Barton Bendish

Barton Bendish is a civil parish and small ancient village in the English county of Norfolk located south of King's Lynn and North East of London.Ordnance Survey (1999). ''OS Explorer Map 236 – King's Lynn, Downham Market & Swaffham''. . It has two medieval parish churches, and once had three. The parish includes the old hamlet of Eastmoor, and covers .
The village has been settled since Neolithic times and was expanded during the Saxon period. Today the village has a population of 210 as recorded at the 2010 census and contains eight listed buildings, with the two medieval parishes churches being Grade I.

Geography

Parish

The civil parish has an area of , and in the 2011 census had a population of 210 in 96 households. Its territory comprises slightly rolling countryside and is defined by two small valleys, the brooks of which form the boundaries of the southern part of the parish. The western one is called the Lode Dyke, and the eastern one the Stringside Stream. They unite at the parish's southernmost tip, to flow into the River Wissey.

The underlying geology is Chalk, but the two boundary valleys have brickearth from the Anglian glaciation. This has affected land use. The northern part of the parish is entirely dominated by arable farming with no woodland, except for the northernmost portion which takes in part of RAF Marham airfield. However, the brickearth areas to the south has some woodland -the named woods are Birch Wood and Sluice Wood in the Stringside valley, and The Channels in the Lode Dyke valley. The latter is adjacent to Barton Bendish Fen, a former fenland common which has been drained but which is only under arable in its northern part.

Village situation

The village is east of Downham Market, west of Norwich and south of the town of Kings Lynn. It is near the north-west border of the parish. In the south-east part of the latter is the separate scattered hamlet of Eastmoor, the only one in the parish territory.

The A1122 Swaffham to Downham Market road passes through the north tier of the parish, but the village is only accessible via country lanes. ''Fincham Road'' runs south from the A1122 east of Fincham, and turns north-east at a junction near the village as the ''Beachamwell Road''. This re-joins the A1122 to access Swaffham, and also runs to Beachamwell to the east. The ''Boughton Long Road'' runs from the junction to Boughton and hence to Stoke Ferry and the A134 to Thetford. A narrow lane runs from Beachamwell Road to Oxborough to the south-east via Eastmoor. There is no direct route from the village to Marham to the north.

Village layout

Overview

Barton Bendish is a settlement of scattered households where there are two churchesThe King’s England, Norfolk, by Arthur Mee, Page 24 which are little more than a field apart. What is more remarkable is that up until 1787 the parish had three churches. All Saints' Church was pulled down in that year, with much of the material used to repair local roads and for repairing St Mary's Church. The other remaining church is called St Andrew’s.

The settlement counts as a shrunken medieval village as it was much bigger in the Middle Ages, and still has three concentrations of settlement despite its small size.Loveluck, C: Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, c. AD 600–1150, 2013 p. 285

Barton Bendish St Andrew

The plan of the main built-up area, Barton Bendish St Andrew, is shaped like a mirrored F. Most edifices are along Church Road, a dead-end street running north-east from Fincham Road near its junction with Beachamwell Road. Buildings also line the former on its east side to the latter, and a street called Buttlands Lane connects Church Road and Beachamwell Road to the east.

The former school (''The Old School House'') the stands on the south corner of the Church Road junction. On the left along Church Rlad before the Buttlands Lane junction is St Andrew's Church, which is a Grade I Listed building. Opposite the Buttlands Lane junction is the former Post Office, Grade II listed which is now a pair of semi-detached cottages beneath a single thatched roof and dated 1713. The walls are a chaotic mix of flint, ashlar rubble and red and yellow bricks. Down Buttlands Lane is a K6 phone box, Grade II listed. The single-storey building on the east side of the junction, with decorative brickwork, used to be the village shop in the 20th century. It's part of a larger pile called ''Hyde House'' which incorporates an older thatched building, and is the headquarters of Albanwise Ltd the owner of the Barton Bendish Estate.

