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TRUNCH (called Trunchet in Domesday Book), 3 miles N. of North Walsham, is a considerable village, said to have had a market as late as the 16th century. Its parish is in Erpingham union, North Erpingham hundred and petty sessional division, North Walsham county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, North Walsham polling district of North Norfolk, Repps rural deanery, and Norfolk archdeaconry. It had 451 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 1332 acres of land. The rateable value is £2733.
It is a member of the manor of Gimingham-Lancaster, held of the Duchy of Lancaster by Lord Suffield; and the soil belongs to William Primrose, Esq., Sir T.F. Buxton, Bart., Thomas Blaxland Bidwell, Robert Ives, Esq., and others. Here is a large brewery, built in 1837, by William Primrose, Esq., whose family has been seated in the parish about three centuries.
The CHURCH (St. Botolph) stands near the centre of the village, and is a handsome building, chiefly of Perpendicular architecture. It comprises nave, with aisles and clerestory, chancel, south porch, and lofty tower with three bells; and in 1863 was thoroughly restored and re-fitted with new open seats, pulpit, and reading-desk, of oak, at a cost of £600. The fine open timber roof is of high pitch, and springs from carved corbels; there are small figures of angels on the ends of the hammer-beams, and the spandrils are filled with beautiful perforated work.
The screen is of the most elegant design; its lower panels have paintings of twelve Apostles, with their usual emblems, and above them is an elaborate cornice, having scrolls intertwined with foliage, on which is carved a Latin inscription. The upper part of the screen consists of six arches and the doorway, filled with tracery.
The font is of the late Decorated period, and its six sides are panelled with tracery. It stands beneath an elaborate and almost unique baptistery, or self-supporting cover, of richly carved oak, of the Late-Perpendicular period. This cover rests on six small shafts or pillars of square form, having buttresses, and carved in their whole height with twisted foliage rising out of a vase, formerly gilded, and terminating in animals' heads. These support an hexagonal top, each side of which is canopied, and had originally some further decorations - traces of the Crucifixion with St. Mary and St. John being visible on two of the sides; above this is a crocketed canopy, from which the finial is lost. There is sufficient space in the enclosure thus formed for the administration of the baptismal service.
In the chancel is a monument to the Rev. Lancelot Thexton, who was rector of Trunch and chaplain to Edward VI., and died in 1533. On his monument is the name Jehovah in Samaritan characters. The present rector is now completing the restoration of the chancel. The priest's doorway, on the south side of the chancel, is in the Decorated style, and is enclosed by a shallow porch, which is remarkable for having a buttress rising from it. There is a fine gable cross on the nave roof.
The living is a rectory, valued in the King's Book at £10 13s. 4d., in the patronage of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and incumbency of the Rev. W.F. Rimm, M.A. The Rectory House was rebuilt in 1832, and here are 23A. 1R. 7P. of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1839 for £420 per annum.
A neat School of flint was built in 1852.
The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have each a chapel in the village.
William Worts, in 1693, left 20s. a year out of Sandpit Close for poor widows of the parish. There is also a reading-room and library.
POST OFFICE at Benjamin Buck's. Letters, viâ North Walsham, arrive at 8.25 a.m., and depart at 2.50 p.m. Mundesley is the nearest Money Order Office.
Bidwell Thos. Blaxland frmr. & ownr Buck Benjn. grocer, draper, carpenter, and postmaster Bullen Miss Jemima Bullen Thos. carpenter & well-sinker Bullimore John vict. Crown Inn Burton Robert bricklayer Cutting John shopkeeper Ducker George Maris farmer Frary John warrener Fuller Josiah grocer and draper Gibbons William wheelwright Gowing Frederick practical maltster Greenhill John Russell wine, spirit, and commission agent, & agent for London & North Western Insnce. Co. Hall John parish clerk Hardingham William Henry farmer Harmer Robert bricklayer Knights Miss schoolmistress Lacey Samuel shoemaker Masters Thomas vict. New Inn May Henry Bugden farmer Newland Henry shoemaker Price Rev. Ellis curate Primrose Alfred farmer, The Limes Primrose Mrs Bessie Neal brewer, maltster, ale & porter agt. & farmr Primrose Mr Henry White House Primrose Wm. jun. farmer, Ivy house Sexton Clement gamekeeper Spurgeon - butcher Starling Henry cattle dealer Steward John blacksmith Thirtle Robert farmer Thompson James farmer Wegg Richard pork butcher Wilson Robert market gardener
Copyright © Pat Newby.
April 2006