Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen is a

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 ...

and village 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 ...

. It is south of the town of King's Lynn on the west bank of the River Great Ouse. It covers an area of and had a population of 729 in 304 households in 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 King's Lynn and West Norfolk. The villages name means 'Wicga's nook of land'. 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 1085, it appears that all two of the Wiggenhall parishes were at that time a single parish named Wiggenhall, of modest size and sharing half a water mill on the old Wiggenhall Eau (the watercourse which ran through the parish before the

Great Ouse The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the W ...

arrived in the 13th Century) with Runcton Holme. The earliest evidence of settlement is therefore the parish church of St Mary Magdalen, which is situated in the very northeastern corner of the parish. Most of the early settlement appears to have occurred here, probably due to the presence of a levee along the western side of the River Great Ouse, made of silts deposited by a former watercourse, the Wiggenhall Eau. The church itself is largely Perpendicular in style, but the tower may date from as early as the 13th century, which is corroborated by the entry in the Register of Crabhouse Priory which tells of the Nuns taking refuge at the Church from a flood in the early 13thC. Today the church is almost entirely red brick, with a façade that is the result of a thoroughly 15th century rebuilding. The Parish contains two centres of population: around the Parish Church in the North, and to the South of Crabhouse Priory in the far South, now known as Stowbridge, which also extends into neighbouring parishes.

John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (c. 142522 August 1485), was an English nobleman, soldier, politician, and the first Howard Duke of Norfolk. He was a close friend and loyal supporter of King Richard III, with whom he was slain at the Battl ...

, KG, Earl Marshal (c.1425 – 22 August 1485) was the grandson of Sir John Howard of Wiggenhall. A

tidal bore Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (serv ...

travels up the Great Ouse which is the area's most significant topographical feature. Magdalen Gate railway station was the name of the station on the Great Eastern Railway. File:UK WiggenhallStMaryMagdalen.jpg, Signpost in Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen File:Exterior of St Mary Magdalene church.JPG, Exterior of St Mary Magdalene church File:Inside of St Mary Magdalene church.JPG, Inside of St Mary Magdalene church File:Magdalen Methodist Church - geograph.org.uk - 1244754.jpg, Magdalen Methodist Church

Notable residents

* Arthur Randell (1901-?), railwayman, molecatcher and author.

Notes

External links

King's Lynn and West Norfolk Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk {{Norfolk-geo-stub

Notable residents

See also

Notes

External links