People often like to say that the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk is slow to act on local issues. But, any current complaints pale into insignificance with the tale of the Stoke Ferry-Whittington Causeway.
But first a little background on why this causway was so important….
Stoke Ferry exists because it is an historic crossing place. Its ferry and then its bridge across the River Wissey were always its defining feature.
Stoke Ferry is situated on ‘higher ground’, that is to say that, positioned on the edge of the Fens, it provided a route, or causeway, through the surrounding marsh and wetlands. In fact, the centre of the village is still refered to as ‘The Hill’.
A functioning causway was vital to the local economy especially for its use by cattle drovers who for hundreds of years brought their cattle down from Scotland to sell in Norfolk markets. Their cattle were then sold on and fattened up before being ‘driven’ again in weekly droves to the slaughterhouses of Smithfield Market, London.
By 1770, with the creation of the Stoke Ferry Turnpike, the strategic importance of the causway and the rental from the land in question increased.
Even at this late date the position of Stoke Ferry Cattle Market can be clearly seen
Showing the River Wissey which flows between Stoke Ferry and Whittington.
So now to the story of the battle over the Causeway…it all starts in the C15th with Richard Constable of Northwold who, by his will proved on 9th June 1483, devised a close of land of some 4-5 acres in Wretton for the repair of the causeway extending from Whittington to Stoke Ferry. Unfortunatly, Constable’s will did not state who the trustees were and, as we will see, this led to long and heated disputes between the great and the good of the various parishes concerned.
Showing Stoke Ferry & Northwold and proximity to The Fens.
Notethe old names on the maps: the River Wissey is named Winson and Stoke, while Stoke Ferry is just called ‘Stoke’
In 1587 the Churchwardens of Northwold and two inhabitants of Stoke Ferry took Thomas Hullyer and John Davye to court. It was claimed that Thomas Hullyer’s late father Andrew had been Churchwarden of Northwold. It was also claimed that he had farmed the close, had got possession of all the necessary writings and that on Andrew’s death, Thomas had conveyed the close to John Davye. The problem was that they both refused to repair the causeway.
The Court of Requests decreed that Hullyer and Davye should make a feoffment of the close to five or four of the principal inhabitants of Northwold and Stoke Ferry; that the feoffees should without delay re-enfeoff( Davye of the said close to hold for ever on condition that he maintained the causeway; and that before 1st June next Davye should cause to be laid on the causeway ‘so manye loades of good and sufficent gravell as shall suffice for the repayre thereof’.
There is no evidence that Davye kept the causeway in repair and it is supposed that possession of the close reverted to the feoffees and that the rents were received and applied by the Churchwardens and Overseers of Northwold for the purposes of the will until about 1794.
It was around 1794 that the trustees of the Stoke Ferry Turnpike (constructed following an Act for amending and widening several Roads leading from the Bell in Stoke Ferry, 1770 (1)) claimed the rents of the close and the tenant thereafter paid the rent to them. The Churchwardens and Overseers claimed the close and rents at a meeting of the Turnpike Trustees in 1803. All parties agreed to take legal opinion, which was that the Turnpike Trustees should apply the rent to the ‘keeping in Repair whatever Road or Footpath at this time goes over the spot where the Old Cawsey was’.
The Stoke Ferry, Wretton, Wereham and Winnold Inclosure Act of 1816 created more difficulty, as both the Churchwardens of Northwold and the Trustees of the Stoke Ferry Turnpike submitted a claim for the close to the Inclosure Commissioner.
Legal opinion was again sought and the copies of the various documents which appear below seem to have been made at this time for the scrutiny of George Boone Roupell of Lincoln’s Inn. he concluded: ‘The whole of this Case is involved in doubt and uncertainty – the property is of too small value to bear the Expence of a Suit in Equity…..’.
The Inclosure Commissioner awarded the close to the Turnpike Trustees. However, by 1893 it seems that the Churchwardens of Northwold were receiving the Constable’s Charity income and in 1930 the Charity Commission drew up a new scheme specifying that Constable’s Charity was to be administered by Northwold Parish Council.
(1) The Bell: (now named The Blue Bell Public House), Lynn Road, Stoke Ferry.
Sources:
A Farthing for the Ferryman, Richard L. Coates, The Harpsden Press, 2019
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