Walsham, North (St. Mary)
The living is a vicarage, with the rectory of Antingham St. Margaret annexed, valued in the king's books at £8; net income, £336; patron and appropriator, the Bishop: the glebe comprises 2 acres, with a house. The church is a spacious and elegant structure, chiefly in the later English style; on the south side of the chancel are three sedilia of stone, and a piscina of elegant design. The tower, which was 147 feet high, fell down in the year 1724, and is in ruins. In the chancel is a monument to Sir William Paston, Knt., a native of the town, and founder of the free grammar school; it was erected during his life, and is surmounted by a recumbent figure in armour. There are places of worship for Wesleyans, the Society of Friends, Independents, and Primitive Methodists. The grammar school was instituted in 1606, for the education of 40 sons of residents in any of the hundreds of North and South Erpingham, Happing, Tunstead, and Flegg; and was endowed by the fotinder with the rents of certain estates at Horsey and Walcot, to the amount of £250 per annum. The school contains a good library, bequeathed by the Rev. Richard Berney, in 1787; and a monthly lecturer receives £12. 12. per annum out of the school funds. Archbishop Tenison, Bishop Hoadly, and Admiral Lord Nelson received the rudiments of their education in the establishment. A national school is supported; and £30 per annum, the rent of an allotment of waste land, is expended among the poor. About a mile south of the town is a stone cross, erected to commemorate a victory obtained in 1382, by Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, over some rebels headed by a dyer named Litester.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.