Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for AYLSHAM

AYLSHAM, a small town, a parish, and a district, in Norfolk. The town stands on the river Bure, amid one of the most pleasant tracts in the county, 12 miles N by W of Norwich r. station. It has a post office† under Norwich, a good inn, a police station, and a corn exchange; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; had a county bridewell, now converted into dwelling-houses; and conducts some commerce by barges on the Bure. A manufacture of linen, known as Aylsham web, was carried on in the times of Edward II. and Edward III.; and a manufacture of woollen fabrics sprang up at a later period; but both have disappeared. The chief employments now are in the corn-trade, the timber-trade, and country business. A weekly market is held on Tuesday; and fairs, on 23 March and the last Tuesday of Sept. The parish church is decorated English, said to have been built by John of Gaunt; consists of nave, chancel, and transept, with a square tower, and spire; and contains an ancient rood-screen, a carved font, and numerous brasses. The churchyard contains the grave of Humphrey Repton, the landscape gardener, who died in 1818. There are chapels for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists, a free school, and charities £25. The interesting seat of Blickling Hall is in the vicinity, within the contiguous parish of Blickling. Pop. of the town, 2,388. Houses, 524.

The parish comprises 4,308 acres. Real property, £15,153. Pop., 2,623. Houses, 572. The property is much subdivided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £425.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury.—The district comprehends the subdistrict of Buxton, containing the parishes of Aylsham, Buxton, Ingworth, Erpingham, Thwaite, Alby, Colby, Banningham, Tuttington, Skeyton, Swanton Abbot, Scottow, Coltishall, Belangh, Hantbois-Magna, Hantbois-Parva, Lammas, Oxnead, Burgh, Brampton, Marsham, Hevingham, and Stratton-Strawless; and the subdistrict of Eynsford, containing the parishes of Thurning, Hindolveston, Wood-Norton, Foulsham, Themelthorpe, Guestwick, Wood-Dalling, Hackford-by-Reepham, Whitwell, Reepham, Kerdiston, Sall, Cawston, Heydon, Corpusty, Saxthorpe, Irmingland, Oulton, Itteringham, Mannington, Barningham-Parva, Wickmere, Wolterton, Calthorpe, and Blickling. Acres, 68,123. Poor-rates in 1866, £9,887. Pop. in 1861, 19,052. Houses, 4,297. Marriages in 1866, 112; births, 563,-of which 69 were illegitimate; deaths, 327,-of which 121 were at ages under 5 years, and 26 were at ages above 85 years. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,342; births, 6,256; deaths, 4,113. The places of worship in 1851 were 42 of the Church of England, with 8,803 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 938 s.; 5 of Baptists, with 1,260 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 180 s.; 14 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 2,430 s.; 16 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,609 s.; and 10 of Wesleyan Re formers, With 1,168 s. The schools were 24 public day schools, with 1,411 scholars; 41 private day schools, with 1,001 s.; 51 Sunday schools, with 2,192 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 53 s. The workhouse is in Aylsham.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Aylsham AP/CP       Aylsham RegD/PLU       Norfolk AncC
Place: Aylsham

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