Thorpe, Norfolk Genealogy

History
Thorpe St Andrew or Thorpe next Norwich is an Ancient parish in the Diocese of Norwich.

The parish, which originally included Thorpe Hamlet, was once a part of Mousehold an area of forest and heathland, which during the Middle Ages, extended from Norwich to Wroxham. The principal roads in Thorpe St Andrew, such as Plumstead Road East and Telegraph Lane (now in Thorpe Hamlet) were once tracks through the forest and heathland. At the time of the Doomsday Survey (1085 - 6) the principal landowner in Thorpe was the King who had seized the land from Stigand the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1095 Bishop Herbert de Losinga moved his bishopric from Thetford to Norwich creating the Diocese of Norwich. The cathedral, was founded in 1096. In 1101 King Henry I gave the Manor of Thorpe to the Bishop of Norwich and his successors (hence the title Episcopi). The earliest recorded priest in Thorpe was the Rev’d Thomas de Middleton in 1200. He was Vicar but all his successors have been Rectors. A summer palace for the Bishop was built in the parish beside the River Yare during the 1300s, and the present day Old Thorpe Hall is built on its foundations. In 1404 Thorpe Hamlet, the land from Harvey Lane westwards to the River Wensum in Norwich, came under the city’s jurisdiction: but it remained in the ecclesiastical Parish of Thorpe St Andrew Episcopi. As Lord of the Manor the Bishop of Norwich was the patron of the living of Thorpe St Andrew and the last priest to be presented by the Bishop was the Rev’d Bartholomew Holt in 1531. In 1537 King Henry VIII deprived the bishop of his Thorpe manorial rights. A free school was founded in 1587 in the parish.

The growth of Thorpe in the nineteenth century led to the establishment of Thorpe St Matthew.

Parish Records
Images for this parish may be viewed onlin in Record Search

Parish registers for St. Andrew's Church, Thorpe-next-Norwich, 1642-1906

Non- Conformist Churches
Independent/Congregational

Independent Methodist

Poor Law Unions

 * Norwich

Registration Districts

 * Blofield
 * Norwich

Probate Jurisdiction
Norfolk Probate Jurisdictions Parishes T through Z

Maps
England Jurisdictions 1851