KIMBERLEY is a village and parish with station on the Wymondham and Dereham railway, 3½ miles west from Wymondham, in the Southern division of the county, Forehoe hundred and union, Wymondham county court district, rural deanery of Hingham, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The church of St. Peter is a small building in the Early Decorated style: it has chancel, nave and south porch, and square tower at the west end containing two bells: in the chancel are three stained windows, those on the east and south side were presented by John, the first Lord Wodehouse: the church was repaired and otherwise beautified in 1835 by the Wodehouse family. The register dates from the year 1753. The living is a vicarage, consolidated with Barnham Broom and Bixton, joint yearly value £604, with 107 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Earl of Kimberley, and held since 1879 by the Rev. Arthur Charles Wodehouse Upcher B.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, who resides at Barnham Broom. The poor's allotment of 2 acres produces £4 yearly, which is distributed among the poor in fuel. Kimberley House is an ancient spacious brick mansion of the last century, having towers at the four angles, and is the seat of the Earl of Kimberley P.C. the representative of the Wodehouse and Falstolf families, and is situated in a beautiful park containing about 646 acres, 58 of which are in the parish of Carlton Forehoe, 276 in Wymondham (in which the Hall stands), and the rest in Kimberley and Crownthorpe: the park has a fine lake and wood, and is well stocked with deer. The Earl of Kimberley is lord of the manor and sole landowner. The soil is clayey; subsoil, brick earth. The chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips and hay. The area is 1,467 acres; rateable value, £2,488; ad the population in 1881 was 190.
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Letters through Wymondham, which is the nearest money order & telegraph office. PILLAR LETTER BOX cleared at 6.40 p.m. & on sundays at 9 a.m.
There is an infants' school supported by the Earl of Kimberley, Miss Allen, mistress; the elder children attend the school at Hardingham
Railway Station, James Raney, station master
CARRIERS TO NORWICH.— John Laskey, from Hingham, passes through Kimberley every mon. wed. & sat.; & John Risebrook, every tues. thurs. & sat., returning to Hingham same days
Atkins Sydney Geo. frmr.& valr. Prk.fm
Banham Thomas, farmer
Cubitt Thomas, farmer, manor farm
Howes Henry, brick & tile maker
Palmer Walter, blacksmith
Smith Brothers, corn & coal merchants, Kimberley station
Smith Richard, farmer
Transcription Copyright © E.C."Paddy" Apling, August 2000.
1891 Census Names Index
White's 1854
White's 1845; and 1883 [all GENUKI-NFK]
Hunt's 1850 [GENUKI-NFK]
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