Alburgh
| Alburgh | |
| Norfolk | |
|---|---|
 All Saints Church, Alburgh | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TM267870 |
| Location: | 52°26’2"N, 1°20’1"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 410 (2011) |
| Post town: | Harleston |
| Postcode: | IP20 |
| Dialling code: | 01986 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Norfolk |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
South Norfolk |
Alburgh is a village in the south of Norfolk, about four miles north-east of Harleston and 16 miles south of Norwich. It is just a mile from the River Waveney, which marks the border of Suffolk.
Heritage
The earliest evidence of settlement here is from the Mesolithic era. A Bronze Age barrow near the church was excavated in the 19th century, when bones were removed. Little has been found from the Iron Age, or the Roman or Saxon periods, but there are plentiful mediæval remains.[1] The name 'Alburgh' means either "old burial-mound/hill" or "Alda's burial-mound/hill".[2]
Some of the Church of All Saints, Alburgh, dates back to the 13th century. The noted church architect Richard Phipson restored it in 1876, adding "pinnacles with little flying buttresses" and reworking the chancel.[3] Today the church holds a service every Sunday as part of the Earsham benefice.[4] Its ring of eight bells is among Norfolk's oldest. The churchyard is a conservation area.[5]
The former Methodist chapel was turned into a dwelling in the 1960s.[6] The local pub, the Kings Head, closed in 1956.[7]
Homersfield Bridge, which crosses the River Waveney between Alburgh and Homersfield, Suffolk, opened in 1870, making it the oldest surviving concrete bridge in Britain. Homersfield railway station, on the Waveney line and in the parish of Alburgh, opened in 1860 and closed in 1953. Apart from the church and the bridge, there are 17 other Grade II listed buildings in Alburgh, mostly residential.
John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales wrote in 1870–72:
"ALBURGH, a parish in Depwade district, Norfolk; on an affluent[8] of the river Waveney, near the Bungay railway, 3½ miles NNE of Harleston. It has a post office under Harleston, and a fair on 21 June. Acres, 1,512. Real property, £3,699. Pop., 587. Houses, 130. The [landed] property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the Diocese of Norwich. Value, £395.* Patron, St John's College, Cambridge. The church has a large Norman porch. There are [sic] a national school, and charities £240."[9]
=Society
Among the regular events at the modern Village Hall are monthly film shows.[10] There are sports clubs for tennis, badminton and carpet bowls.[11]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Alburgh) |
- Alburgh, Norfolk
- Alburgh in the Domesday Book
References
- ↑ Norfolk Heritage Explorer Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ↑ "Key to English Place-names". http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Alburgh.
- ↑ Bill Wilson, 2002, rev. Pevsner's Architectural Guides, Norfolk, Part 2. Yale UP, p. 177. ISBN 978-0-300-09657-6.
- ↑ Village site Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ↑ A Church Near You Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ↑ Norfolk Churches Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ↑ Norfolk Public Houses Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ↑ =tributary.
- ↑ Vision of Britain Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ↑ Alburgh Cinema at the Village Hall Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ↑ Clubs and societies Retrieved 2 March 2016.