North Walsham in 1839
North Walsham is in the hundred of Tunstead, 123 miles from London. The area of the parish is 4,010 acres ; the population, in 1831, was 2,615, about one-third agricultural. The town stands on a gentle eminence above the river Ant, and consists of several streets irregularly laid out. The town was almost entirely burnt in the year 1600. A market-cross, erected in the time of Edward III, was repaired after the fire by Redman, bishop of Norwich. The church is a spacious and magnificent building, an early specimen of the perpendicular style. It has a fine south porch of flint and stone, and a richly carved wooden cover to the font. The tower fell down in 1724, and has remained in ruins ever since. There are several dissenting meeting-houses and a neat theatre. The silk manufacture is prosecuted on a very small scale ; there is a weekly market on Thursday, a yearly cattle-fair, and two statute fairs in the year for hiring servants. A navigable canal, connected with the navigation of the Ant and Bure, opens a water communication between this town and Yarmouth. The living is a vicarage united with the rectory of Antingham St. Mary, of the clear yearly value of £336, with a glebe-house. There were, in 1833, thirteen boarding or day schools, with about 154 children ; and three Sunday-schools, with 196 children. |