Smallburgh is a village and a
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
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
county 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 ...
. The village is fourteen miles (21 km) south-east of
Cromer
Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline.
The local government authorities are Nor ...
, fourteen miles (21 km) north-east 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 ...
and north-east of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The village lies five miles (8 km) south-east of the nearby town of
North Walsham
North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England, within the North Norfolk district.
Demography
The civil parish has an area of and in the 2011 census had a population of 12,634. For the purposes of local government, the pa ...
. The nearest railway station is at
Worstead
Worstead is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It lies south of North Walsham, north of Wroxham, and north of Norwich. The village is served by Worstead railway station on the Bittern Line. For the purposes of local ...
for the
Bittern Line which runs between
Sheringham
Sheringham (; population 7,367) is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban Distr ...
, Cromer and Norwich. The nearest airport is
Norwich International Airport. At the
2001 census it had a population of 518 in 219 households.
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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
of
North Norfolk.
Portrait
Smallburgh is a sprawling village over an area of . The village straddles the
A149 road that links
King’s Lynn to
Great Yarmouth. The community is bordered to the north and east by the
River Ant
The River Ant is a tributary river of the River Bure in the county of Norfolk, England. It is long (of which 8.75 miles are now navigable), and has an overall drop of 27 metres from source to mouth. It is said that the Ant was formerly known as ...
and
dykes and to the south and west by tracks and
hedgerows
A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...
. The name of the village means 'bank or hillock of the Smale', the Smale being the old name for the
River Ant
The River Ant is a tributary river of the River Bure in the county of Norfolk, England. It is long (of which 8.75 miles are now navigable), and has an overall drop of 27 metres from source to mouth. It is said that the Ant was formerly known as ...
, the second element deriving from Old English ''beorg'' which means
hillock
A hillock or knoll is a small hill,[The Free Dictionary](_blank)
"hillock" entry, retrieved December 18, 2007 ...
.
History
It is believed locally that the field to the north of the church was the site of the original
Saxon settlement. In the great survey of 1086, known as 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 ...
, the settlement of Smallburgh is described as being a quiet, small place. There are two entries in the book. The first entry states that a
freeman
Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to:
* a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm
* Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies
* Free ...
of St Benedict's held IC of Freeland. He gave it to St Benedict before 1066 but still held it from the
Abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...
. There are 2 villagers with 1.5 lengths of
plough land and of meadow, the value of this being 20 shillings. In the same village were 28 freemen, 1c of land, always 4 ploughs and of meadow, the value of this being 20s. The whole has 10
furlong
A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, 10 chains or approximately 201 metres. It is now mostly confined to use in hor ...
s and 12
perches
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...
in length and 6 furlongs in width, the
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
for this being 1
penny.
The second entry recorded that in Smallburgh there are 3 freemen and 1c of land. Always there are 12 smallholdings and 3 freemen. Then and later 3
ploughs
A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...
, now 4. Two of these are in the valuation of Antingham; the value of the third is 10
shillings.
In 1588 the village was split, there being two main areas of settlement. The first part was the present village centre and the area around Low Street which was a considerable-sized hamlet and this constituted the manor of Smallburgh. The second part was situated at the present Holly House and was known as the manor of Smallburgh Catts. This is because the lord of the manor at that time was Robert Catte. He enclosed much common land, which is why the area towards the
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 ...
Road is known as Catt's Common. Much of the land in Smallburgh Catts was cultivated in the traditional
strip system with a large area of
common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a ...
to the south and west. The present streets of Union Road and Anchor Street are reputed to be part of a
Roman Road leading to the Roman camp near
Wayford Bridge
Wayford Bridge is a village on the River Ant on the A149 road, near Stalham in Norfolk, England within The Broads National Park.
Due to height restrictions under the road bridge it is the most northerly point of navigation on the Norfolk Broad ...
.
