SEDGEFORD, a parish and scattered village, in the vale of a small rivulet, between Heacham and Docking, 13 miles N.N.E. of Lynn, is in Docking union, Docking polling district of West Norfolk, Lynn county court district, Lynn bankruptcy district, Heacham rural deanery, Norfolk archdeaconry, Smithdon and Brothercross petty sessional division, and Smithdon hundred. It has a rateable value of £4708, and had 779 inhabitants in 1881, living on 4180 acres of land, of which 1300 acres, with the manor and great tithes, commuted at £385, belong to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and about 1900 acres, including the Hall, a good brick mansion, now occupied by W. F. Hunt Esq., belong to E. Neville-Rolfe, Esq.   E. Green, Esq., H. le Strange, Esq., J. W. Davy, Esq., Mrs. Turner, and some smaller owners, also have estates here. Here was anciently a hamlet called Gnatyngdon, or Nettington, held by Godwin Halden, one of the few Saxons who was allowed by the Norman conqueror to keep his land. It is now known as Eaton. The CHURCH (St. Mary the Virgin) is a fine building of much architectural beauty. It consists of a round tower, with octagon crown, containing three bells; a lofty nave with massive arcades in fine preservation; a spacious clerestory; north and south aisles and porches; south transept and chancel. It has lately undergone careful restoration under the direction of F. Preedy., Esq. and E. Christian, Esq., architects, at a cost of about £2300. The basin of the font is solid Purbeck marble. The remains of a fine painting of St. Christopher, with curious legend, and other mural decorations of early date, are still visible. There is a fine organ by W. Mack, of Yarmouth, and three fine painted windows to the memory of Charles Neville-Rolfe and Martha his wife. The Register dates from 1560. The vicarage, which was valued in K.B. at £8, was consolidated with the rectory of Southmere in 1874; the rent-charge in lieu of tithes are vicarage of Sedgeford £330, rectory of Southmere £320, total £650; the patronage is in the Dean and Chapter of Norwich and Eton College alternately, and the incumbency is held by the Rev. J. Ambrose Ogle, M.A., who has 7½ acres of glebe and a handsome residence. The Wesleyans have a chapel in the parish built in 1830, and the Primitive Methodists one erected in 1861 at a cost of £180, lent by 150 persons.

      The NATIONAL SCHOOL, built in 1838, and enlarged by the addition of a class-room in 1875, belongs to E. Neville-Rolfe, Esq., is attended by 140 children. The Fuel Allotment, 30A 10P., awarded at the enclosure, was exchanged in 1856 for nine acres of arable land called Mire Close. It is now let for £27 a year, and provides 4 cwt. of coal to every inhabited cottage in Sedgeford parish, numbering at present 142. A yearly rentcharge of 10s upon property in Heacham parish, left by one Mason 'for bread for those poor who do not receive collection,' has not been collected for several years in consequence of the subdivision of the property, and the refusal of the owners to pay it. The dividends of £500 3 per cent. consols was left by Mrs. Edmund Rolfe in 1837 for the distribution of clothing among the poor at the discretion of the vicar. A Library of 1400 vols. was given to the parishioners by the late Mrs. Rolfe, in 1843, in memory of her son Edmond, whose name it bears.

      POST OFFICE at Mrs. E. Skerry's. Letters arrive at 7 a.m., and are despatched at 5.30 p.m. via Lynn.

Transcription ©1999 Ian Wegg.