Norfolk: Babingley

William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883

[Transcription copyright © Pat Newby]

BABINGLEY, a small parish 1 mile N.W. of Castle Rising, and 5½ miles N.N.E. of Lynn, is in Freebridge Lynn union, petty sessional division and hundred, Lynn county court district and bankruptcy district, King's Lynn polling district of West Norfolk, Lynn rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry. It had 58 inhabitants in 1881, living in 13 houses on 849 acres, and has a rateable value of £1,001. A great part of the parish is in swampy meadows, through which a rivulet runs westward to the Wash.

H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is owner of the soil, lord of the manor, and patron of the rectory, which is valued in the King's Book at £4 13s. 4d., and united with Sandringham, in the incumbency of the Rev. F.A.J. Harvey.

The CHURCH stands in the meadows, and is said to occupy the site of the first Christian Church erected in the county - its patron saint being Felix the Burgundian, who converted the East Angles. It appears to be of the Decorated period, and originally comprised nave with aisles, chancel, south porch, and lofty square embattled tower, but the north aisle has entirely disappeared, and the chancel is in ruins. Remains of the sedilia and piscina, and a place for an aumbry, may still be seen in the ruined chancel, and the east window retains some of its tracery, but the chancel arch is now built up, and contains a square headed window of two lights.

The base and part of the shaft of a roadside cross of the 14th century, still stand at the junction of the West Newton and Hunstanton roads.

There is only one farmer (Mr. Edward William Betts) in the parish; the other farm is farmed by the Prince of Wales. In 1881 the farm house was converted into a hospital by the Princess of Wales, for persons suffering from disease on the Sandringham estate; there is accommodation for ten patients.

POST from Lynn.

         Betts   Edward William   farmer
 

See also the Babingley parish page.

These pages are for personal use only. They may not be copied, and the links within them may not be harvested for use on your own web pages. Please see the Copyright Notice.

Copyright © Pat Newby.
December 2008