Norfolk: Horsey

William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1883

[Transcription copyright © Peter Green]

HORSEY-NEXT-THE-SEA, on a gentle eminence, 11 miles N. by W. of Yarmouth, and one mile from the beach, is a parish in Smallburgh union, Happing hundred, Happing and Tunstead petty sessional division, Yarmouth county court district, Yarmouth bankruptcy district, Stalham polling district of North Norfolk, Happing division of Waxham rural deanery, and Norfolk archdeaconry. It had 199 inhabitants in 1881, and has a rateable value of £1256. It extends over 1839 acres of land, including Horsey Mere, a fine sheet of water in the middle of the parish, covering nearly 130 acres, in which are found some of the finest pike, famous from the time of Camden, who says, 'Horsey pike, none like.'

Robert Rising, Esq., M.A., J.P., of Horsey Hall, is owner of most of the soil and lord of the manor, which was purchased by the late R. Rising, Esq., of Sir G.B. Brograve, Bart, and others, in 1803, when it was of little value, being generally flooded; but this gentleman, by repairing the sea-bank, draining the marshes, planting quickthorn hedges, and making a road to Somerton, rendered it one of the most fertile estates in the county.

The Hall is a handsome residence, which was rebuilt in 1845, and contains a large library, a number of rare autographs, amongst them the franks of the first Reformed Parliament of 1832 and 1834; and one of the finest collections of Norfolk birds in the kingdom. Over the fireplace in the drawing-room is a copy of the Declaration of American Independence, presented to the late Mr. Rising by Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P., to whom it had been bequeathed by President Jefferson. A small Roman urn was found in trenching the ground at the back of the house in 1848; and a brass coin of Vespasian and two querns have been found near the same place.

The CHURCH (All Saints) is an ancient thatched fabric, with nave, chancel, and tower. The latter is round at the base and octagonal above; it is embattled, and contains one bell. The building was restored a few years ago, and is fitted with open seats with poppy heads, some of them ancient. There is a piscina on the south and an aumbry on the north side of the chancel; and the old carved oaken screen and the stairs leading to the rood loft still remain. In 1871, a stained glass window was placed in the north side to the memory of the Rev. E.P. Neale, M.A., the late vicar, by his parishioners and friends.

The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the King's Books at £3 1s. 5½d., and augmented from 1739 to 1788, with £800 of Queen Anne's Bounty. The Rev. Michael Thomas Du Pré, M.A., is the incumbent, and has a good vicarage house built in 1844 at a cost of £750, a yearly rent-charge of £83 in lieu of tithes, and about £80 a year from land purchased with augmentation money. Robert Rising, Esq., is patron, and also impropriator of the rectorial tithes, which have been commuted for a yearly rent-charge of £70.

The School was built by the patron in 1848, and is attended by about 35 children. The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel here. The Poor's Allotment, 9A. 3R. 9P., was awarded at the enclosure in 1816, and is now let for £12 a year, which is distributed in coal.

POST OFFICE at Mrs. Margaret Goose's. Letters arrive from Yarmouth, viâ Hemsby, at 10 a.m., and are despatched at 4 p.m., Sundays at 1 p.m. Martham is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office, distance three miles.

         Beckett    John            farmer, Street farm
         Clarke     Daniel          farmer, Warren
         Du Pré     Rev. Michael
                      Thos., M.A.   vicar, Vicarage
         Gibbs      George          victualler, Nelson Head
         Goose      Thomas          shopkeeper
         Goose      Mrs Margaret    grocer, draper, coal dealer, and post office
         Johnson    Richard         fish dealer
         Johnson    William         fish dealer
         Lacey      Robert          farmer
         Legg       Mrs Matilda     schoolmistress
         Manthorpe  William         parish clerk
         Neale      Mrs Jane
                      Kinderley     Rose cottage
         Rising     Capt. Chas.
                      Compton, R.N. the Cottage
         Rising     Robt. Esq.,
                      M.A., J.P.    the Hall
         Thompson   Frederick       farmer
 

See also the Horsey parish page.

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Copyright © Pat Newby.
June 1999