Norfolk: Winterton

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

[Transcription copyright © Mike Bristow]

WINTERTON, an ancient fishing village, 8 miles N. by W. of Yarmouth, is in Flegg Union, West Flegg Hundred, East and West Flegg petty sessional division, Yarmouth county court district and bankruptcy court district, Ormesby polling district of North Norfolk, Flegg rural deanery, and Norwich archdeaconry.

It had 790 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 1273 acres of land. Its rateable value is £1755. The Earl of Winterton is lord of the manor, but Mrs Burnley Hume who resides at the Hill House, has land here.

The CHURCH, dedicated to the Holy Trinity and All Saints, consists of a nave, south porch, chancel, and fine embattled tower. The latter is 125 feet high, and is surmounted by 4 pinnacles, and on each turret a carved figure. It contains five bells, and its summit commands an extensive view of the ocean. Three windows were inserted in the chancel in 1859. In 1878 it was thoroughly restored at a cost of £3000, chiefly at the expense of the widow of the late W. B. Hume, Esq., and a few friends. The chancel was newly roofed, and its floor laid with encaustic tiles; open oak benches were put in, a new pulpit and a new font erected. There is a brass to Thomas Husband, dated 1676, and several tablets of the Knights, Lens, Huntingdon, and Hume families. The Register dates from the year 1717. The rectory-house was built in 1822. The rectory is valued in the King's Books at £20 13s 4d., and has annexed to it the curacy of East Somerton. The Rev. William Green, M.A., is the incumbent, and the joint benefices are valued at £544 per annum.

The Primitive Methodist Chapel was built in 1876, at a cost of £650, and has 250 sittings.

A School Board was established here in 1875, for the united district of Winterton and East and West Somerton. Mr George Wilton is the clerk. The school was built in 1845 as a National School, on land given by the late Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P. An infants' room was added to the school in 1877, at a cost of £600, to accomodate 100 children.

The Lighthouse, which stands on a lofty summit, on the south-east side of the village, is an round tower, nearly 70 feet high, and has been illuminated with a first-class dioptric light since 1867. It is the property of Trinity House, London, and was granted in 1687, to Sir Edward Turnour, with "1d. per ton for every vessel sailing by." There were formerly two lights on the Ness, more than a mile north of the village, but they were removed in 1830. In 1843 a floating light was placed in the Cockle Gatt, at the north entrance to Yarmouth Roads. Two neat houses were erected on the cliff in 1840, for the residence of the light-keepers, and a mineral store-room was added in 1876.

A coastguard, consisting of seven men, a chief officer, and a number of beachmen, are stationed here. There are two lifeboats: a surf lifeboat placed here in the year 1859, and a sailing lifeboat in 1880, both belonging to the National Lifeboat Association; each is manned by thirteen beachmen and a coxswain.

Winterton had formerly a market, fair, and races. Regattas are now held here, and were established in 1880. In the year 1665, by the sea encroaching on the cliffs, several large bones were found, and one of them, weighing 57 pounds, and measuring 3 feet 2 inches, was pronounced by the faculty to be the leg-bone of a man ! On December 27, 1791, a high tide caused such alarming sea-breaches at Winterton, Horsey, and Waxham, as to threaten destruction to all the level marshes from thence to Yarmouth, Beccles, &c.

Since 1766 Winterton has given the title of Earl, in the Irish Peerage, to the Turnour family. The Right Hon. Edward Turnour, the present Earl of Winterton and Viscount Turnour, resides at Shillinglee Park, Surrey.

A Provident Friendly Society was established in 1857, and has 174 members. Mr. George Wilton is the secretary.

POST OFFICE at Mrs. Bullock's. Letters from Norwich, via Burgh, arrive at 8a.m. and depart at 5.30p.m. Martham is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office. Hemsby Railway Station is distant one mile.

 Annison      James             thatcher
 Berry        --                chief office, Coastguard statn
 Bessey       Mrs Mary
 Boult        Edwd. Robt.       farmer, Hall farm
 Braikenridge George John       solictor, Enfield, Middlesex
 Brown        Maurice           carpenter and builder and smack owner
 Brown        Maurice, jun.     shopkpr. & butchr
 Bullock      Mrs.              mrkt gardnr. & post office
 Eggett       Jno. Hy.          assistant kpr. Lighths
 Empson       Jas.              frmr. & owner, Bulmer frm
 Empson       James, jun.       farmer
 George       Edwd. & Dennis    smack owners
 George       Frederick Isaiah  grocer, draper, and overseer
 George       Walter            smack owner
 Goffin & Haylett(Jph.)         smack owners
 Goffin       Robert            shopkeeper
 Green        Rev. Wm., M.A.    rector, Rectory
 Hewitt       James             shopkeeper
 Hodds        William           coxswain, Lifeboat
 Hume         Mrs. Bessie       The Hill House
 Johnson      George            farmer
 King         James             vict. Three Mariners, and shoemaker
 King         John              shoemaker
 Larner       George            bricklayer
 Pestell      William           sexton
 Starling     George Davey      miller, farmer, and owner, and assistant
                                overseer and tax collector
 Waite        Jas.              vict. Fisherman's Return
 Watson       John              lighthouse keeper
 White        Mrs Maria
 Wilton       Mr George         overseer, and clerk to the United 
                                District School Board, Church cottage
 

See also the Winterton parish page.

These pages are for personal use only. They may not be copied, and the links within them may not be harvested for use on your own web pages. Please see the Copyright Notice.

Copyright © Mike Bristow.
January 2001