Norfolk: Pentney

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

PENTNEY is a large straggling village, in a low marshy situation, on the north side of the river Nar, 9 miles S.E. by E. of Lynn, and 6½ miles N.W. by W. of Swaffham. Its parish contains 592 inhabitants, and 2,534 acres of enclosed land, with a hungry, gravelly soil, extending about five miles in length and one in breadth, on the north side of the vale of the Nar, The Rev. Dr. Thackeray, of Cambridge, is lord of the manor, and owner of one-fourth of the soil; the rest belongs to a number of small copyholders and leaseholders, subject to small certain fines.

Robert Vallibus held this manor of Roger Bigod, in the time of William the Conqueror, and founded here a PRIORY of Austin canons, on a watery spot called the isle of Eya, a mile west of the church, where the gatehouse is still standing. This priory was endowed with the manor, which, at the dissolution, was granted to Thos. Mildmay, Esq., from whom it passed to various families.

The CHURCH, (St. Mary Magdalen,) stands at the west end of the village, and is a curacy, certified at £20, and valued in 1831 at £60, being augmented from 1761 to 1816, with £800 of Queen Anne's bounty, laid out in 28 acres of land. The Rev. Robert Hankinson, of Walpole, is patron, and the Rev. Samuel Pearson, incumbent.

The parish was drained under an act passed in 1815.

The Poor's Lands, &c., given by unknown donors, consist of a farm-house, out buildings, and 8A. 1R. 9P., let for £18 a year; and three yearly rent charges, amounting to 25s. The poor have also the interest of £15, left by three donors, and an allotment of 62A. of land, allotted at the enclosure, in 1807, for supplying them with turf, &c. The herbage on this fuel allotment, is let for about £11 a year, which is distributed in coals.

	  Alcock    John            vict., William the IV.
	  Balding   Robert          carpenter
	  Barrett   Wm.             shoemaker & shopkpr.
	  Cater     John            vict., New Inn
	  Dawes     Robert          butcher
	  Dye       James           parish clerk
	  Eastick   William         cooper
	  Gage      Greenacre       beer house keeper
	  Hammond   Richard         blacksmith
	  Monday    William         schoolmaster
	  Riches    Jeremiah        miller and baker
	  Wiseman   William         vict., Mill

	                      FARMERS.
	                   * are yeomen.

	  Codling   Henry           Palmer    William
	* Dye       John            Paul      Sarah
	  Edwards   Timothy       * Stratton  George
	  Gooch     George          Stratton  Geo., jun.
	  Greenacre John            Smith     James, (and
	* Howlett   Wm.                         shopkeeper)
	  Munro     Walter, (&      Thurle    Lydia
	              maltster)     Winearls  Fredk.
	  Page      Charles         Youngs    Thomas