Barton Bendish's War Memorial is located in the churchyard and is a Grade II listed Celtic cross in grey granite that was restored in 1977. It holds the following names for the First World War:
* Sergeant Bertram W. Harris (1892–1917), 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
* Able-Seaman George Brunton (1890–1918), Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division
* Able-Seaman Albert Hills (1891–1917), ''S.S. Kariba''
* Lance-Corporal Arthur B. English (d.1916), 9th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
* Ordinary-Seaman Sidney Button (1895–1918), '' HMS Narborough (1916)''
* Private Edward A. Rutterford (1895–1917), 36th Labour Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
* Private Elijah Jackson (1877–1915), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
* Private William G. Campen (d.1915), 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
* Private Bernard Allcock (1885–1915), 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
* Private George F. Crome (1899–1918), 10th Battalion, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
* George Broughton
* Robert Button
* William Button
* Frederick Eves
* Clement Hawes
* Arthur Jackson
* Edward Jackson
* A. W. Lawrence
* H. G. Lawrence
* Bertie Pealing
* T. Perry
* John Rayner
* Owen Smith

And, the following for the Second World War:
* Private Barbara Campen (1920–1942), Auxiliary Territorial Service
* Private Leonard Harris (1885–1944), 1st Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
* Sidney Button
* Peter Parker

Further along Church Road is (2021) the closed-down local public house which was lately called ''The Berney'' (formerly ''Berney Arms'', before that ''Spread Eagle'') and named for the former owners of Barton Hall, the Berney family. In 2020 the pub closed for business, and is yet to find new owners -this was as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposite the pub is the well-used Village Hall, and further down on the left is the old St Andrew's Rectory with a gable wall in a flint, ashlar rubble and red brick mix. This dates from 1725.

At the end of Church Road is a short private drive leading to Avenue House, a mid-18th century farmhouse which is Grade II listed. This is accompanied by an unusual domed ice-house with a vaulted entrance corridor, resembling an ancient Greek tholos tomb.

The village contains a notable manor house, Barton Hall, which is Grade II listed and is the last survivor of five medieval village manors (there were four more in Eastmoor). There is a medieval moat to the east of the Hall, but it is uncertain as to whether this is the direct ancestor of the present building. Whatever, its site was first definitely developed in the 17th century, but the original house was almost entirely torn down and rebuilt in 1856, and the present structure is architecturally Victorian. The interior of the house was then extensively redone throughout the early and mid 20th century, meaning it retains little of its original artistic integrity, even from the Victorian period. Nevertheless, the house remains one of the more notable structures in the village, and the gardens have been developed by the current owner, Count Luca Padulli di Vighignolo, and are periodically opened to the public. Guided tours of the garden are occasionally offered on request. The dog kennels here are separately listed, Grade II. The five of them comprise a single-storey brick edifice with a black glazed pantile roof and an interesting set of cages in wrought iron. It was erected in 1853.

Barton Bendish All Saints

Oddly, the present main built-up area just described used to comprise two Siamese-twin settlements which had their own churches and administration until the late 18th century. The churchyard of All Saints' Church continued in use for burials into the early 19th century after the church was demolished in 1789. The site of the church is on the right along Church Road from Fincham Road just before reaching St Andrew's Church, and is now occupied by a house called ''All Saints' House'' (the actual church was near the old school to the west). The present village layout provides no clue as to how the two settlements were distinguished on the ground.

Barton Bendish St Mary

The other major focus of the village is Barton Bendish St Mary, which is off to the west with its direct access from the main village by footpath. It has a classic village layout of its own, aligned north to south, comprising St Mary's Church at the north end which is accompanied by its rectory (rebuilt 1866 with extensive gardens, now called Score House) followed by a little triangular village green and then a scatter of buildings along the Boughton Long Road. The latter shortly makes a right-angled turn, but the original route ran straight ahead to the ancient common land of Barton Bendish Fen with its associated woodland. This is now a private farm track.

East Barton Bendish

The village used to extend well beyond its present eastern limits. Chapel Road used to carry on as a street called ''Blind Lane'', beyond Avenue Farm to the present Abbey Farm and beyond. North-east of the former is a deserted moated site, a Scheduled Monument and the location of the medieval manor of East Hall. Earthworks belonging to its deserted medieval settlement are at Abbey Farm, and are also a Scheduled monument.

The only remnant of this former built-up area is a dead-end lane called ''Chapel Lane'', leading to Abbey Farm ( West Dereham Abbey had interests in the parish) and amounting to the village's third settlement focus. This settlement used to be called ''Cripple’s End''. It used to have a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and the village's first post office was just to the south of this in a low single-storey building. Both survive as private houses.Ordnance Survey, 25-inch Norfolk sheet LVIII.14, 1885

History

Early times

Archaeological surveying of the parish by fieldwalking has been thorough, and has revealed that the territory has been well settled from Neolithic times. A Bronze Age hoard, now in the Ashmolean Museum, of eight bronze items was allegedly found in the parish at the turn of the 20th century, but the provenance is uncertain. Burials of this period have been found, and three ring ditches interpreted as ploughed-out round barrows have been identified on aerial photographs.

The population of the parish territory increased during the Iron Age, with at least three settlement sites which have been identified by pottery scatters. These sites also showed continuity into the later Roman period.