White’s
Directory
Directory may refer to:
* Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files
* Directory (OpenVMS command)
* Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...
of 1845 states that Smallburgh had two
shoemaker
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear.
Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...
s,
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
,
surgeon, Jeremiah Hannant of the Crown Inn was a
joiner
A joiner is an artisan and tradesperson who builds things by joining pieces of wood, particularly lighter and more ornamental work than that done by a carpenter, including furniture and the "fittings" of a house, ship, etc. Joiners may work in ...
and
victualler
A victualler is traditionally a person who supplies food, beverages and other provisions for the crew of a vessel at sea.
There are a number of other more particular uses of the term, such as:
* The official supplier of food to the Royal Navy in ...
,
wheelwright
A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkwr ...
,
grocer
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
,
draper
Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher.
History
Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...
, school mistress and school, a
shopkeeper, surgeon, another blacksmith and
furrier
Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific i ...
,
tailor
A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
History
Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
,
plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, and for sewage and drainage in plumbing systems. and
painter.
White’s of 1864 indicates a still-thriving community, with many occupations represented in the village. These include carpenters,
bricklayers, plumber, shoemaker, grocer and draper, surgeon and registrar, blacksmith, a master of the workhouse, a mistress of the school, three public or beer houses, carrier, tailor,
rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
, book-keeper, many farmers and
smallholder
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...
s.
In more recent times the life in the village has changed. Since the end of 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 ...
the village has had only one public house, The Crown. The village still retains a church that remains open. However the school closed in the 1980s and the Post Office closed in the 2000s.
The Workhouse
![Smallburgh Workhouse 12 Jan 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Smallburgh_Workhouse_12_Jan_2008.JPG)
A large
workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...
was located at the east side of what is still known as Workhouse Road in the village. It was built in 1725 and extended in 1836. It appears to have had a large H-shaped main building with a number of other smaller ancillary buildings. Records indicate that the workhouse could accommodate 800 souls although in 1876 there were only 51 people there; however, the highest number staying there between 1866 and 1876 was 116 in January 1869. Other records show that the annual salaries bill for the officers and those who worked at the Union Workhouse was £293. The Tunstead workhouse issued its own coinage in the form of workhouse tokens in the early 19th century when there was a national shortage of copper coins. The tokens could be spent locally to buy
bread and other basic commodities. The graveyard where people were buried when they died in the workhouse lies to the south of the site. The Union Workhouse, for the Hundreds of
Tunstead, as it was known, closed its doors when the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
was founded in 1948 and much of the old workhouse was demolished in the 1950s. It is thought that because the workhouse was situated in the village, the local district council was the
Smallburgh Rural District Council and, indeed, members of that council met in the board room of the workhouse until its closure. The Smallburgh Rural District Council then met in special council offices in
Stalham
Stalham is a market town and civil parish on the River Ant in the English county of Norfolk, in East Anglia. It covers an area of and had a population of 2,951 in 1,333 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 3,149 at the 20 ...
until its demise on 31 March 1974, when it was subsumed within the
North Norfolk District Council under local government re-organization.
Parish Church
Smallburgh’s parish church is called St Peter’s and dates from the 13th century, with the walls being raised in height and large windows being incorporated into the building in 1400. The 13th-century church stands on the site of an earlier
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 ...
building. The first rector recorded is Henry Hemingburgh, in 1305, but the register of St Benet-at-Holme records the presentation of John of Smallburgh as rector in 1186. In 1677 the church tower collapsed bringing down the west wall with it and damaging the
font. For many years the church was in a state of disrepair. A makeshift tower was constructed in 1822 but in 1902 the present bell cote was constructed and the west wall rebuilt. The long timescale of these repairs was because the village was very poor at that time, and the church had to use its money for the care of the poor. The church is still in use and is open for worship. It was also featured in the
Doctor Who fan-film ''Time of Zygon''.
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
The Methodist Church
Smallburgh
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
Church is on Norwich Road. The church was built in the 17th century but the interior is recent and of no great interest.
