Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BLAKENEY

BLAKENEY, a small seaport and a parish in Walsingham district, Norfolk. The seaport stands on a natural harbour of its own name, 5½ miles NNW of Holt, and 7½ E of Wells r. station; and has a post office under Thetford. It was anciently called Snitterley; and it got the right to a market in the time of Henry III. A Carmelite monastery was founded at it about 1295; and given, at the dissolution, to William Rede; and some remains of the edifice, including several fine arches, are still standing. John de Baconsthorpe, who was styled "the resolute and subtle doctor," held a place in the monastery, and rose to be head of the English Carmelites. The parish church, on an eminence a little S of the town, is a curious flint structure, in early and in later English; has a lofty embattled tower, which serves as a mark to mariners in taking the harbour; and contains a fine ancient font, three sedilia, and remains of a screen and stalls. There are chapels for Baptists and Methodists. The harbour has a dangerous shifting bar, yet serves well both for commerce and for shelter. About 60 vessels, aggregately nearly 4,000 tons, belong to the port. The chief export is corn; the chief imports are coal, timber, iron, hemp, tar, and tallow; and a considerable fishery is carried on.—The parish comprises 1,865 acres; of which 235 are water. Real property, £3,260. Pop., 961. Houses, 264. The property is not much divided. The living is a rectory, united with the p. curacy of Glandford and the rectory of Cockthorpe, in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £506.* Patron, Lord Calthorpe.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small seaport and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "harbors")
Administrative units: Blakeney CP/AP       Walsingham RegD/PLU       Norfolk AncC
Place names: BLAKENEY     |     SNITTERLEY
Place: Blakeney

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