GREAT HOCKHAM: is a parish and village, pleasantly situate, 8 miles north-east from Thetford and 7 from Attleborough, in the Southern division of the county, Wayland union, Shropham hundred, Attleborough county court district, rural deanery of Rockland, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. Wretham station, on the Great Eastern railway, is in this parish, about 2 miles south-west from the village. The church of the Holy Trinity stands in the park, attached to the Hall: it is a graceful building, and consists of nave and aisles, of the Decorated period, separated from the chancel by a noble arch: the tower fell early in the last century. The register dates from the year 1563. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £276, with residence, in the gift of and held since 1857 by the Rev. John Spurgin B.D. of Clare College, Cambridge, surrogate of the diocese, J.P. for Norfolk. The Primitive Methodists have a commodious chapel. The fuel allotments of 40 acres produce on an average £17 yearly for coals or turf cutting. The Hall, the seat of Henry Thomas Partridge, esq., J.P. lord of the manor and chief landowner, is a comfortable family mansion of red brick, surrounded by an undulating park of about 40 acres. The soil is of a mixed character; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. The area is 3,406 acres; rateable value, £3,680; and the population in 1881 was 504.
LITTLE HOCKHAM was formerly a separate parish; it is now a hamlet, about 1 mile south.
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POST & MONEY ORDER OFFICE & Savings Bank.— John Joseph Warren, postmaster, Letters arrive from Thetford. viâ Larlingford, at 8.20 a.m.; dispatched at 5.45 p.m.
POST & TELEGRAPH OFFICE, (Wretham). — Robert Adams, jun. receiver.
SCHOOLS:—
Wretham Railway station, Thomas Bedford, collector
© Transcribed by E.C.Apling, December 1998
1891 Census Names Index
White's 1845 Directory entry [GENUKI-NFK]
White's 1854
White's 1883 Directory entry [Nigel Pendall]
Gt Hockham postmill [Jonathan Neville]
Gt Hockham smockmill [Jonathan Neville]
Local village page [Wayland Partnership]
Parish Information [Geoff Lowe & Andrew Rivett]
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