Recently a local resident said something along the lines of “There is no history in our village. I walk out of my house, and I don’t feel there’s anything particularly historic in our corner of West Norfolk.”
Perhaps this person’s history schooling was all about Kings and Queens, Famous Battles, Celebrities, Admirals, Inventors, Famous Authors, etc. And, for sure, there is a dearth of commemorative Blue Plaques in our villages. But does this mean our communities and our lands have no history worth the name? We would say not. Let us present a stab at a History A-Z for our area.
A
Allotting waste land to the poor when, through the 18th Century Enclosure Acts, the poor had been stripped of their grazing, gleaning and fuel-gathering rights to commons, Lammas Lands, half-year lands, etc.
B
Battle of the Bridge.
In1248, at the time of Henry III, the abbot of Ely had a grant for a market and fair at Stoke Ferry. The profits of the ferry over the Wissey also belonged to the abbot. When a new bridge was built, the abbot had it taken down so he could continue to charge for the ferry. Popular unrest forced him to rebuild the bridge.
C
Catholic Dissolution. We all know of Henry VIII, his wives, and how he established the Church of England. But our Parish Churches present little information on this. A glimpse, though, can be ascertained by the Royal Coat of Arms which are on display in many churches. For example Wretton Parish Church. Such Coats of Arms were ordered to be placed in each church by Henry VIII to validate that the King (or Queen) of England was now the head of the country’s new Christian Church.
D
Dropping in to Stoke Ferry Railway Station on his way to Oxburgh Hall, we find Edward VII (as Prince of Wales). He steamed into Stoke Ferry on three occasions in the late 1800s.
E
Excellent money was made and invested in our Wissey Valley district from the fortunes made by Methwold ’s Earl of Mountrath and Stoke Ferry’s James Bradfield from estates in colonial Ireland.
F
Finding times & agricultural wages brutally hard to bear, many families left to go to the promised lands of Yorkshire & Lancashire Mills, providing the necessary labour for the Industrial Revolution.
G
God-fearing folk explored a more rational and democratic form of Christianity than that offered by the state church. They financed & built their own non-conformist, independent chapels & churches.
H
Hundreds of Norfolk’s female wool spinners were fined, imprisoned ,or flogged for short reeling. In 1769-89, at least 32 local women, working for subsistence wages were imprisoned or fined.
I
Invasion by foreign lords were experienced by local people just as in other British regions. Roman legions and feuding Norman lords left their mark on our part of East Anglia as well as leaving treasures which still lie waiting to be unearthed.
J
Just spare a moment and consider the indignity for maids, labourers, and tradespeople who, every October, by statute, stood for sale on The Hill at Stoke Ferry at the Annual Hiring Fairs.
K
Keep Calm and Keep Draining. That seems to have been the motto of those who transformed our landscape and helped make East Anglia the breadbasket of England. The final drainage of the lands being by Crouch (Dehydrators) Limited of land stretching from Stoke Ferry to the sugar factory of Wissington.
L
Let’s not forget the role of the Court/Manor of Clare. “What’s this?” we hear you say. The Norman Earls of Clare were once the powerful baronial owners of lands of Stoke Ferry and elsewhere in Britain. Their Feudal Court was where petty crimes were resolved and tenants/sub-tenants paid their dues under a system called copyhold. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries land was gradually converted into freehold, but certain manorial rights were often retained.
M
Millionaire mansions. Attracted by relatively cheap land prices there was a craze for aristocrats and London’s wealthy to create large estates to indulge in the of hunting deer, foxes, otters, and game birds. This craze reached its peak in Edwardian times and declined after World War I.
N
Networks were forged by the above estate owners and the established gentry to ensure that they blocked parliamentary reform and resisted the right to vote to firstly all men and then women.
O
One ought also to recall the Association For Prosecuting Horse Stealers, and other Felons. Such Associations were the precursor of today’s police force.
P
Playing our part in the creation of today’s banking system – with local coinage (tokens) and a Barclays Bank on Stoke Ferry High Street.
Q
Quelling of 19th century rural riots happened in our district as elsewhere in the country.
R
Recruitment drives in 1914-18 of reluctant young farm labouring lads to fight in the ‘war to end all wars ‘. Instigated by Recruiting Sergeants with small teams of recruits. All villages were visited, and others exhorted to enlist.
S
Seal of approval for Sammy. Our resident seal in Wereham’s pond gained a certain amount of notoriety in the 1920s and ’30s.
T
Turning windmills towered over our landscape not only to drain the fenlands by to grind the corn for our daily bread.
U
Underground bunker. A Cold War underground monitoring post west of Little Lane, Stoke Ferry, which would have been used to monitor radioactive fallout in the event of a nuclear attack.
V
Vegetables, sheep, cattle, and pigs have all had their peaks and troughs (especially the pigs!) over the years as Norfolk was in the forefront in the development of modern agricultural practices.
W
Wild West Drovers! Cattle brought here from the remote wilds of mountainous West of Scotland, fattened, and sold on, before finally being driven to Smithfield Market in London. Notice, right, from the Norfolk Chronicle, 1776.
X
X-Rays, we did not invent, but we did have a fine early photographer. Harry William Harold, who from c1885-c1935 recorded local scenes & lives of ordinary people which many enjoy viewing today.
Y & Z
You have only to consider at what is right in front of you to appreciate the history which lies before you ready to be explored. Zealand (New) and Australia were the popular destinations of the destitute who committed petty crimes and were deported thence by County magistrates.
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