Winfarthing sign
Winfarthing
Kelly’s Directory of Norfolk, 1896

WINFARTHING is a parish and pleasant village 3 miles north-west from Burston station on the Ipswich and Norwich section of the Great Eastern railway, and 4 north from Diss, in the Southern division of the county, Diss hundred, petty sessional division and county court district, Guiltcross union, rural deanery of Redenhall, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The church of St. Mary the Virgin is an ancient building of flint, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells: the interior is plain, with an oak roof, there are five stained windows; in 1889 a new organ was erected, and there is an oak chest of the I6th century, in which are kept many old and valuable deeds relating to the church property; the church was partially restored in 1873 by the Rev. Ellice Keppel, rector 1871-83, and affords 400 sittings. The register dates from the year 1614. The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge £434, net yearly value £313 including 30 acres of glebe with residence, in the gift of Lord Egerton of Tatton, and held since 1883 by the Rev. George Keppel B.A. of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. The fuel allotment of 40 acres produces £50 yearly and the Town's land of 45 acres about £800 yearly, part of which sum is applied to the support of the school, the remainder being expended in coals for the church, the repairs of the church, churchwardens’ expenses, the salary of the parish clerk, and bread for the poor. There is an old tradition here respecting a sword called “the Good Sword of Winfarthing,” said to have belonged to a. thief who had taken sanctuary, and afterwards to have been preserved by the monks, who found it to possess such virtues that they placed it in a shrine, to which many superstitious folk from far and near came and offered gifts. The Lodge Farm, now in the occupation of the trustees of the late Mr. Henry Palmer, is a portion of a deer park of 1,000 acres, inclosed by Philip Earl of Arundel and Surrey in 1604, and contains two oak trees of great size. The manor, anciently held by the Crown, was given by Henry VIII. to Sir William Montchesny. Lord Egerton of Tatton, who is now lord of the the manor, Mrs. Charlotte Phipson, Thomas Betts esq. and James Mann esq. of 3 Kensington Court gardens, London W are the chief landowners, and there are several smaller freeholders. The soil is mixed; subsoil, sand and clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, clover, beans and peas. The area is 2,583 acres; rateable value, £2,794; the population in 1881 was 604, in 1891, 543.

Parish Clerk, James Morley.

Post Office.-William Reeve, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Diss at 7.20 a.m. ; dispatched at 5.30 p.m. ; sundays, 8 a. m. ; dispatched 11 a. m. There is a dispatch every night per mail cart on payment of 1d. extra postage at 9.30 p.m. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid. The nearest money order £ telegraph office is at Banham

Parochial School (mixed), erected in 1854 on glebe land, by funds raised by the Rev. J. Bourne £ partly supported as mentioned above, for 80 children; average attendance, 73; John W. Sinclair, master

Carrier to Diss. - John Munford, tues. & fri

Keppel Rev. George B.A. Rectory

COMMERCIAL.

Annes Elizabeth (Mrs.), farmer
Ashfield Lot, blacksmith
Banham George, bricklayer
Barker Henry, farmer
Betts Thomas, landowner, farmer & cattle dealer, Park farm
Capes Frederick, farmer
Chinnery George, farmer
Coleman George, farmer
Danby John Gibbon, farmer
Filby Edmund Elijah, landowner & farmer
Forster Francis Frederick, painter &c
Gardner James, shopkeeper & butcher
Garrard Allen, farmer
Harper John, shopkeeper
Hart Tacon, landowner, farmer, cake, coal, manure & seed merchant
Havers John, Old Oak P.H
Holmes David, bricklayer & farmer
Howlett William, farmer
Lansdell Jeremiah, farmer
Markham Stephen, farmer
Morley Edward, farmer
Morley James, farmer & parish clerk
Munford Lot & Arthur, farmers
Munford Arthur, clerk to parish council
Newstead John, farmer
Palmer Henry (exors. of), farmr. Lodge farm
Phils Aaron, farmer
Phipson Richard Makilwaine, farmer
Phamix John, farmer
Pigney William, farmer
Reeve William, thatcher, Post Office
Reynolds William, farmer
Roper Edward, farmer
Rudram Walter, carpenter, painter & wheelwright
Salter Robert, boot maker
Saunders Henry, farmer
Scarfe Clara (Mrs.), farmer
Self William, cricket bat maker
Sharman Charles, farmer & inspector of nuisances for Guiltcross rural district council
Snelling Robert, Fighting Cocks P.H
Spurdens Batson, tailor & farmer
Warnes Robert, farmer
Witton Ann (Miss), shopkeeper
Witton Joseph, farmer
Woodrow George,miller (wind & steam)



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