Stiffkey

Stiffkey
Norfolk
Stiffkey Salt Marsh
Location
Grid reference:	9710&y=3 4300&z=120 TF 971 430
Location:	52°56’53"N, 0°55’56"E
Data
Population:	223
Post town:	Wells-Next-The-Sea
Postcode:	NR23
Local Government
Council:	North Norfolk
Parliamentary constituency:	North Norfolk

Stiffkey is a village on the north coast of Norfolk, on the coastal A149 road 4 miles from each of Wells-next-the-Sea and Blakeney. Norwich is 25 miles to the southeast.

The River Stiffkey runs through the village, from which it takes its name. This modest river's waters were enough once to have powered the Stiffkey watermill, a mill built at some time before 1579. It was a small mill, running two pairs of stones, and it operated until 1881 when it was put up for auction as a warehouse. Little now remains of the mill: just a few low ruined walls showing the position of the building.

The civil parish of Stiffkey has an area of 3,595 acres and in the 2001 had a population of 223 in 105 households.

Stiffkey is famed for cockles Cerastoderma edule which still retain the old name of "Stiffkey blues" as they are stained blue by the mud in which they live.

Name

The place-name 'Stiffkey' is first evidenced in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Stivecai, and apparently means "stump island" (an island with tree stumps), which may be from the Old English stufa ieg or similar.

The local pronunciation is as it seems: [stifki:], though an alternative pronunciation is current, namely [stjuːki]. Where this difference arose is unknown; it is suggested locally that someone from beyond outside popularised a mythical pronunciation, or it may be a genuine usage on the Norfolk coast. Either way, the "Stewky" pronunciation has become well known and is even heard in the village.

Miscellany

The Norfolk Coast Path runs between the village and the sea.

The author Henry Williamson bought a farm in Stiffkey. The Story of a Norfolk Farm (1941) is his account of his first years of farming here.

On 11 May 1978, the author, soldier and politician Aubrey Buxton was created a life peer as "Baron Buxton of Alsa, of Stiffkey in the County of Norfolk". He died there in 2009.

The Rector of Stiffkey

The village is remembered as the parish whose rector, Harold Davidson, faced charges of immorality and was defrocked in 1932. He ministered in the parish but only at the weekends; on weekdays over many years commuted to Soho in London in a private mission to fallen women. The bishop was on discovering his activities and Davidson was accused of going beyond his pastoral duties with the street women. An incriminating photograph was found, and an unreliable witness, and after a sensational trial in the Norwich Consistory Court (which was front page news in national newspapers) he was defrocked.

Davidson was a natural showman, and having been defrocked he maintained himself by touring, exhibiting himself in a barrel at Blackpool. In 1937 he then joined a fair where, in tribute to the Prophet Daniel, he preached from the lion's den. However, on 28 July 1937 in Skegness he trod on the lion's tail and was fatally mauled. His last reported words were "Telephone the London newspapers – we still have time to make the first editions!"

Harold Davidson was a popular priest in the area notwithstanding his absence over the week, and the villagers asked his family to allow him to be buried in Stiffkey when he died, rather than in the family tomb in Sholing, where he was born; they have cared for his grave for many years.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stiffkey)

• Information from Genuki Norfolk on Stiffkey.
• Information from NorfolkCoast.co.uk on Stiffkey.
• Parishes and Churches of Central North Norfolk - Stiffkey