Romans

The A1122 to the east of Fincham follows the course of a Roman road that connected the Fen Causeway with Venta Icenorum (the present Caistor St Edmund). The outline of a Roman marching camp was identified on an aerial photograph, just north of The Channels wood and near one of the putative round barrows already mentioned.

Saxons

Fieldwalking and archaeological excavations in the village have shown that the village was a dispersed settlement throughout the entire Anglo-Saxon period. Early Saxon settlements have been identified at Hill Farm and north-east of St Mary's Glebe Farm. Middle Saxon settlement was concentrated around the site of St Mary's Church, and in the Late Saxon period the west end of the present main village was a focus with settlement spreading eastwards.

The village's name derives from the Old English ''Bertuna binnan dic'' and means 'Barley farm within the ditch'. The name implies that the direction of Saxon settlement came from the west. The ditch concerned is the Devil's Dyke, a linear bank and ditch running in an almost straight line from Narborough to near Oxborough parallel to the present eastern boundary of the parish (it used to be the actual boundary), and this is postulated as an early Saxon boundary marker. The dating is not conclusive, however.

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, where the name is given as ''Bertuna'' in the Hundred of Clackclose. There were five manors. The main tenant of the village was William who held from Hermer de Ferrers, and other tenants were Reynald Fitzlvo and Ralph Baynard. Two churches are mentioned -it is uncertain as to which church is missing, or why. The consensus is that all three were founded in late Saxon times.

Middle Ages

In the century after the Norman Conquest, the parish still had several small manors. West Dereham Abbey, a monastery of Premonstratensians founded in 1088, had interests at Eastmoor and maintained a chapel there. The locations of the manors of East Hall (the moated site north-east of Avenue Farm), Herne Hall (north end of Eastmoor hamlet, east of lane) and Capel Hall (in the main village at ''The Paddocks'', excavated 1988) are known.

From the time of Richard I (1157–99) to Henry VIII (1491–1547) the Lovells were principal lords of the manor here, with their seat at the present Barton Hall. Thomas Lovell, the third son of Sir Ralf Lovell was a loyal supporter of Henry VII. He fought at the Battle of Bosworth 1485 and was knighted by Henry VII for his prowess. In 1485 he was created President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer for life. His elder brother Sir Gregory was made banneret at Stoke. In the later Middle Ages, the Lowell family began the consolidation of land ownership in the parish by acquiring other manors.

16th and 17th centuries

Possession of the principal manor passed from the Lowells to the Gawdy family in 1579, and they kept it until 1677 when it passed to the Berney family who remained owners for almost 250 years. They completed the acquisition of the remaining manorial landholdings, to turn the parish into a single country estate centred on Barton Hall. The process involved a substantial reduction in the size of the village, with formerly built-up areas being abandoned.

18th century

In 1710, the tower of St Mary's Church fell and destroyed the west end of its nave. The rest was patched up with the resultant rubble, but the church was only properly repaired in 1789. This was after All Saints' Church had been demolished in the previous year, making materials available. The parishes of these two churches had been united in 1787, allowing for the rationalisation -but this meant that the main village was still divided between two parishes.

In 1774, the parish was Enclosed under the ''Barton Bendish Inclosure Act'' of that year, which provided for “dividing, allotting and inclosing the old whole year lands, common fields, half-year inclosures, Lammas meadows, heaths, commons and waste lands within the parish of Barton”. So, the parish's landscape was radically altered and the open-field system and common land rights were extinguished. The tithes on farm income owing to the two working churches were commuted for new glebe land, which explains the names of ''St Andrew’s Glebe Farm'' and ''St Mary’s Glebe Farm''. The ancient common land of Barton Bendish Fen was suppressed, and the poor of the parish were given the income from forty acres as compensation. The ''Poors Allotment'' survived as a charity which received rent from land to use as fuel subsidies for needy parishioners, until it was removed from the official list of the Charity Commission in 2017 owing to inactivity.

In 1783, the village school was founded when one Richard Jones bequeathed an endowment for the purpose. Something went wrong and the capital was lost, but the school survived through voluntary subscription and it became part of the National School System by 1811.A Topographical Dictionary of England, Vol. 1 1811 p. 135 The village pub, the Spread Eagle, is first mentioned in 1794.

In the Eighties of this century the noted philologist, botanist and clergyman Robert Forby was resident in the village, firstly as tutor to the Berney children at the Hall and then as head of a small private academy. As such, he taught the botanist Dawson Turner. As clergyman he held the benefices of Horningtoft

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