Diss Family History Group

LOPHAM is a straggling town, consisting of the two villages and parishes of North and South Lopham, and is 7 miles west-by-north from Diss station on the Ipswich and Norwich section and 4½ south-east from Harling Road station on the Thetford and Norwich section of the Great Eastern railway, in the Mid division of the county, Guiltcross and Shropham petty sessional division, Guiltcross hundred and union, Diss county court district, rural deanery of Rockland, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The church of St. Nicholas, North Lopham, is a fine and large edifice, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower, principally of flint: the south porch is Norman, and the outside of the church and the buttresses exhibit many Latin inscriptions: the chancel was thoroughly restored in 1862, and in 1887 the nave and aisles were reseated and part of the tower converted into a vestry: there are 250 sittings. The earliest registers date from the year 1558. The livings of North and South Lopham form a consolidated rectory, tithe rent-charge North Lopham £303, South Lopham £495, joint net yearly value £620, including 32 acres of glebe with residence, in the gift of and held since 1861 by the Rev. John Fitzherbert Bateman M.A. and formerly fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and rural dean of Rockland: the patron is bound to present a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. There is a small Primitive Methodist chapel and a Wesleyan chapel, with a burial ground, and a school room, now let to the School Board. A cemetery of a quarter of an acre was formed in 1871, at a cost of £150, and is under the control of the Burial Board of nine members. The town is noted for the manufacture of linen, diaper, dowlas and huckaback, principally by small manufacturers, who traverse the neighbouring shires to sell their goods. The town lands and charities are applied by the trustees to a scheme framed by the Charitv Commissioners in 1870, for the benefit of the most deserving and necessitous poor of the parish and for providing rewards for the children, as well as for the maintenance and repair of the church. Tho land is chiefly the property of the Duke of Norfolk K.G. but there are several smaller owners. Henry Edwin Garrod esq. of the Grove, Diss, is lord of the manor. The land is of mixed and heavy soil; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. The area is 2,000 acres; rateable value, £2,791 ; the population in 1891 was 598.

Parish Clerk, William Mann.

POST & M.O.O., S.B. & Annuity & Insurance Office - Alfred Ruddock, receiver. Letters arrive through Thetford, via East Harling; delivered at 7.30 a.m.; dispatched at 5.55 p.m.; Sunday delivery, 7.55 a.m.; dispatched 10.25 a.m. The nearest telegraph office is at Kenninghall.

SCHOOLS: -

A School Board of 5 members was formed compulsorily May 26, 1877; F. Fowell, Garboldisham, clerk to the board ; Thomas Tyler, North Lopham, attendance officer. The old National School, now called "the Albert room," was built, with master's residence, in 1871, at a cost of £700, on a site given by Mrs. G. E. Buckenham: it is now used as a Sunday school & for lectures, meetings &c.

Board School (hired from the trustees of the Wesleyan chapel), holding 100 children; average attendance, 83; William Mann, master; Mrs. Mann, mistress.

The village of South Lopham, the adjoining parish, is a mile south from that of North Lapham. The church of St. Andrew, situated in a field, is an ancient building of flint and stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and a fine central Norman tower, with pinnacles, and containing a clock and 6 bells; traces of a north aisle still remain : the chancel was thoroughly restored in 1866 and the fine Norman arches of the tower thrown open: the rest of the church was restored and reseated in 1874 and in 1878 an organ was obtained: there aro 400 sittings, 130 being free. The register dates from the year 15S4. The living is consolidated with that of North Lopham. The town lands and church charity are applied by the trustees, according to a scheme sanctioned by the Court of Chancery, to the maintenance of the church and schools of South Lopham; the yearly surplus, or a sum not exceeding one-fourth of the net income, is distributed amongst the poor who have not received parish relief for six months previously. The poor have the benefit, of a charity left by William Branch Elliott esq. and there is a fuel allotment in the fen, consisting of about 200 acres, of which part is for South Lopham and part for North Lopham. Henry Edward Garrod esq. of Diss, is lord of the manor. The principal landowners are the Duke of Norfolk K.G. Thomas Buckenham esq. and Mrs. Jarrett, of Diss ; the trustees of the late William Ayton; the trustees of the late Thomas Davy esq. of Flint Hall, East Harling; Robert Womack esq. and Rev. John Fitzherbert Bateman are also landowners. The chief crops are wheat, beans, barley and turnips. The land comprises some kindly working loams resting on clay subsoil, and some of a heavy kind, all of which are good corn-growing lands. About a mile east of South Lopham, in the fen or low lands, is Lopham Gate, where there are two springs, from which flow the Little Ouse and Waveney; the former takes a course through Thetford, Brandon and Lynn, and the latter flows to Yarmouth, and both divide the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The area is 1,937 acres; rateable value, £2,604 ; the population in 1891 was 476.

Parish Clerk, Charles Algar Keeble.

POST OFFICE. - Thomas Cox, receiver. Letters received through Thetford, via East Harling, at 7.50 a.m.; dispatched at 5.25 p.m.; Sundays at 7-50 a.m.; dispatched 10 a.m. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Garboldisham.

Parochial School (mixed), with master's residence, was erected here in 1863, at a cost of about £800, for 120 children; average attendance, 80; the school is under the management of trustees, of whom the rector & churchwardens are ex-officio & there are 10 others; Marcus K. Bardwell, master.

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