Smallburgh Drainage Mill
A short distance east of the village across the A149 and on the banks of the
River Ant
The River Ant is a tributary river of the River Bure in the county of Norfolk, England. It is long (of which 8.75 miles are now navigable), and has an overall drop of 27 metres from source to mouth. It is said that the Ant was formerly known as ...
can be found the remains of what was Smallburgh or Moy's
drainage mill
A windpump is a type of windmill which is used for pumping water.
Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The use of wind pumps became widespread across the Muslim world an ...
. The mill was built to drain the
marshes
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
into the river. The mill's name relates to Percy M. Moy who lived at Smallburgh Manor in the 1920s and ran Manor Farm containing land drained by the mill. The mill only had a small tower which was later heightened and in later years two pairs of patent sails, each with five bays of shutters, were fitted along with a very small cap, a gallery and an eight-bladed fan. The sails of the mill powered a scoopwheel which was set on a shaft which extended beyond the wheel to allow for an auxiliary engine drive. The mill was still working under wind power in 1935. Today all that remains is an high stump of the mill tower although it is still working but has a Lister diesel engine to power it.
Smallburgh Tower Windmill
Close to both Smallburgh and nearby
Wayford Bridge
Wayford Bridge is a village on the River Ant on the A149 road, near Stalham in Norfolk, England within The Broads National Park.
Due to height restrictions under the road bridge it is the most northerly point of navigation on the Norfolk Broad ...
stands Smallburgh tower windmill. The mill was built in 1850 by millwrights England’s of
Ludham
Ludham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, in the Norfolk Broads, at the end of a dyke leading to Womack Water and flowing into the River Thurne. It lies to the East of Ludham Bridge, which is on the River Ant.
It cov ...
and stood four storeys and tall. The
diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...
at the base of the mill measures , and the walls are thick. The configuration of the mill was of four double-shuttered patent sails, each with five bays of three shutters and one bay of four shutters, struck by rack and pinion via a chain pole that drove a by scoop wheel and a pair of under driven French burr stones on the first floor. The Norfolk boat-shaped cap had a petticoat at the sides and an extension to the horizontally-boarded front. The cap was turned to wind by a fan of eight blades. Today the mill no longer has its cap, although in 1984 the
Broads Authority
The Broads Authority is the agency which has statutory responsibility for the Broads in England. Originally, the Nature Conservancy Council (now Natural England), pressed for a special authority to manage the Broads which had been neglected for ...
approved permission to install a new cap, fan stage and sails which still has not yet been completed. A
bungalow has been attached to the mill's main body.
The Crown Inn
![Crown Inn Smallburgh 12th Jan 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Crown_Inn_Smallburgh_12th_Jan_2008.JPG)
The Crown Inn is situated on the eastern side of the
A149 road that runs through the centre of the village. It is a 15th-century
coaching inn with a great deal of history. It is of
timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
construction and has a
thatched roof
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
hipped on the eastern side and gabled on the western end. The once-large upper room above the bar has now been divided into rooms by stud walls, but was once used for public occasions. The Crown was enlarged with an extra wing in the 18th century.
Village amenities
* The Crown Inn, North Walsham Road (A149)
* The village hall
* Two garages (One repairs only - Smallburgh and Petrol, repairs and car wash - Wayford)
* Smallburgh Staithe (Urwin’s Boatyard) for the Broads
* Lawnmower sales and repairs
* Playing Fields. The playing field in Smallburgh was recently provided with new playing equipment; there was a grand opening.
* Bowls Club
* Art Club
* St Peter's Church
See also
*
North Walsham & Dilham Canal
The North Walsham and Dilham Canal is a waterway in the English county of Norfolk. It was authorised by Parliament in 1812, but work on the construction of a canal which ran parallel to a branch of the River Ant did not start until 1825. It in ...
References
{{authority control
Villages in Norfolk
Civil parishes in Norfolk
North Norfolk