Norfolk - Great Fransham

Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk, 1883, p.320.

GREAT FRANSHAM is a parish and station on the East Anglian railway, 118¾ miles from London, 6½ west from East Dereham, and 6½ east-north-east from Swaffham, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Launditch, union of Mitford & Launditch, county court district of Swaffham, rural deanery of Brisley and archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The church of All Saints is a structure of flint in the Early English style and is of ancient date, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and a square tower with spire; it contains two ancient brasses: it was restored in 1878 at a cost of about £700. The register dates from the year 1558. The living is a rectory, yearly value £552, with residence and 62 acres of glebe, in the gift of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and held since 1853 by the Rev. Vincent Raven M.A. late fellow, tutor, and president of that college. Here is a Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1877. The fuel allotment of 8 acres, produces £12 yearly. The trustees of the late John Hudson are lords of the manor, and Frederic M. Metcalfe esq. J.P. of Inglethorpe Hall, Emneth, is lord of the manor of Ellinghams, and the principal landowners are Harvey Mason esq. Harry Wilsom Benson esq. Frderic M. Mason esq. the Rev. W. Pearce and the trustees of the late James Hubbard. The soil is mixed, and portions stiff; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips and hay. The area is 1,880 acres; rateable value £3,438; the population in 1881 was 319.

Parish Clerk, William Cross.

Letters received from East Dereham at 8 a.m. & are dispatched at 4.30 p.m. Little Fransham is the nearest money order office & telegraph office at Litcham

The school, built in 1871, for 80 children, average attendance 51, is supported by voluntary rate & school pence; Miss Esther Quartermain, mistress

Railway Station, Edgar Skeat, station master