Gressenhall 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 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 villages name origin is uncertain possibly 'Grassy nook of land' or 'gravelly nook of land'. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,008 in 443 households at the 2001 census, increasing to a population of 1,050 in 459 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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Breckland. The village is on the River Nar close to East Dereham in

History

The Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse museum is located here, and a

watermill 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 of ...

dating from 1847. Norfolk Museums Service, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse
/ref> The main buildings of the Gressenhall workhouse were built in 1777 when it was a house of industry. Here paupers would work under quite a strict regime in return for accommodation. This changed after the

Poor Law Amendment Act The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relief ...

of 1834: as a result the building underwent numerous changes to comply with the Act. The workhouse was a poor law institution. Its purpose was to provide a home and work for the poor local people who had nowhere to live. Gressenhall was constructed in 1776 and took one year to open. Gressenhall has a post office, a pub (''The Swan'') and a church (St Mary's).

Notable residents

*Sir

Jerome Alexander Sir Jerome Alexander (c.1585–1670) was an English-born barrister, judge and politician, who spent much of his career in Ireland (after he had been professionally ruined in England), and became a substantial Irish landowner. He was a noted ben ...

(died 1670), a High Court judge in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

noted for his severe sentences in criminal cases, was born in Gressenhall about 1590. * Alsager Hay Hill, a notable Victorian social reformer was born at Gressenhall Hall in 1839. *Dr Sean Radford, CEO and Founder of World renowned AI training app TrainAsONE. Noted for his contribution to health and wellbeing research with leading UK and US universities. *Dr James Robert Murray, a co-Founder of Shire Pharmaceuticals, was the family doctor in the village from 1969 to 1976. He moved from Norfolk to Holland to start his career in pharmaceuticals. An Honorary President of Dereham RFC, in 2020, he published a fictional work about village life in 1970s Norfolk.

References

* http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Gressenhall

External links

Gressenhall Village and Parish Council Website
Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District {{Norfolk-geo-stub