Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk
Historical Description
Ashwell-Thorpe, a parish in Norfolk, on an affluent of the river Yare, with a station 1½ mile E on the G.E.R. Post town, Wymondham; telegraph office at the station; money order office, Wreningham. Acreage, 1007; population, 879. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Wreningham, in the diocese of Norwich; gross yearly value, £321. Patron, Lord Berners. The church, an ancient build-Sag of flint, contains some old monuments.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Norfolk | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Ashwelthorpe All Saints | |
Hundred | Depwade | |
Poor Law union | Depwade |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1558.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Norfolk Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers for Norfolk online.
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is an ancient building of flint in the Early English style, consisting of chancel with side chapel, nave, south porch with parvise, and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells: there are piscinae in the chancel, nave and chapel, and the porch retains a holy water stoup: in the church is a tomb with recumbent effigies to Sir Edmund de Thorpe kt. and Joan his wife (c. 1446); he was envoy from Henry V. to the Duke of Burgundy, and was slain at the siege of Lovers Castle, in Normandy, but was buried here: in the north chapel are five stained windows, with the arms of the Thorpe, Bourchier, Knyvet and Wilson families, and a brass to Jane (Bourchier), daughter of John, 2nd baron Berners, and wife of Edmund Knyvet esq. of Ashwellthorpe, who died February 17, 1561; there are tablets to Knyvet Wilson, died 1796, and to Mary his wife, who died 1772, and some modern memorials to the Wilson family: the font, given by Lady Knyvet about 1660, is octagonal, with carved shields bearing the arms of the Knyvet family.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Ashwell Thorpe from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ashwelthorpe (All Saints))
Maps
Online maps of Ashwell Thorpe are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Norfolk newspapers online:
- Norwich Mercury
- Norfolk Chronicle
- Diss Express
- Thetford & Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal
- Norfolk News
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Norfolk 1563, 1589, and 1613 is available on the Heraldry page.