Helhoughton 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 ...

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 ...

, England. It is west-south-west of the town of

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north west of Norwich. The town is the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to Norw ...

, west-northwest 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-northeast 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 nearest railway station is at

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 ...

for the Bittern Line which runs between

, Cromer and Norwich. The nearest airport is Norwich International Airport. The parish had, in the 2001 census, a population of 197, rising to 346 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish 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.

Geography

Helhoughton is a small parish in northwest part of the county of Norfolk. The parish is bordered to the north by the parish of Tattersett and to the south by the parish of Raynham. To the west is the parish of

West Rudham West Rudham is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village straddles the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. It covers an area of and had a population of 213 in 97 households at the 2001 census, the population including Houghto ...

and to the east is the parish of Dunton where the parish boundary line is partly the course of the

River Wensum The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation. The Wensum is ...

the large landscape park surrounding Raynham Hall is on the east side of the riverbank. The tributary of the Wensum called the River Tat also passes through the northern rim of the parish. The small hamlet of Painston, which can be found on Faden's map of 1797, was to the west of the village and has now virtually disappeared with only Painswhin Farm, which dates to the 18th century, on the site of the lost settlement. The name Helhoughton is thought to derive from a mixture of

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

and Old Scandinavian and has the meaning ''farmstead of a man named Helgi''.

Landmarks

Much of this church dates from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

period.Norfolk 2: Norfolk: North-west and South, By

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

and Bill Wilson, North Runcton entry. 0-300-09657-7 The building is constructed from flint and stone with some brick dressings. The roof is of slate with the tower having a leaded roof. 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 ...

dates from the 14th century and has two bays. The tower is at the western end of the church and dates from the 15th century. 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 late 18th century when most of it was rebuilt. Inside the church there is a stone octagonal font attached to its base by 5 shafts with chamfered corners and rounded spurs. The bowl is also octagonal. Within the chancel there are two decorated windows with a priest's door in between them. On the eastern elevation there is also a decorated window under brick arch with drip moulds and tracery. The west door is perpendicular with a double hollow chamfered four-centred arch and fleurons and

ball flower The ball-flower (also written ballflower) is an architectural ornament in the form of a ball inserted in the cup of a flower. It came into use in the latter part of the 13th century in England and became one of the chief ornaments of the ...

decoration. The doors has six panels and with a gothic head and dates from 1790. On one wall can be seen an early 17th-century Stuart Royal Arms, but with AR (Anna Regina) monogram, which has been relettered at some point for Queen Anne from

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

, whose motto, ''Exurgat Deus et Dissipentur Inimici'' ('Rise up o God and put down my enemies') has not been altered and dates this coat of arms to 1706.

Notable people

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS), who were ...

Sir David Craig was created ''Baron Craig of Radley, of Helhoughton in the

County of Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies no ...

'' in 1991.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk North Norfolk