Little Barningham is a village and a civil parish 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 north 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 ...

, south-west of Cromer and north-east of

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The nearest railway station is in the town of

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 ...

where access to the national rail network can be made via the

Bittern Line The Bittern Line is a railway branch line in Norfolk, England, that links to . It passes through the Broads on its route to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the north Norfolk coast. It is named after the bittern, a rare bird found in t ...

to Norwich. The nearest airport is

Norwich International Airport Norwich Airport is an international airport in Hellesdon, Norfolk, England, north of Norwich. In 2017, Norwich Airport was the 28th busiest airport in the UK and busiest in the East Anglia region. Norwich Airport has a CAA Public Use Aero ...

. Little Barningham is within the area covered by North Norfolk District Council.

Origins

The villages name means 'homestead/village of Beorn's people'. The village is mentioned 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 manusc ...

. In the survey the village has the names of ''Bernincham'' and ''Berneswrde''.The main landholders were The King, under the custody of Godric, William de Warenne and Bishop William. with the main tenant being Brant from Robert FitzCorbucion. The survey also mentions a church and a mill.

The Village

Little Barningham straddles a small valley with the parish church sitting on a mound beside the single street. The village comprises some forty dwellings. The village has now lost its post office, shop and pub but the village hall is still a thriving centre of the local community.

The Parish Church

The church is called St Andrews and is late

mediaeval 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 a ...

; it dates from about 1500 and was extensively restored in the last century. The church is built of flint and consists of a

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. Ove ...

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 ...

, west tower and south porch. The roof of the chancel has a hammerbeam roof but at one time the roof was thatched. There is a Jacobean box or pew which dates from 1640 and has the inscription: "FOR COUPLES JOYND IN WEDLOCK AND MY FRIENDS THAT STRANGER IS, THIS SEAT DID I INTEND BUILT AT THE COST AND CHARGE OF STEVEN CROSBEE. ALL YOU THAT DOE THIS SPACE PASS BY, AS YOU ARE NOWE, EVEN SO WAS I. REMEMBER DEATH FOR YOU MUST DYE AND AS I AM SOE SHALL YOU BE PREPARE THEREFORE TO FOLLOW ME". The carving of a skeleton in a shroud at one corner of the box described by PevsnerNorfolk 1: North-East Norfolk and Norwich, 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 ...

was stolen in 1996 having been in place for 400 years, but there are two replacements: one fixed to the pew in the original position and another at the back of the church carved by a well-wisher.

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Little%20Barningham

External links

* {{Authority control North Norfolk Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk