Barton Bendish

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Barton Bendish
Norfolk
File:Barton Bendish.jpg
Barton Bendish
Location
Grid reference: TF712056
Location: 52°37’19"N, 0°31’44"E
Data
Population: 210  (2011)
Post town: King's Lynn
Postcode: PE33
Dialling code: 01366
Local Government
Council: King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Barton Bendish is a small village in Norfolk ten miles south of King's Lynn. It has two mediæval parish churches, and once had three. The parish includes the hamlet of Eastmoor, and covers 3,936.0 acres (1,592.8 ha).[1]

Remains from the Neolithic period have been found around the village. As a village, it dates from the Saxon period. It had a population of 210 at the 2011 census

The village has two mediæval parishes churches, both Grade I listed buildings.

Geography

File:A big Norfolk sky - geograph.org.uk - 1267980.jpg
Barton Bendish parish
File:Approach to Barton Bendish on Fincham Road - geograph.org.uk - 1635061.jpg
Fincham Road

The village is seven and a half miles east of Downham Market, 39 miles west of Norwich and 14 miles south of Kings Lynn. It is near the north-west border of the parish. In the south-east part of the latter is the separate scattered hamlet of Eastmoor, the only one in the parish territory.

The A1122 Swaffham to Downham Market road passes through the north tier of the parish, but the village is only accessible via country lanes. Fincham Road runs south from the A1122 east of Fincham, and turns north-east at a junction near the village as the Beachamwell Road. This re-joins the A1122 to access Swaffham, and also runs to Beachamwell to the east. The Boughton Long Road runs from the junction to Boughton and hence to Stoke Ferry and the A134 to Thetford. A narrow lane runs from Beachamwell Road to Oxborough to the south-east by way of Eastmoor. There is no direct route from the village to Marham to the north.

About the village

File:Barton Bendish village sign (close-up) - geograph.org.uk - 1634039.jpg
Barton Bendish village sign

Barton Bendish is a settlement of scattered households where there are two churches[2] which are little more than a field apart. What is more remarkable is that up until 1787 the parish had three churches. All Saints' Church was pulled down in that year, with much of the material used to repair local roads and for repairing St Mary's Church.[2] The other remaining church is called St Andrew’s.

The settlement counts as a shrunken mediæval village as it was much bigger in the Middle Ages, and still has three concentrations of settlement despite its small size.[3]

Barton Bendish St Andrew

File:Barton Bendish War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1634046.jpg
Barton Bendish War Memorial

The plan of the main built-up area, Barton Bendish St Andrew, is shaped like a mirrored F. Most buildings are along Church Road, a dead-end street running north-east from Fincham Road near its junction with Beachamwell Road. Buildings also line the former on its east side to the latter, and a street called Buttlands Lane connects Church Road and Beachamwell Road to the east.

The former school the stands on the south corner of the Church Road junction.[4] On the left along Church Road before the Buttlands Lane junction is St Andrew's Church, which is a Grade I Listed building.[5] Opposite the Buttlands Lane junction is the former Post Office, Grade II listed which is now a pair of semi-detached cottages beneath a single thatched roof and dated 1713. The walls are a chaotic mix of flint, ashlar rubble and red and yellow bricks.[6] Down Buttlands Lane is a K6 telephone box, which is Grade II listed.[7] The single-storey building on the east side of the junction, with decorative brickwork, used to be the village shop in the 20th century. It's part of a larger pile called Hyde House which incorporates an older thatched building, and is the headquarters of Albanwise Ltd the owner of the Barton Bendish Estate.[8]

Barton Bendish's War Memorial is located in the churchyard and is a Grade II listed Celtic cross in grey granite[9] that was restored in 1977.

