BARSHAM (EAST), a village and parish, in the picturesque valley of the small river Stiffkey, 3 miles N. of Fakenham, is in Walsingham union and county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, Gallow hundred and petty sessional division, Fakenham polling district of West Norfolk, Burnham rural deanery, and Norfolk archdeaconry. It had 180 inhabitants in 1881, living on 1167 acres, and has a rateable value of £1912. Nearly all the soil belongs to Lord Hastings, the lord of the manor.
The Hall, now a farm-house, is a much admired specimen of ancient brick work, in the Tudor style, built in the latter end of the reign of Henry VII., and the beginning of that of Henry VIII., by Sir William Fermor, and afterwards the seat of the Calthorpes. It is ornamented with moulded brick, in bands of panels charged with various shields and heads, ogee canopies with crockets and finials, hollow mouldings filled with roses, octagonal and round turrets, and handsome chimneys enriched with fleur-de-lis and roses. Over the gateways are the royal arms, supported by the greyhound and griffin, with the portcullis in the corners. Near it is a large barn, in the walls of which are many large fragments of carved stone (one of them bearing the arms of England) supposed to have been either brought from Walsingham Abbey, or to have formed part of the steeple of East Barsham Church.
The CHURCH (All Saints) is a small edifice, and formerly had a tower, the base of which is now the porch. In the interior is a sumptuous monument of alabaster and black marble, in memory of one of the Calthorpes, with the effigy of a female rising from her coffin, figures of angels, &c. The church was thoroughly restored in 1880. The west window is filled with coloured glass, in memory of Mrs. Sarah Astley.
The discharged vicarage, valued in the King's Book at £16 13s. 4d., is in the gift of Lord Hastings, and the living is endowed with the rectorial tithes, and consolidated with the rectory of Little Snoring. It was augmented with £200 of Queen Anne's Bounty in 1754. The joint benefices, now worth £680 a year, are in the incumbency of the Rev. W. Martin, B.A., who has six acres of glebe, and a neat residence, enlarged in 1856 by the patron.
The poor have two cottages, left by James Calthorpe in 1636.
In 1874 a School Board was established for a district comprising the three Barshams and Houghton-in-the-Dale. The school was erected here in 1875, at an outlay of about £450. The present board consists of the Rev. R.W. Martin (chairman), Rev. J.C. Platten (vice), and Messrs. H. Green, J. Ellis, D. Hudson, and M.B. Butler. Mr. R. Cowburn (New Walsingham) is the clerk.
POST viâ Walsingham, which is the nearest Money Order Office. WALL LETTER BOX cleared at 5 p.m., and at 8 a.m. on Sundays.
Barnes James victualler, White Horse Curtis George farmer Falkenbridge William parish clerk Green Henry farmer, Old Hall Hudson Oliver farmer; h Fakenham Martin Rev. William, B.A. vicar, and rector of Little Snoring, and rural dean of Walsingham Deanery Nicholson Jph. Board schoolmaster
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Copyright © Pat Newby.
October 2008