Snettisham 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. It is located near the west coast of Norfolk, some south of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

and northwest of the city of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 250 - Norfolk Coast West''. . The village's name means 'Snaet's/Sneti's homestead/village'. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 2374 in 1097 households. 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, municip ...

of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001).
Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes
''. Retrieved 2 December 2005. The population of the civil parish had increased to 2,570 by 2011 and to 2,710 by 2021. St Mary's Church in the village has a high spire, a landmark for ships in The Wash. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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'' (195 ...

called it "perhaps the most exciting 14th century Decorated church in Norfolk". It served as the model for Christ Church Cathedral in

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, Canada, built 1845–1853. The Snettisham coast is often said to be "where Norfolk stares at

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

". This is because, unlike much of Norfolk's coast where the sea stretches to the horizon, Snettisham looks across the square-mouthed

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

The Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...

at the county of Lincolnshire, only away. Snettisham RSPB reserve, on the coast of The Wash some to the west of the village, is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

in the care of the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

. It consists of bird lagoons and bird-observation hides, including a rotary hide. The River Ingol runs to the south of the village, upon which stands Snettisham

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 mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

, now renovated as a holiday let. This was built in 1800 for £800 and it was paid for by the community of Snettisham for the people of the village at a time when bread was scarce. It is believed that the present mill was built on an existing site although virtually no records have so far been found apart that Thomas Stonne was a Snettisham miller in 1626. At the time of Domesday, there were seven mills in Snettisham more than in any other Norfolk village. The mill is very small and originally consisted of a single structure built of local dark brown carrstone with a pantiled roof. The mill worked on until 1940 producing flour and after that was used for animal feed production until 1960. The mill was restored, and brought back to working order by 1984. Though traces of Snettisham railway station and the railway line can still be seen, the service, which opened in 1862, was terminated in 1969. The Snettisham Hoard is a series of discoveries of

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

precious metal, including nearly 180

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

torcs, 75 complete and the rest fragmentary, found in the area between 1948 and 1973 at Ken Hill. In 1985 there was also a find of

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

jewellery and raw materials buried in a clay pot in AD 155, the Snettisham Jeweller's Hoard. Although this latter find has no direct connection with the nearby Iron Age finds, it may be evidence of a long tradition of gold- and silver-working in the area. Snettisham has a complex entry 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, where it is divided in ownership between William de Warenne and the Bishop of Bayeux. Related berewicks are West Newton and Castle Rising and Weston Longville is said to be in Snettisham's valuation. The name of the manor is spelt in four different ways, two very similar to the present pronunciation, one of ''Snesham'' and one of ''Nestesham''.''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. p.1075-6 and 1090 In 2024 Snettisham received national attention on account of its feral chicken population. Residents reportedly had mixed views about the birds.

Governance

An electoral ward of the same name exists and had a population of 4,032 at the 2011 Census.

Gallery

UK Snettisham2.jpg, Bench and signpost in Snettisham UK Snettisham1.jpg, Village sign Snettisham Watermill 11th Oct 2007 (2).JPG, Mill Pond on the River Ingol

Notes

External links

Information from Genuki Norfolk
on Snettisham.
Current events link to Lynn News
* http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Snettisham {{Authority control Villages in Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk Populated coastal places in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Beaches of Norfolk

Governance

See also

Gallery

Notes

External links