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White's 1845 [GENUKI-NFK]
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Shipdham West End postmill [Jonathan Neville]
Shipdham Mill Road postmill [Jonathan Neville]
Shipdham Market Street postmill [Jonathan Neville]
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Norfolk - Shipdham

Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk, 1883, pp. 491-2.

SHIPDHAM is a large and well-built parish 4 miles south-west from Yaxham station and 5 south-by-west from East Dereham, in the Southern division of the county, Mitford hundred, Mitford and Launditch union, East Dereham county court district, rural deanery of Hingham, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. All Saint's church is a spacious edifice of flint with stone facings in the Early English style: in 1845 extensive alterations were made: it consists of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch, embattled tower surmounted by a wooden cupola and spire, and containing 6 bells and clock: in a parvise over the porch is a collection of rare books, chiefly on theology, bequeathed by a former rector: this church contains one of the finest original wooden lecterns in the country, of unusual design and great beauty; its shaft triangular, composed of three buttresses, the angles between which are ornamented with a row of quatrefoils, from the top to the bottom: the shaft rests on a base of three members terminated by a lion sejant: the desk is of a double form, very richly carved: a copy of this lectern is to be seen in Mattishall church, and another in St.Mark's, New Lakenham. The church is now (1883) being restored. The register dates from the year 1558. The living is a rectory, yearly value £1,240, with residence and 49 acres of glebe, in the gift of the trustees of the late Rev. George Curling Bailey and held since 1883 by the Rev. George Dean Dundas Watt M.A. of Queen's College, Oxford. A Burial Board consisting of 9 members was formed in 1877: there is a public cemetery of 2 acres, with chapel, which was opened in 1879. There is a Congregational church and Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists chapels. The Town Estate produces about £130 yearly, which is carried to the churchwardens' account, except for a small sum, which is distributed among the poor. The fuel allotments, awarded in 1809, comprise about 126 acres, producing £140 a year, which is distributed among the poor in coals. There is also £4 5s. for the poor from other charities. Anciently here was a market, established by the Bishop of Ely, who built a hall here in the reign of Henry III.: but the market has long been obsolete. There is a stock fair held on the last Monday in June. A Temperance Hall was built in 1875. The chief landowners are Eton College, King's College, Cambridge, W. G. Barker esq. and R. T. Gurdon esq. M.P. The soil is loam and clay: subsoil, chalk and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley and turnips. The parish is of considerable extent, covering the space of 5 miles from north-east to south-west. The area is 4,560 acres; rateable value £9,245; the population in 1881 was 1,526.

Parish Clerk

_____

POST MONEY ORDER & TELEGRAPH OFFICE & Savings Bank.—Mrs. Eliza Guyton, postmistress. Letters arrive by mail cart from Thetford at 5 a.m.; delivered at 7 a.m. Letters are dispatched at 7.15 p.m.

INSURANCE AGENTS.—

County Fire

Norwich Union Fire

Royal Farmers' & General, W. H. Fulcher, East Bradenham hall

The Endowed school, built in 1743, is endowed with a farm of 46A. 3R. 18P. let for £100 a year, devised by T. Bullock esq. in 1835, for the support of a master to teach reading, writing and arithmetic gratis to all the poor of the parish: a large & spacious schoolhouse with residence, was erected in 1864 by one of Mr. T. Bullock's grandnieces, Mary Bullock, at a cost of upwards of £1,000, & enlarged in 1875 for 240 children; average attendance 150, it is now conducted as a Public Elementary School; William Henry Tench, master; Mrs Tech, mistress.

CARRIERS TO NORWICH.—Daniel Skipper, of Yaxham & William Pease, wed. & sat. returning same days.

PRIVATE RESIDENTS

M.D.

M.A

COMMERCIAL

Chequers

Cemetery