St John and St Mary, Stiffkey with All Saints, Cockthorpe
Home	Bale & Stiffkey Benefice	Binham Priory	Glaven Valley Benefice

White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk 1845

North Greenhoe Hundred [p 668]

Is of an irregular oblong figure, extending nine miles in length along the sea-coast, and averaging seven miles in breadth from north to south, - being bounded on the east by Holt Hundred; on the south by Gallow; and on the west by Brothercross. The soil is generally light, but well cultivated, and the face of the country is beautifully diversified, and seen to great advantage from Great Snoring church, where the prospect to the north is highly picturesque, and is terminated by the ocean. A substratum of fine marl is found in almost every part of it, and the whole district abounds in all sorts of game. It is watered by the river which flows through a fertile vale from Snoring to the ocean, near Stiffkey. Its name is supposed to be a corruption of Green-hill, - the Hundred court being anciently held on such an eminence. The royalties of the whole Hundred, with the lordship of Wighton, were possessed by the crown in the reigns of Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror, but were subsequently granted in fee to various families, though a court of the Queen's Duchy of Lancaster is still held at Wighton. Petty Sessions are held at Little Walsingham, on the first Monday of every month; and at Wells on the nearest middle Monday of every month. The magistrates' clerk is Mr. Thos. Garwood, of Wells. Little Walsingham has also Quarter Sessions. The whole Hundred, except Cockthorpe and Field Dalling, is in the Deanery of Walsingham, and comprises sixteen parishes of which the following is an enumeration, shewing their population in 1841, the annual value of their land and buildings, as assess to the County Rate in 1843, and their territorial extent, is assessable acres:-

Note; Great Snoring included 81 persons in the Union Workhouse; Little Walsingham, 50 in the House of Correction; and Wells, 49 in Vessels. From Hindringham, 63 had emigrated to Canada since 1831.

The Annual Value of the Hundred, as assessed to the Property Tax, was £37,102 in 1815; and £45,413 in 1842.

Walsingham Union [p669]

Comprises all the 16 parishes in North Greenhoe Hundred; 24 parishes in Gallow Hundred, and 10 parishes in Holt Hundred, which see. These 50 parishes extend over an area of 121 square miles, or 72,493 acres; and had in 1841, 20,960 in habitants, of whom 10,121 were males, and 10,839 females. Their average annual expenditure from 1832 to 1835, was £21,497; but since the formation of the Union, it has been reduced to about half that sum. The Union Workhouse is at Great Snoring, and was finishes in 1838, at the cost of £5,903. It has room for 300 inmates; but had only 81 in July, 1841, and 169 in January, 1845. Mr. John Overton, of Fakenham, is Union Clerk and Supt. Registrar ; and Mr. Robt. Platten is master of the Workhouse. The relieving officers are - Mr. Henry Scales, of Fakenham; and Mr. Thos. Webb, of Wells. The Rev. R. Leeder is chaplain. Several surgeons are employed by the Union, and among them the three following are Registrars of Births and Deaths, viz:- Mr. G. Damant, for Fakenham District; Mr. C. Adcock, for Walsingham District; and Mr J Young, for Wells District.

Stiffkey

[page 677]

STIFFKEY, 3 miles E. of Wells, is a fine rural village, seated in a deep, romantic, and well wooded dale, on the banks of a small river, which discharges itself into the ocean, about 1½ mile to the north-east, and formerly had a quay and harbour. The parish contains 487 inhabitants, and about 2,235 acres, of which, about 600 are salt marsh, on the north side of the village, extending to the beach.

Lord Charles Townshend owns a great part of the soil, and is lord of the manor, and patron of the rectory, which is valued in the King's Book at £25, and now enjoyed by the Rev. Randall Barwick Brereton, A.B., together with Morston, the livings being consolidated, and having 69 acres of glebe. A new Rectory House has lately been erected, and the joint rectories are now worth about £800 per annum. The tithes of Stiffkey have been commuted for £423, and those of Morston for £280 per annum.

Here were formerly two CHURCHES, (both rectorial,) in one enclosure, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and St. Mary; but the latter is gone, and the other is a venerable pile, with a nave, chancel, tower, and porch, standing on an acclivity near the Hall, which was built by Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the privy seal to Queen Elizabeth; but it is now partly in ruins, and the rest occupied by a farmer. It was a large mansion, with circular towers at the angles, and environed with lofty trees, which cast a sombre hue over the mouldering ruins. The New Hall is a neat cemented mansion, erected by James Buck, Esq., its present occupant, about 12 years ago.

To the west of the village, near the Wells road, is a promontory, called Warborough Hill, on which are visible remains of circular entrenchments; and one mile to the east of it, is a green knowl, called Camping Hill, supposed to have been also entrenched. These hills overlook a tract of salt marshes, 20 miles long, and about one broad, bounded on the north by the ocean, which has thrown against them a range of sand hills, called Meals, many of them covered with a beaty wood, and inhabited only by rabbits. The common was enclosed in 1793. A National School was built here, in 1845, at the cost of £200.

Bulling   Wm.