Thurgarton is a village in the North Norfolk district of 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 ...

. It lies 6½ miles north of

Aylsham Aylsham ( or ) is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, nearly north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea, ...

and 5½ miles south-west 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 ...

, and was once part of the North Erpingham

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

. It forms part of the

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 ...

of Aldborough and Thurgarton, together with Aldborough. The villages name means 'Thurgar's farm/settlement'.

All Saints Church

All Saints Church, Thurgarton, is a redundant Anglican church situated in an isolated spot in the north of the parish. Its mediaeval

round tower A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and fu ...

collapsed in 1882 and a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

was built in its place. The roof is

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

and the church contains a number of unusual carved bench ends. It is managed by the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. In 1969 the

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

George Barker, who lived at nearby Itteringham, published a poem called ''At Thurgarton Church''.

Buildings

Thurgarton Hall, an eighteenth-century red-brick

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

house, is situated next to the church and was once home to the Bacon family. It later became part of the

Felbrigg Hall Felbrigg Hall is a 17th-century English country house near the village of that name in Norfolk. Part of a National Trust property, the unaltered 17th-century house is noted for its Jacobean architecture and fine Georgian interior. Outside i ...

estate. A

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...

once stood in the vicinity of the church. Thurgarton House (also known as Thurgarton Old Hall) was built in 1733 for William Spurrell, the first of four generations of

Spurrell Spurrell is a surname found in Norfolk, Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom, as well as in various countries around the world. Origins It has been suggested that the name of the Norfolk family is derived from the village of Sporle, near ...

s to serve as Chief Constable of North Erpingham

. A Victorian wing and several brick barns were built in the nineteenth century. The house remained in the Spurrell family until 2014.

Notes

Villages in Norfolk North Norfolk {{Norfolk-geo-stub