Gimingham 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

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 ...

. Gimingham has no shops, but has a Church, a pond and a preserved

Water Mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

. The village is north 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 ...

and 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 ...

. It is north of the city 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 ...

. Nearby road communications with Gimingham are the A140 to Norwich, the A148 (direct) and A149 (coast road) to King's Lynn, and the A149 into the Norfolk Broads and Great Yarmouth. The B1159 is a coastal road between Cromer 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 ...

. The nearest airport is Norwich International Airport.

Early history

Gimingham is 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 ...

of 1086 under the name of Gimingeham. The manor was held by William de Warenne. The village name is thought to mean the ‘Ham’ or the ‘Homestead of Gymma's people'. Gymma was the name of an Anglo-Saxon

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

who settled in this part of the country some time between the 5th and 6th century. The village name has appeared in several different versions. In 1192 it is documented as Gumingham whilst in 1211 it appears as Gemingehem.

Gimingham Parish Church

Gimingham Parish Church is called All Saints. The church has been part of the

Trunch Trunch is a village and parish in Norfolk, England, situated three miles north of North Walsham and two miles from the coast at Mundesley. At the Census 2011 the village had a population of 909. The parish covers an area of . The villages name ...

group of parishes since 1965 and is in the service of a team of clergy of these parishes. There was an earlier church on the site of the present one. Signs of early Anglo-Saxon quoins can be seen in the east wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

. The chancel dates from the early 14th century. The church is almost entirely built from un-knapped flint although there are some squared flints in the entrance porch. Some buttresses and arches are of brick construction. The

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

has two storeys and was incorporated into a much older original porch. The room on the first floor is known as a

parvise A parvis or parvise is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or church, especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is thus a church-specific type of forecourt, front yard or a ...

. This room was used in the past by priests who had travelled some distance to get to the church. It also may have been used in the past as part of the wedding service, with guests waiting there while the groom and bride exchanged their vows in the porch. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

dates from the 15th century and was re-roofed around 1950. The battlemented tower is also 15th century.

Mill Pond and Water Mill

A feature of the village is the mill pond which stretches along the western edge of the main street. The pond is home to many species of

water fowl The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating ...

and is very popular with local fisherman. The mill pond is filled by the River Mun. The area beyond the river is said to have been part of the stew pond, the fish-breeding place of a small

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

. Close to the mill pond is the rebuilt corn mill. The original watermill burnt down during the night of 15 February 1979. A mill mentioned in the Domesday Book stood on this location. The one previous to the present building was built in the 18th century of flint, brick and pantiles. The pit for the original water wheel still remains, as does the old diesel engine, which provided power to the mill for many years.

Treatment centre

Gimingham was the home of the former Diana Princess of Wales Treatment Centre, an independent addiction treatment centre that closed in 2009.

References

External links

Google tour
of Gimingham Church i {{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk North Norfolk