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Mutford Hundred

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"MUTFORD, a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred, in Suffolk. The village stands 2½ miles S S W of Carlton-Colville r. station, and 4½ S E by E of Beccles. The parish comprises 1, 574 acres. Post-town, Beccles. Real property, £2,801. Pop., in 1851, 435; in 1861, 386. Houses, 92. The decrease of pop. was caused by the removal of families to the coast, for obtaining employment at the herring fisheries. The property is divided chiefly among six. The manor belongs to R. H. Reeve, Esq. Mutford Hall is the residence of the Rev. A. Gilbert. The living is a vicarage, united with therectory of Barnby, in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £660. Patron, Caius College, Cambridge. The church is ancient; comprises nave, S aisle, and S porch; has a ruinous Galilee porch at the W end, and a round Wtower; and contains a good chancel arch, remains of a screen, a canopied water-drain, an octagonal font of the time of Richard II., and a Norman arch over the grave of Hilderburga de Bosco. There are a parochial schooland charities £14. The district comprehends the sub-district of Kessingland, containing the parishes of Mutford, Barnby, Kessingland, Rushmere, Gisleham, Carlton-Colville, Pakefield, Kirkley; the sub-district of Lowestoft, containing the parishes of Lowestoft, Oulton, Flixton, Gunton, Corton, Blundeston, Somerleyton, Herringfleet, Ashby, and Lound; and the sub-district of Gorleston, containing the parishes of Gorleston, Belton, Bradwell, Burgh-Castle, Fritton, and Hopton. Acres, 35,490. Poor-rates in 1863, £7, 459. Pop. in 1851, 20,163; in 1861, 24,050. Houses, 5, 189. Marriages in 1863, 192; births, 836, of which 39 were illegitimate; deaths, 410, of which 173 were at ages under 5 years, and 22 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1, 677; births, 7, 51 3; deaths, 4, 484. The places of worship, in 1851, were 27 of the Church of England, with 9,776 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 730 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 500 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 110 s.; 7 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1, 208 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 152 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 80 s. The schools were 23 public day-schools, with 1, 720 scholars; 40 private day-schools, with 983 s.; 24 Sunday schools, with 1, 899 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 204 s. The workhouse is in Oulton; and, at the census of 1861, had 117 in-mates. The hundred bears the name of Mutford and Lothingland; and includes most of the district. Acres, 33, 315. Pop. in 1851, 16,164; in 1861, 19,578. Pop., 4,216."

(From John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72).)

Civil Registration

In 1836, White's Description of the Poor Law Unions and Registration Districts shows this Hundred to be served by the Registration District of Mutford.

MUTFORD RD in 1836 - Comprises 25 parishes in Mutford and Lothingland Hundred which includes South Town or Little Yarmouth, a suburb of Great Yarmouth which forms part of that Borough, to which Gorleston was added by the reform act.

See also Suffolk Registration Districts.

Historical Geography

See A Vision of Britain for a description of Mutford through time.

Poor Houses, Poor Law

The Workhouse site has an interesting description of Mutford & Lothingland Workhouse.