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Hay rick burning: a wive’s tale
On November 5, 1831, an arson incident was reported in Stoke Ferry. We have attributed the rick burning to an unemployed farm laborer, John. His wife’s thoughts reveal desperation against oppressive machines, enclosures, and dire poverty faced by their community.
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The Fasionable Villebois Family who deprived their poor of their rights.
The Parish of Marham was once famed for its cherry and walnut orchards. The orchards were felled for use by gun manufactures during the Napoleonic wars. It was around this time that Marham came under the lordship of the Villebois family. The two Henry Villebois’, father and son, had their country seat at Marham House.…
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19th Century Game Laws; complicated and socially challenging
The Game Laws of England in the 1800s derived from the Forest Laws set down at the time of the Norman Invasion (1066). Over the intervening 800 years such laws became fiendishly complex, and politcally and socially challenging. These challenges were felt no more strongly than in West Norfolk where the hunting of game was,…
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A Tale: one woman’s thoughts on hay rick burning in 1831
On November 5, 1831, a fire near Stoke Ferry reflects unrest among impoverished laborers like John, who resort to arson against mechanisation after losing their livelihoods due to new threshing machines.
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Spinning a Yarn: how 18th centuary local women spinners felt the full weight of the law
In the twenty years between 1769-89 at least 238 women spinners who lived in Norfolk were convicted of fraud under the Worsted Act of 1768. I have identified thirty-two of these women who lived and worked in and around our district. Their story gives a fascinating insight into the rural life and working conditions of…
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Spinning a Yarn (for a second time)….a folk tale
North of Stoke Ferry, up by Castle Acre, there lived a villainous Count named Barnard Ralph Rainald. (1) Now, Count Barnard desired a certain maid, and he swore that she would be his.(2) But Elwine, for that was the maiden’s name, (3) continually spurned his approaches. Until, early one Spring morning, in a fearful state,…
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Policing in Norfolk: from the Middle Ages to 1856 – referencing rural protest in Wymondham and surrounding parishes.
Norfolk’s policing evolved from community-based methods to organised forces due to rural unrest from land enclosure and mechanisation. Protests emerged against wage decline, leading to confrontatio, government repression, and the eventual establishment of police forces.
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Religious Courts in England & Wales: from the 12th to 19th century ~ with local references
Ecclesiastical courts decided many matters which we now think of as secular. They regulated marriages, oaths, usury, sorcery, heresy, university life, penance, just wars, court procedure, and Christian relations with religious minorities. Their separate status dates back to the 12th century when Norman rulers split them off from the mixed secular/religious county and local courts…
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Horse Stealing in the Stoke Ferry District: from the late-18th century to mid-19th century
Horse stealing was rampant in Georgian England and Wales, with increasing horse numbers and the absence of a police force creating opportunities for theft. Gentlemen’s Associations were formed to deter thieves through rewards and hand bill publication. The penalty for horse theft was typically prison, transportation, or execution.