North Walsham
NORTH WALSHAM, a market town in the eastern parliamentary division of Norfolk, England; 131 m. N.E. by N. from London by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3981. It lies in a pastoral district near the river Ant, a tributary of the Bure. The church of St Nicholas is a fine Perpendicular structure exhibiting the flint-work common to the district, and possessing a beautiful south porch and the ruin of a massive western tower which partly collapsed early in the 18th century. A grammar school was founded in 1606, and reorganized and moved to new buildings in modern times. There is a market house of the 16th century. A considerable agricultural trade is carried on, and cattle-shows and fairs are held. The river Ant provides a route southward to the Norfolk Broads. The coast village of Mundesley, 5 m. N.E. by a branch railway, is in favour as a watering-place, having fine sands beneath the cliffs. In the district between this and North Walsham are Paston, taking name from the family which is famous through the Paston Letters (<?..), and the fragments of Bromholm Priory, a Cluniac foundation. These are of various dates from Norman onwards, but are incorporated with farm buildings. The rood of Bromholm was a reputed fragment of the Cross which attracted many pilgrims. To the south of North Walsham is North Walsham Heath, whither in June 1381 a body of insurgents in connexion with the Peasants' Revolt were driven from before Norwich by Henry le Despenser, bishop of Norwich, and defeated; after which their leader, Geoffrey Lister, and others were sent to the scaffold.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
