, was £27,061, in 1815, and £49,026, in 1842.

For more information see :-

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

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