Little Barningham

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Little Barningham
Norfolk

St Andrew's Church, Little Barningham
Location
Grid reference: TG130330
Location: 52°51’14"N, 1°10’34"E
Data
Population: 111  (2011)
Post town: Norwich
Postcode: NR11
Dialling code: 01263
Local Government
Council: North Norfolk
Parliamentary
constituency:
North Norfolk

Little Barningham is a village in Norfolk, 19 miles north of Norwich and 10 miles south-west of the coastal resort of Cromer. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham.

Origins

The village is mentioned in the great survey of 1086 known as the Domesday book.[1] In the survey the village has the names of Bernincham and Berneswrde.The main landholders were The King, under the custody of Godric, William de Warenne and Bishop William. with the main tenant being Brant from Robert FitzCorbucion. The survey also mentions a church and a mill.

The Village

Little Barningham straddles a small valley with the parish church sitting on a mound beside the single street. The village comprises some forty dwellings. The village has now lost its post office, shop and pub but the village hall is still a thriving centre of the local community.

The Parish Church

The church is called St Andrews and is late mediæval; it dates from about 1500 and was extensively restored in the last century. The church is built of flint and consists of a chancel, nave, west tower and south porch. The roof of the chancel has a hammerbeam roof but at one time the roof was thatched.

There is a Jacobean box or pew which dates from 1640 and has an unusual and unsettling inscription:

"FOR COUPLES JOYND IN WEDLOCK AND MY FRIENDS THAT STRANGER IS, THIS SEAT DID I INTEND BUILT AT THE COST AND CHARGE OF STEVEN CROSBEE. ALL YOU THAT DOE THIS SPACE PASS BY, AS YOU ARE NOWE, EVEN SO WAS I. REMEMBER DEATH FOR YOU MUST DYE AND AS I AM SOE SHALL YOU BE PREPARE THEREFORE TO FOLLOW ME". The carving of a skeleton in a shroud at one corner of the box described by Pevsner[2] was stolen in 1996 having been in place for 400 years, but there are two replacements: one fixed to the pew in the original position and another at the back of the church carved by a well-wisher.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Little Barningham)

References

  1. The Domesday Book, England's Heritage, Then and Now, Editor: Thomas Hinde,Norfolk page 191, Little Barningham, ISBN 1-85833-440-3
  2. Nikolaus Pevsner: Pevsner Architectural Guides