Testerton, Norfolk Genealogy

Guide to Testerton, Norfolk ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
TESTERTON (St. Remigius), a parish, in the union of Walsingham, hundred of Gallow, W. division of Norfolk, 2¾ miles (S. E. by S.) from Fakenham.

The ruined mediaeval church of Testerton St Remigius is described by Simon Knott on Norfolk Churches website.

Although mentioned in the Domesday Book, Testerton appears to have decayed during the Medieval period, and by the beginning of the 17th century the parish had only 18 communicants. By the end of that century the parish church of Saint Remigius was already very ruined, and at some point after this time the walls were completely removed.

The only surviving remnant of the medieval village is the church, which retains the western part of the west tower, and is believed to have had a rectangular nave and apsidal chancel. The tower dates to the late 14th or 15th centuries, though the rest of the church is likely to have dated to the 11th or 12th centuries.

Apart from the Church of St Remigius, Testerton Hall also presents some architectural interest. The present Grade II Listed house is only the rear service wing of what was once a much larger building, dating to 1802. With two storeys in seven bays, the building is constructed from red brick and has a south facade in the Georgian architecture style. Testerton currently has only a handful of inhabitants; the civil parish of Testerton was abolished in 1935 and the lands used to enlarge the civil parish of Pudding Norton, another mostly deserted village.

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Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.
 * Norfolk Record Office

Registration Districts

 * 1837-1938 Walsingham (after 1935 Pudding Norton civil parish)
 * 1939-1974 Fakenham

Church Records
No deposited records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1613-1901 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Census Records

 * 1891 census includes Pudding Norton and Testerton in the Hempton transcript Paddy Apling's archived website

Poor Law Unions

 * Norfolk Poor Law Unions
 * Walsingham

Walsingham Union was incorporated under the terms of the 1834 Act, and the union workhouse was built at Great Snoring, but not completed until 1838. The Walsingham Union Workhouse at Great Snoring was opened in 1838. It was situated close to the boundary between the parishes of Great Snoring and Thursford and was sometimes known as Thursford Workhouse. Poor Law Unions were abolished in 1930 and the responsibilities of Walsingham Union Board of Guardians were taken over by Norfolk County Council Guardians' Committee No. 7. From 1930 the former Workhouse became known as Walsingham Public Assistance Institution. On 26 and 27 June 1934 the remaining thirty inmates (including two infants but no children) were transferred to West Beckham and Gressenhall Institutions and Walsingham Institution officially closed on 30 June 1934. The building was subsequently adapted for use as a smallpox hospital. By 1976 the building was derelict and was demolished in the early 1990s. Acquisition Received by the Norfolk Record Office on 26 February 1982 (C/GP 19/192-198) and on unknown dates.

Copies C/GP19/1-6, 131, 133-135, 137, 141, 143-146, 148, 150-151, 173-181 are on microfilm. RelatedMaterial For records of Guardians Committee No. 7 (including the administration of Red House Children's Home in Little Snoring and the boarding-out of children), see C/GC 7. See Public Assistance Sub-Committee minutes, 11 July 1934 and 12 September 1934, C/C 10/455. The records of the County Architect's Department include plans of the alterations for use as a smallpox hospital dated February 1937, see C/AR 1/29-31. The one inch to one mile Ordnance Survey Map of 1954 designates the building 'smallpox hospital'.

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Norfolk Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites

 * Norfolk: Testerton GenUKI
 * British History Online