Further along Church Road is a former public house The Berney (formerly Berney Arms, before that Spread Eagle) and named for the former owners of Barton Hall, the Berney family.[10] The pub closed in 2020.[11] Opposite the pub is a village hall, and further down on the left is the old St Andrew's Rectory with a gable wall in a flint, ashlar rubble and red brick mix. This dates from 1725.[1]

At the end of Church Road is a short private drive leading to Avenue House, a mid-18th century farmhouse which is Grade II listed.[12] This is accompanied by an unusual domed ice-house with a vaulted entrance corridor, resembling an ancient Greek tholos tomb.[13]

File:Barton Bendish Hall - west facade - geograph.org.uk - 1635017.jpg
Barton Hall

The village contains a notable manor house, Barton Hall, which is Grade II listed[14] and is the last survivor of five mediæval village manors (there were four more in Eastmoor).[15] There is a mediæval moat to the east of the Hall, but it is uncertain as to whether this is the direct ancestor of the present building.[16] Whatever, its site was first definitely developed in the 17th century, but the original house was almost entirely torn down and rebuilt in 1856, and the present structure is architecturally Victorian. The interior of the house was then extensively redone throughout the early and mid-20th century, meaning it retains little of its original artistic integrity, even from the Victorian period. Nevertheless, the house remains one of the more notable structures in the village, and the gardens have been developed by the current owner, Count Luca Padulli di Vighignolo, and are periodically opened to the public. Guided tours of the garden are occasionally offered on request.[17] The dog kennels here are separately listed, Grade II. The five of them comprise a single-storey brick edifice with a black glazed pantile roof and an interesting set of cages in wrought iron. It was erected in 1853.[18]

Barton Bendish All Saints

The churchyard of All Saints' Church continued in use for burials into the early 19th century after the church was demolished in 1789.[19] The site of the church is on Church Road just before St Andrew's Church, and is now a house.

Barton Bendish St Mary

The other major focus of the village is Barton Bendish St Mary, which is to the west. It is aligned north to south, with St Mary's Church at the north[1] with a triangular village green and a scatter of buildings along the Boughton Long Road.[20]

East Barton Bendish

The village used to extend beyond its present eastern limits.[21] To the north-east is a deserted moated site, a scheduled monument and the location of the mediæval manor of East Hall.[22] Earthworks belonging to its deserted mediæval settlement are at Abbey Farm, and are also scheduled.[23]

The only remnant of this former built-up area is a dead-end lane leading to Abbey Farm.[24] and amounting to the village's third settlement focus. This settlement used to be called Cripple’s End.[1] It used to have a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and the village's first post office was just to the south of this in a low single-storey building. Both survive as private houses.

History

Archaeological surveying of the parish by fieldwalking has been thorough, and has revealed that the territory has been well settled from Neolithic times.[25] A Bronze Age hoard, now in the Ashmolean Museum, of eight bronze items was allegedly found in the parish at the turn of the 20th century, but the provenance is uncertain.[26] Burials of this period have been found, and three ring ditches interpreted as ploughed-out round barrows have been identified on aerial photographs.[25]

The population of the parish territory increased during the Iron Age, with at least three settlement sites which have been identified by pottery scatters. These sites also showed continuity into the later Roman period.[25]

The A1122 to the east of Fincham follows the course of a Roman road that connected the Fen Causeway with Venta Icenorum (the present Caistor St Edmund).[27] The outline of a Roman marching camp was identified on an aerial photograph, just north of The Channels wood and near one of the putative round barrows already mentioned.[28]

Saxon and Mediæval development

Fieldwalking and archaeological excavations in the village have shown that the village was a dispersed settlement throughout the entire Anglo-Saxon period. Early Saxon settlements have been identified at Hill Farm[29] and north-east of St Mary's Glebe Farm.[30] Middle Saxon settlement was concentrated around the site of St Mary's Church, and in the Late Saxon period the west end of the present main village was a focus with settlement spreading eastwards.[25]

The village's name derives from the Old English Bertuna binnan dic and means 'Barley farm within the ditch'.[31] The name implies that the direction of Saxon settlement came from the west.[1] The ditch concerned is the Devil's Dyke, a linear bank and ditch running in an almost straight line from Narborough to near Oxborough parallel to the present eastern boundary of the parish (it used to be the actual boundary), and this is postulated as an early Saxon boundary marker. The dating is not conclusive, however.[32]

