Diss Family History Group

LOPHAM.—The villages and parishes of North and South Lopham form the straggling town of Lopham, 6 miles west from Diss station, 100 from London, and 4½ south-east from East Harling station; they are in the South-Eastern division of the county, Guiltcross union and hundred, Diss county court district, rural deanery of Rockland, archdeaconry of Norfolk, and diocese of Norwich. The town is noted for the manufacture of linen, diaper, dowlas, and huckaback, principally by small manufacturers, who traverse the neighbouring shires to sell them.

North Lopham.—The church of St. Nicholas is a fine large edifice, with square tower, built principally of flint: at the south entrance is an old Norman porch, and the outside of the church and round the buttresses exhibit many Latin inscriptions: the chancel was thoroughly restored in 1862. The earliest registers date from the year 1558. The livings of North and South Lopham form a consolidated rectory, annual value £619, in the gift of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and held by the Rev. John Fitzherbert Bateman, M.A., of that college, instituted 1861. A Free school is attached to the church. The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel here. There is also a Wesleyan chapel, with burial ground and daily school, supported by this connexion. The land is chiefly the property of the Duke of Norfolk, who is lord of the manor. The land is of mixed and heavy soil; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The population in 1851 was 771; and the area 2,000 acres.

Parish Clerk, Robert Leeder.

PILLAR POST is cleared at 5 p.m. Letters received at 9 a.m. & dispatched at p.m.; they are forwarded through Harling & Thetford, & by foot post from South Lopham.

The nearest money order office is at Harling.

INSURANCE AGENT.—Liverpool & London & Globe, Josiah Beales.

The village of South Lopham, the adjoining parish, is a mile south from that of North Lopham. The church of St. Andrew is in a field: it is a very old building, with tower of great beauty rising between the nave and chancel, and is of Norman origin: there is a tablet relative to a charity left by William Branch Elliott, Esq.: the chancel was thoroughly restored in 1866, and the fine Norman arches of the interior of the tower thrown open. The register dates from the year 1554. The Jiving is consolidated with that of North Lopham. A school, with master’s residence, was erected here in 1863, at a cost of about £800 The land is light and fertile. 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 circuitous route through Thetford, Brandon, and Lynn, and the latter glides gradually to Yarmouth, and both divide the shires of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Duke of Norfolk is lord of the manor. The population in 1861 was 630; area 1,937 acres.

Parish Clerk, Frederick Seakens.

POST OFFICE.—Thomas Cox, receiver. Letters received through Thetford, via Harling, at 8.40 a.m.; dispatched at 4.40 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Harling.

School, Frederick Seakens, master.

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