1891 Census Names Index
Great Walsingham
White's 1854
White's 1845 and 1883 [both GENUKI-NFK]
Introduction to the Churches of Walsingham [Simon Knott]
Catholic church of The Annunciation
Little Walsingham watermill [Jonathan Neville]
More on Little Walsingham [GENUKI-NFK]
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Norfolk - Little Walsingham (New Walsingham)

Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk, 1883, pp. 541-543.

NEW WALSINGHAM (or LITTLE WALSINGHAM) is a parish and town, head of a county court district and station on the East Dereham and Wells branch of the Great Eastern railway; it is on the Stiffkey river, and is 5 miles south-east-by-east from Wells, 5½ north-by-east from Fakenham, 27 north-west from Norwich and 113 from London, in the Northern division of the county, North Greenhoe hundred, rural deanery of Walsingham and archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich. The parish church of St. Mary is a noble cruciform stone building, in the Perpendicular style: it has a deep chancel, nave with clerestory and aisles, and a tower with a slender spire and 5 bells: the south transept forms the organ chamber: in the north transept are marble and alabaster monuments to the Sidney family, dated 1612, the last of whom disposed of the property to the Lee-Warners, ancestors of the present proprietor, about 200 years ago: there are tablets in memory of several members of the Lee-Warner family: the north transept contains the entrance to a rood staircase: there is also a carved screen and a piscina: the now much-mutilated font is supposed to have been one of the most artistic Perpendicular specimens in England and a restored model of it was exhibited in the Mediæval Court of the Crystal Palace; its shape is octagonal, with richly-sculptured panels, representing the Seven Sacraments of the catholic Church and the Crucifixion, and around the shaft are figures of the Four Evangelists and other saints, the whole standing upon a pediment of three steps in the form of a Maltese cross: the church was partially restored in 1861 at a cost of £1,700, and many additional free seats obtained. The register commences in 1558. The living is a vicarage (with that of Houghton-in-the-Dale annexed), joint yearly value £280 with residence, in the gift of Henry James Lee-Warner esq. J.P., D.L. and held since 1882 by the Rev. George Ratcliffe Woodward M.A. of Caius College, Cambridge. The Vicarage house, erected in 1839 and since enlarged, is a handsome building, standing in about three acres of well-wooded and ornamental grounds, partly in the parish of Old Walsingham. The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have chapels here. There are eight almshouses and various legacies left for the relief of the poor inhabitants, amounting to about £230 a year, also a charity founded by Lady Mary Townshend for binding apprentices who are orphans, amounting to £30 yearly, distributed by 12 trustees, comprising the vicars of Old and New Walsingham, the guardians of the poor of New Walsingham (ex officio) and others. There is also a fuel allotment producing £35 yearly; the interest of £50, left in 1738, distributed in bread to 24 poor persons, and a charity of £100 left in 1827, producing £3 yearly, for four poor widows of labouring men. A sum of £2 was also left by Philip Brown in 1638, to be paid to the minister, on condition that he preached a commemoration sermon once a year. Reading rooms which were established in 1866 are well attended, and supplied with London newspapers and periodicals. The market has been discontinued, but a fair is held on the second monday after Whit-monday, and statute fairs on the fridays before and after Michaelmas day. There are ruins of a grey friary, founded by Elizabeth de Burgh. Countess of Clare in the fifteenth century, and an hospital for lepers occupied the site of the present police station, which is also the site of the Old Bridewell. The town was formerly famous for its priory of Augustine canons, founded by Geoffrey de Faverche in the eleventh century, on the site of a small chapel erected by his mother in honour of the Virgin Mary, similar in design to the Sancta Casa of Nazareth; it was a most noted place of pilgrimage, kings and queens of England and distinguished foreigners of all Europe resorted hither to pay their devotions at the shrine of Our lady of Walsingham, guided by he "Milky Way," which is even now sometimes spoken of as "The Walsingham Way": the last regal devotee was Henry VIII. in the second year of his reign, who walked barefoot from the village of Barsham; a little later, however, he caused the image of Our Lady of Walsingham to be burnt at Chelsea: the ruins of this once wealthy establishment, which exhibit every style of English Gothic architecture, now consist of the west entrance gateway, a loft arch 60 fete high, formerly the east end of the church, a Norman arch leading to a stone bath and two wells called the Wishing Wells, from the legend that persons drinking their waters will obtain any wish made when they do so, and also some fine lancet arches and part of the refectory, comprising the west window, four Decorated windows and a reading pulpit, approached by stone steps in the wall. Walsingham Abbey, a large and ancient building standing in a well wooded park of about fifty acres, is now the seat of Henry James Lee-Warner esq. M.A., D.L., J.P.: the grounds are very beautiful, and are open by the permission of the owner to the public, on application at the lodge, every wednesday. Henry James Lee-Warner esq. is lord of the manor and owner of all the land in the parish, which comprises an area of 952 acres; rateable value, £3,341; the population in 1881 was 1,016.

Parish Clerk,

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POST, MONEY ORDER & TELEGRAPH OFFICE & Savings Bank, Railway Sub office. Letters should have R.S.O. Norfolk added.—Thomas Johnson, postmaster. Letters arrive at 5.20 a.m. 2.30 (London direct) & 6.25 p.m.; dispatched at 5.20 p.m. to Wells, 10.20 a.m. (London direct) & 6.25 p.m.; sunday, delivery 7.30 a.m.; dispatched at 5.20 a.m. to Wells, & 6.25 p.m.