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, where the name is given as Bertuna. There were five manors. The main tenant of the village was William who held from Hermer de Ferrers, and other tenants were Reynald Fitzlvo and Ralph Baynard. Two churches are mentioned -it is uncertain as to which church is missing, or why. The consensus is that all three were founded in late Saxon times.[25]

In the century after the Norman Conquest, the parish still had several small manors. West Dereham Abbey, a monastery of Premonstratensians founded in 1088, had interests at Eastmoor and maintained a chapel there.[33] The locations of the manors of East Hall (the moated site north-east of Avenue Farm), Herne Hall (north end of Eastmoor hamlet, east of lane) and Capel Hall (in the main village at The Paddocks, excavated 1988) are known.[25]

From the time of Richard I (1157–99) to Henry VIII (1491–1547) the Lovells were principal lords of the manor here, with their seat at the present Barton Hall. Thomas Lovell, the third son of Sir Ralf Lovell was a loyal supporter of Henry VII. He fought at the Battle of Bosworth 1485 and was knighted by Henry VII for his prowess. In 1485 he was created President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer for life. His elder brother Sir Gregory was made banneret at Stoke.[34] In the later Middle Ages, the Lowell family began the consolidation of land ownership in the parish by acquiring other manors.

16th and 17th centuries

Possession of the principal manor passed from the Lowells to the Gawdy family in 1579, and they kept it until 1677 when it passed to the Berney family who remained owners for almost 250 years.[1] They completed the acquisition of the remaining manorial landholdings, to turn the parish into a single country estate centred on Barton Hall. The process involved a substantial reduction in the size of the village, with formerly built-up areas being abandoned.[33][3]

18th century

In 1710, the tower of St Mary's Church fell and destroyed the west end of its nave. The rest was patched up with the resultant rubble, but the church was only properly repaired in 1789. This was after All Saints' Church had been demolished in the previous year, making materials available. The parishes of these two churches had been united in 1787, allowing for the rationalisation -but this meant that the main village was still divided between two parishes.[1]

In 1774, the parish was inclosed. The tithes on farm income owing to the two working churches were commuted for new glebe land, which explains the names of St Andrew’s Glebe Farm and St Mary’s Glebe Farm. The ancient common land of Barton Bendish Fen was suppressed, and the poor of the parish were given the income from forty acres as compensation.[35] The Poors Allotment survived as a charity which received rent from land to use as fuel subsidies for needy parishioners, until 2017.

In 1783, the village school was founded when one Richard Jones bequeathed an endowment for the purpose. Something went wrong and the capital was lost, but the school survived through voluntary subscription and it became part of the National School System by 1811.[36] The village pub, the Spread Eagle, is first mentioned in 1794.[10]

In the Eighties of this century the noted philologist, botanist and clergyman Robert Forby was resident in the village, firstly as tutor to the Berney children at the Hall and then as head of a small private academy. As such, he taught the botanist Dawson Turner.[37] As clergyman he held the benefices of Horningtoft and Barton Bendish St Mary's, and arranged the restoration of the latter church in 1789.[38] He subsequently became rector of Fincham, where his name is better known.[39]

19th century

In 1811, the parish population was 459.[36]

In 1841 the botanist George Munford published his list of flowering plants in western Norfolk, giving witness to the botanical richness then of the lost chalk grasslands of the parish. For example, to be found were bee orchids, fragrant orchids, pyramidal orchids and "plentiful" green-winged orchids.[40]

In 1865 St Mary's Church was restored, and in 1871 a bell-cote was added to replace a Baroque bell-turret provided in 1789. The formerly thatched roof was re-done in slate.[1]

In 1868 the thatched roof of St Andrew's Church also needed replacing, and again this was done in slate so as not to have to renew the thatch every half century as before.[41] In 1874, a proper schoolhouse was built.[1] In 1875 a Wesleyan Methodist chapel was erected in Cripple's End (now called Chapel Lane).[41]

In 1871 the Spread Eagle pub was briefly renamed the Berney Arms, a name to be resurrected in the 21st century.[10]

In 1881, the village population was 337 with a further 100 in Eastmoor – a loss of twelve in seventy years. As well as the pub, school and post office, there was also a shop, a coal merchant who farmed, a bootmaker and a blacksmith who was also a wheelwright who could shrink-fit iron tyres to cartwheels. The local public carrier did a round trip to King's Lynn in his cart on Tuesdays.[41]

In 1899, another Wesleyan Methodist chapel was opened at Eastmoor.[1]

20th century

RAF Barton Bendish was a Second World War airfield which operated for two years from September 1939.[42] The location was just north-east of the wood called The Channels.[43] The only surviving remnant is a polygonal brick-clad concrete pillbox up a farm track west of Eastmoor Lane (first right from the village).[44]

In 1947, the Spread Eagle pub was bought by Truman's Brewery of London as a tied house. It was sold to the Brent Walker pubco in 1988.[10]

The Berney family finally lost possession of the Estate just after the Second World War, and the subsequent owners oversaw the introduction of intensive farming. Tenancies of farms were terminated and farms amalgamated, with fields made bigger by removing some hedgerows, and pastureland was ploughed up for arable. Mechanisation reduced the need for farmworkers, and those farmworkers’ cottages surplus to requirements were demolished instead of being sold on. Albanwise Ltd purchased the Estate in 1992.[1]

St Mary's Church became disused in 1967, and was formally made redundant in 1975. It was taken over by what is now called the Churches Conservation Trust and restored, with the roof being put back in thatch.[1] Also in 1967 the post office and village shop merged as businesses, but this did not prove profitable and the combined retail outlet shut down for good a decade later. The school closed in 1974, owing to a lack of children.[1]

In 1980/1 an archaeological excavation took place on the site of All Saints' Church, and this was followed up by another one across the road in 1988 when The Paddocks housing estate was started.[1]

21st century

The present owner of most of the parish farmland, Albanwise Ltd, a UK-based farming and real estate company – which is ultimately owned by the Vighignolo Investment Trust (a non for profit organization) -[1] purchased the Barton Estate in 1992, and has ever since then invested to preserve the village historic significance and enhance the surrounding landscape.[45][46]

The two Methodist chapels in the parish, at Chapel Lane and Eastmoor, have closed down to become private houses.

At the start of the century the Spread Eagle pub was sold as a free house, renamed the Berney Arms and became a high-standard gastropub with accommodation. As such it was one of the three finalists in the Eastern Daily Press Norfolk Best Pub & Restaurant Food Awards in 2006. Later it was rebranded as The Berney.

In 2010, a new variety of hybrid peony was brought out which was named Barton Bendish after the village.[47]

Churches

  • Church of England:
    • St Andrew’s Church (now is the only place of regular worship left in the parish)
    • St Mary’s Church (now redundant)
    • All Saints' Church (demolished in the 18th century)
File:The site of All Saints Church - geograph.org.uk - 1634114.jpg
The site of All Saints Church
 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Barton Bendish)

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 "Group 4 News website, Barton Bendish history page". http://www.group4news.co.uk/bbend_hist_pics.html. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mee, Arthur: The King's England: Norfolk (Hodder & Stoughton)
    p 24
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Loveluck, C: Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, c. AD 600–1150, 2013 p. 285
  4. ↑ Ordnance Survey, 6-inch Norfolk sheet LVIII SW, 1884
  5. ↑ National Heritage List 1077860: Church of St Andrews (Grade I listing)
  6. ↑ National Heritage List 1342314: Barton Bendish Former Post Office (Grade II listing)
  7. ↑ National Heritage List 1342304: K6 telephone kiosk (Grade II listing)
  8. ↑ "Village Hall website, history page -see photo and caption". https://bartonbendishvillagehall.com/history/. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  9. ↑ National Heritage List 1442368: Barton Bendish War Memorial (Grade II listing)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Norfolk Pubs website, Spread Eagle Barton Bendish page". https://www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/norfolkb/barton%20bendish/bartbse.htm. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  11. ↑ "Whatpub website, Berney Arms Barton Bendish page". https://whatpub.com/pubs/KLN/41/berney-barton-bendish. Retrieved 12 December 2021. 
  12. ↑ National Heritage List 1077861: Avenue House (Grade II listing)
  13. ↑ "Icehouse at Avenue Farm, Barton Bendish". http://hbsmrgateway2.esdm.co.uk/norfolk/DataFiles/Docs/AssocDoc39840.pdf. Retrieved 12 December 2021. 
  14. ↑ National Heritage List 1077858: Barton Hall (Grade II listing)
  15. ↑ "Barton Bendish Parish Council website, History page". https://bartonbendishparishcouncil.norfolkparishes.gov.uk/category/parish-history/. Retrieved 12 December 2021. 
  16. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, 4512 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf4512. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  17. ↑ "Barton Bendish Hall and Gardens". https://www.historichouses.org/house/barton-bendish-hall/tours/. 
  18. ↑ National Heritage List 1342313: Barton Hall dog kennels (Grade II listing)
  19. ↑ Rogerson et al: Three Norman Churches in Norfolk 1987 p. 2
  20. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named ra
  21. ↑ Belcher, J: The Foldcourse and East Anglian Agriculture and Landscape 1100–1900, 2020, p. 39
  22. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer, 4515 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf4515. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  23. ↑ "Ancient Monuments website, Barton Bendish Abbey Farm earthworks page". https://ancientmonuments.uk/116852-remains-of-barton-bendish-mediæval-settlement-immediately-west-of-abbey-farm-barton-bendish#.Ybdv-y-l1Ys. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  24. ↑ Whyte, N: Inhabiting the Landscape 2009 p. 51
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, Barton Bendish parish summary page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?TNF159-Parish-Summary-Barton-Bendish-(Parish-Summary). Retrieved 18 December 2021. 
  26. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, NHER 4495 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf4495. Retrieved 18 December 2021. 
  27. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, NHER 2796 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf2796. Retrieved 4 November 2021. 
  28. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, NHER 20130 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf20130. Retrieved 18 December 2021. 
  29. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, NHER 23928 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf23928. Retrieved 18 December 2021. 
  30. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer website, NHER 22080 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf22080. Retrieved 19 December 2021. 
  31. ↑ Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
  32. ↑ "Norfolk Heritage Explorer, NHER 3937 page". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf3937. Retrieved 8 November 2021. 
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 "British History Online, Barton Bendish page". https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol7/pp270-286#h3-0014. Retrieved 19 December 2021. 
  34. ↑ "British History Online, Barton Bendish page". https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol7/pp270-286. Retrieved 14 December 2021. 
  35. ↑ Lewis, S: A Topographical Dictionary of England 1842 p. 159
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 A Topographical Dictionary of England, Vol. 1 1811 p. 135
  37. ↑ Southwell: Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society Vol. 9 1914 p. 681
  38. ↑ Rogerson et al: Three Norman Churches in Norfolk, East Anglian Archaeology 1987 p. 63
  39. ↑ "Literary Norfolk website, Fincham page". https://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/fincham.htm. Retrieved 27 December 2021. 
  40. ↑ Munford, G: A List of Flowering Plants Growing Wild in Western Norfolk 1841 p. 20 ff
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1883 p. 240
  42. ↑ Pierless, G: UK Airfields Past and Present, 2020 p. 1932
  43. ↑ "Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust website, Barton Bendish page". https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/barton-bendish. Retrieved 13 December 2021. 
  44. ↑ "UK Airfields website, Barton Bendish page". http://www.ukairfields.org.uk/barton-bendish.html. Retrieved 14 December 2021. 
  45. ↑ Farmer’s Weekly 11 November 2019, article "How I Went From Tractor Driver to Farm Manager of 3 000 Hectares"
  46. ↑ Eastern Daily Press 6 November 2021, article "Environment Team Aims to Integrate Nature Into Major Farming Estate"
  47. ↑ "Peony Society website, Barton Bendish page". 14 December 2017. https://www.peonysociety.eu/registered_peonies/barton-bendish/. Retrieved 15 December 2021. 
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