Cawston is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Broadland Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. The population of the local authority district taken at the 2011 Census was 124,646. Its council is based in Thorpe St Andrew. In 2013, Broadland w ...

district of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England. The village is approximately north of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

on the B1145 road, a route which runs between King's Lynn and

Mundesley Mundesley /ˈmʌndz.li/ is a coastal village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is north-north east of Norwich, south east of Cromer and north east of London. The village lies north-north east of the town of Nort ...

. Nearby towns are Reepham and

Aylsham Aylsham ( or ) is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, nearly north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea, ...

History

Cawston's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for Kalfr's farmstead or settlement. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

, Cawston was recorded as being a settlement of 26 households in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of South Erpingham. In 1086, the village was divided between the estates of King William and William de Warenne. Cawston was the scene of Norfolk's last duel, which occurred illegally in August of 1698 between Sir Henry Hobart of

Blickling Hall Blickling Hall is a Jacobean stately home situated in 5,000 acres of parkland in a loop of the River Bure, near the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England. The mansion was built on the ruins of a Tudor building for Sir Henry ...

and

Oliver Le Neve Oliver Le Neve (1662 – November 1711) was a Norfolk country squire and landowning sportsman who lived most of his life at Witchingham Hall in Great Witchingham, Norfolk, England, and is significant for his 1698 mortal duel with Sir Henry Hoba ...

Great Witchingham Great Witchingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk about north-west of Norwich. It covers an area of and had a population of 564 in 235 households at the 2001 census, including Lenwade but reducing to a populati ...

. The duel was fought with swords and resulted in the fatal wounding of Hobart resulting in Le Neve fleeing to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Today, a memorial stone to the duel is maintained by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Geography

In the 2011 Census, Cawston was recorded as having a population of 1,640 residents living in 704 households. Cawston falls within the constituency of Mid Norfolk and is represented at

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

by George Freeman MP of the Conservative Party.

St. Agnes' Church

Cawston's Parish Church is of

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

origin and is dedicated to

Saint Agnes Agnes of Rome () is a virgin martyr, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches. St. Agnes is one of several virgin martyrs co ...

. St. Agnes' was heavily restored in the Fourteenth Century at the request of Michael de la Pole, the new lord of the manor. The church holds many good examples of Medieval stained-glass windows and several panel paintings depicting the lives of saints.

Transport

Cawston railway station opened in 1880 as part of the Great Eastern Railway and closed in 1952 due to declining passenger numbers. The station building is now a private residence.

Amenities

Local children attend Cawston Church of England Primary School which moved into its current building in 1953. The school was awarded a 'Good' rating by Ofsted in 2016.

Notable Residents

* Matthew Fletcher- British fundraiser and student

War Memorial

And, the following for the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

: * Flying-Officer Leonard A. Barham (1915-1944), No. 199 Squadron RAF * Able-Seaman S. Frederick Gaskin (1923-1942), '' HMS Cornwall'' * Lance-Corporal Eric G. Monsey (1925-1945), 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment Savage, A. (2022). Retrieved November 23, 2022. https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/19791

References

External links

* {{authority control Broadland Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk