Oxnead is a
lost settlement and former
civil parish, now in the parish of
Brampton, in the
Broadland district, in the county of
Norfolk, England. It is roughly three miles south-east of
Aylsham. It now consists mostly of St Michael's Church and Oxnead Hall. The hall was the principal residence of the
Paston family from 1597 until the death of
William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth
William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth (1654 – 25 December 1732) of Oxnead, Norfolk and Turnham Green, Chiswick, Middlesex was a British peer and politician.
Born in 1654, he was the son of Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth and his wife, Reb ...
in 1732. Under Sir William Paston (1610–1663), Oxnead was the site of several works by the architect and sculptor,
Nicholas Stone, master-mason to Kings
James I and
Charles I. In 1931 the parish had a population of 66.
History
Early history
According to
Blomefield
Rev. Francis Blomefield (23 July 170516 January 1752), FSA, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk, was an English antiquarian who wrote a county history of Norfolk: ''An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk''. It includes d ...
, the place takes its name from its site on meadows beside a river known to the
Britons and
Saxons as the Ouse. At the time of the
Domesday
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 manusc ...
survey in 1086, the estate belonged to Halden and altogether was worth 30 shillings. It was seven furlongs long and six broad and included a church with twenty-four acres of
glebe land. At the time of
King Stephen, Oxnead belonged to Albert Greslei, from whom it passed to the Hauteyn family. Around 1368, the estate was acquired by Sir Robert de Salle. After Sir Robert's death, his widow's second husband, Sir William Clopton, took control of Oxnead and in the 1420s it was sold to William Paston, of
Paston.
On 1 April