Norfolk - Barnham Broom

Francis White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory, of Norfolk 1854, p. 467

[Complete entry. Transcription Copyright © A.J. Carter, March 2001]

BARNHAM BROOM, a pleasant and well built village, 4 miles N. by W. of Wymondham, and 9 miles W. of Norwich, has in its parish the hamlet of Bickerston or Bixton, about a mile N. of the Church, and contains 109 houses, 511 souls, and 1,776 acres of land, mostly the property of Lord Wodehouse, lord of the manor of Barnham Rysks, and Bickerston. The Corporation of Norwich are lords of the manor of Barnham Hawkins, and have a farm here of 90a. The Church is a handsome edifice, dedicated to St. Peter, with a lofty tower and five bells. The rectory, valued in the King's book at £12 8s. 1½d., and in 1831, at £540, has the vicarage of Kimberly [sic] annexed to it, and is in the gift of Lord Wodehouse ; incumbent, Rev. Edward Gurdon. There was anciently a church at Bickerston, the foundations of which are still to be seen. Elyn Durrant, in 1503, settled her lands on the brothers and sisters of the Guilds of our Lady and St. Peter here, on condition that they kept a solemn dirge and mass, every Lord's-day, in Barnham church, for her and her husband's souls. The Church Land produces £4 a year. The Town Lands were exchanged at the enclosure in 1811, for 10a. 26p., now let for £15 a year ; this sum and £12 a year received as the rent of five cottages, is carried to the poor-rates. The Fuel Allotment, 18a. 3r. 29p., on which the poor cut turf, and let the grazing for about £8 a year, which is expended in coals. A National school built in 1841, for this parish, Brandon Parva, and Runhall. Post Office at John Copping's; letters are despatched at 5 p.m. [sic]