Great Witchingham 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 authority ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

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 ...

about north-west 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 ...

. It covers an area of and had a population of 564 in 235 households at the 2001 census, including

Lenwade Lenwade is a village in the civil parish of Great Witchingham, Norfolk, situated in the Wensum Valley adjacent to the A1067 road south-east of Fakenham and some north-west of Norwich. The River Ainse (or Eyn) joins the Wensum at Lenwade. In 2 ...

but reducing to a population of 496 in 219 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

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 wa ...

. Great Witchingham parish contains the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

. The parish church of St Mary is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

dating from the 14th century. The Norfolk Wildlife Centre and Country Park, a local attraction also known as the Animal Ark, is in Fakenham Road. Old Witchingham Hall, built in the 16th century, was demolished in the 1980s. It was once the home of John Norris (1734–77),

High Sheriff of Norfolk The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The High Sheriff of Norfolk was originally the principal law enforcement officer in Norfolk and presided at the assizes and other imp ...

for 1766. The village is also home to Great Witchingham Cricket Club, who play in the East Anglian Premier League.

Great Witchingham Hall

Great Witchingham Hall is a Grade II* listed country house built in the 16th or 17th century but extensively remodelled in the 19th century. It is built in two and three storeys of red brick with stone and plastered brick dressings and a steeply pitched slate roof. The Hall was owned and occupied by

country squire ''Country Squire'' is the third studio album by American country musician Tyler Childers. Recorded at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, the album was produced by Sturgill Simpson and was released on August 2, 2019, through Childers' own Hickman H ...

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 ...

between 1678 and 1711. Le Neve is significant for his 1698 mortal

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

with 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 ...

, the last duel fought in Norfolk.

Nicolson, Adam Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title. He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...

(2012); ''Gentry: Six Hundred Years of a Peculiarly English Class'', Part III: The Great Century 1610-1710, "Honour: The le Neves, Great Witchingham, Norfolk",

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. The south wing was added in 1812 by Timothy Tompson and the north frontage redesigned in 1872 for Charles Kett Tompson,

for 1827. After the latter's death it passed to his son-in-law,

Viscount Canterbury Viscount Canterbury, of the City of Canterbury, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1835 for the Tory (political faction), Tory politician Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury, Sir Charles Manners-Sutt ...

. It later became the seat of William James Barry J.P. (1864–1952),

for 1912, and his son Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Barry (1896–1977). The dilapidated post-

WW2 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 opposing ...

property was bought in 1950 by

Bernard Matthews Bernard Trevor Matthews CVO CBE QSM (24 January 1930 – 25 November 2010) was the founder of Bernard Matthews Farms, a company that is best known for producing turkey meat products. Early life Bernard Trevor Matthews was born in 1930 in Br ...

, and after being initially used for turkey rearing and processing, became the head office of his turkey business,

Bernard Matthews Farms Bernard Matthews Holdings Ltd., trading as Bernard Matthews Foods Ltd, is a British farming and food products business with its headquarters in Great Witchingham, Norfolk, England, which specialises in turkey products. Founded by Bernard Matt ...

.Bernard Matthews Contact Page
The GWR 6959 Modified Hall Class No.6966 was named ''Witchingham Hall''. Out shopped from

Swindon Works Swindon railway works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986. History In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of the ...

on 31 May 1944 as part of Lot No.350, she was initially allocated to 82D Westbury, and finally to 81F Oxford. Withdrawn on 30 September 1964, she was sold by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

to Birds scrap metal merchants of

Risca Risca ( cy, Rhisga) is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough and the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in south-east Wales. Risca has a railway station, opened on the Ebbw Valley Railway in February 2008, after a gap of 46 years. It is spl ...

, Newport,

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

and disposed of on 28 February 1965.

Notes

External links

gwvh.org.uk
- Great Witchingham Village Hall Project
GWPC
- Great Witchingham Parish Council Website
Gt Witchingham (Eades) watermill
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Broadland