GENUKI: Norfolk: Wolferton, Norfolk

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

WOLFERTON, or Wolverton, is a small parish on the Sandringham estate, bordering on Lynn Deeps, 7 miles N. by E. of Lynn. It is in Freebridge Lynn union, hundred, and petty sessional division, Lynn county court and bankruptcy district, Lynn polling district of West Norfolk, Lynn (Norfolk) rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry.

Its parish had 185 inhabitants in 1881, and 2774A. 1R. 39P. of land, including an extensive open sandy heath stretching to Dersingham and West Newton. On the west side of the parish are about 200 acres of salt marsh, bordering on the Wash, where a sea-wall was built many years ago, at a cost of £1800. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is lord of the manor and owner of the soil, except the glebe, and 4 acres belonging to the rectory of Sandringham.

Here is a station on the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway. In 1876 a handsome building of Carr stone faced with white brick was erected at the railway station by the Great Eastern Railway and Lynn and Hunstanton Railway Companies for the use of the Prince and Princess of Wales. It is approached by a covered carriage entrance from the outside, and contains one reception and two retiring rooms handsomely furnished. The platform in front is covered with a handsome roof, partly of glass. The furniture of the reception-room is oak, and the walls are panelled with polished pitch pine. The Princess's retiring-room is upholstered in blue rep, and the Prince's retiring-room is upholstered in red morocco.

The CHURCH (St. Peter) is of the Decorated period, and comprises nave with aisles and clerestory, fine south porch, chancel, and embattled western tower. On the corbels supporting the roof are figures of eleven apostles, and the hammer-beams have figures in clerical costume bearing shields. There were formerly chapels at the east ends of the aisles, where the piscinas still remain; and there is also an enclosure with piscina and an altar at north-west corner of the church. The beautiful screens were restored in 1866 to their original position across these chapels, in one of which (that on the south side) is an unsightly tomb in memory of the Kerrick family, who died in the first half of the last century. A screen separates the nave and chancel, and in the latter are sedilia for three priests.

The font is octagonal, and possibly dates from the 15th century. Some of the windows retain fragments of ancient stained glass, and the fine east window of three lights was restored and filled with cathedral glass in 1868 by the late rector. The plaster has been scraped off the pillars and arches. The porch was restored in 1866, and the chancel in 1876, when a sacristy was built by the late rector, on the original foundations, at a cost of about £250.

It appears that the church was burned down before 1489, as there exists an authority by the Bishop, and dated 1489, calling upon all the faithful to give alms towards its re-erection. A stone coffin in the church was found in the churchyard a few years ago by the rector. In 1876 the churchyard was enlarged by the addition of about a quarter of an acre, the gift of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. The Register dates from 1653.

The rectory, valued in the King's Book at £12, is in the patronage of the Bishop of Norwich and incumbency of the Rev. John F. Mitchell, who has a good residence, of Carr stone faced with brick, built in 1862 at a cost of about £750, and considerably enlarged by the late rector: there are 21 acres of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1838 for £263 10s. per annum. The rector of Sandringham has 4 acres of glebe in this parish.

A handsome school has been erected by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and is attended by 34 children.

POST OFFICE is at Mr. Abraham Claxton's. Letters arrive at 7 a.m., and are despatched at 6.47 p.m., viâ Lynn. Dersingham is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office.

         Bassham   Luke                estate agent's clerk
         Bright    Wm. Richard         stationmaster
         Gayford   Geo. William        seed, cake, coal, manure
                                         and salt merchant
         Hudson    James               farm bailiff
         Hudson    William             parish clerk
         Mitchell  Rev. John F., M.A.  rector, The Rectory
         Rix       Frederick William   farmer

LYNN and HUNSTANTON RAILWAY

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Norfolk: Wolferton

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