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Norfolk: Hempton
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William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883
[Transcription copyright © Pat Newby]
HEMPTON is a small parish and scattered village, half a mile S. of Fakenham, on the opposite side of the river Wensum, and on the Eastern and Midlands Railway. It is in Walsingham union, Fakenham county court district, Norwich bankruptcy district, Gallow petty sessional division and hundred, Fakenham polling district of West Norfolk, Toftrees rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry. It had 566 inhabitants in 1881, living on 560 acres, and has a rateable value of £1666. It is mostly the property of the Marquis Townshend, who is lord of the manor and impropriator of the tithes, which have been commuted for £97.
Hempton Priory, which stood on the Abbey farm, was founded in the reign of Henry I. for Augustine canons, to whom King John granted a fair; and in 14th Edward I. (1286) the prior claimed a market on Tuesday, but the latter has long been obsolete, and no vestiges of the priory now remain. In a tumulus on the adjoining heath an urn was dug up many years ago.
Two large fairs, held here on Whit-Tuesday and November 22, are noted for Scotch cattle; and a third is held in September for the sale of sheep.
The ancient parish CHURCH (St. Andrew) was dilapidated on the foundation of the priory, to which a chapel was attached, but some of its ruins were standing in 1497. The priory ceased on the suppression of the smaller religious houses, and although the population increased considerably, the parish was left without a church till 1856; when the present CHURCH (Holy Trinity) was opened. The new church is only partially built, the chancel alone being completed. It is in the Early English style, and all its windows are filled with stained glass of a plain pattern, that at the east end, which is of three lights surmounted by three quatrefoils, containing the emblem of the Trinity. The west window is in memory of Guybon Damant; and a small mural monument, forming the base of one of the side windows, is in memory of the family of Moxon.
The vicarage, worth £30 a year, is in the patronage of the Crown, and incumbency of the Rev. Ambrose James Johnson, M.A., who is also rector of Shereford, and who has a good residence of plain Tudor architecture, built in 1858 at a cost of £800.
Here is a National Infant School, attended by about 50 children. The poor have 4A. 2R. 12P. of land in the parish of Shereford, which is let for £12 5s., and £2 10s. yearly from the sale of a cottage which was left and invested in Consols. An Oddfellors' Lodge is held at the King's Head.
WALL LETTER BOX cleared at 5.50 p.m. POST viâ Fakenham, which is the nearest Money Order Office.
Barley Mr Edmund Johnson Bell Mrs Susannah schoolmistress Burrell Mrs Naomi Butcher James cabinet maker Chaplin Mrs Sarah Ann Codling John bootmaker Cooper George bootmaker Curson Geo. Robinson superintendent L. & F. Railway Co. Fisher Isaac William wheelwright and carpenter Gates Mrs Mary victualler, Buck Goggs Thomas Richard miller and merchant; h Fakenham Graves Walter butcher Horsley Charles & Son millers and merchants; and Fakenham Huggins William blacksmith Johnson Rev. Ambrose Jas. M.A. vicar Lane John brewer, timber mert. and vict. King's Head, and tax collector Leverington James baker and grocer, assistant overseer and tax collector Loades Alfred cooper Loades Edmund cooper Loades Edm. jun. cooper & parish clrk Lynn Miss Lydia grocer and draper Mann John castrator & cattle dealer Mann Robert cattle dealer and vict. Bell Newland Mr James Pearson Mr John Sharman Mrs Martha Sharman John Wright farmer and cattle dealer, Abbey farm Tait Lavater Cawkwell general manager, E.M. Railway Co. Tuthill Chas. brickmkr.; h Fakenham Woodhouse Daniel wheelwright Wright James timber merchant
RAILWAY - Fakenham Town Station, on the Eastern & Midlands Railway; G.R. Curson, superintendent, and W.F. Bill, stationmaster
See also the Hempton parish page.
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Copyright © Pat Newby.
August 2008