Trimingham, Norfolk Genealogy

England   Norfolk   Norfolk Parishes

Parish History
TRIMINGHAM (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union of Erpingham, hundred of North Erpingham, E. division of Norfolk, 4½ miles (S. E. by E.) from Cromer.

Trimingham St John the Baptist's head is an Ancient Parish in the Repps deanery of the Diocese of Norwich.

The spireless parish church of Trimingham is called St John the Baptist's Head. This strange dedication to John the Baptists head dates from the medieval period. During this time a life size alabaster head of the saint was kept at the church and pilgrims in this country came to the church to the shrine alter, rather than make the journey to Amiens Cathedral were a relic said to be the real head of John the Baptist was kept. The alabaster head did not survive and although it is unknown exactly what happened to it, it has been suggested that it was probably destroyed by Anglican reformers as a result of the 1538 Injunction against images during the reign of Henry VIII. Another theory is that the head was destroyed as a result of a further injunction which was rigorously imposed in 1547, during the early weeks of the reign of Edward VI. Today an Alabaster head survives in the Victoria and Albert Museum and it is thought that the head at Trimingham was exactly like the head in the museum collection. To this day, the nearby Village hall is called pilgrim shelter as a reminder of Trimingham’s past as a site of pilgrimage. The church has a short tower which is thought to be unfinished. It has heavy buttresses on the west elevation which suggest that a fault in the construction of the church may well have been the reasoning for the unfinished tower. The nave to the east cuts around the buttress to embrace it. This peculiarity may be partly the result of a restoration by Thomas Jekyll in the 1850’s. Pevsner. states in his survey book, that Thomas Jekyll completely rebuilt the nave of which the most notable feature is the way that the tower buttresses on the east side project into the nave. The churches rood screen is very small with four figures on either side of the entrance to the chancel. The figures are St Edmund with his arrow, St Clare with her book and monstrance, St Clement with his anchor and crozier, and St James in his pilgrim's robes. On the south side are St Petronella with her book and keys, St Cecilia with her garland of flowers, St Barbara with her tower, and St Jeron with his hawk. The east window of the church is credited to H Wilkinson and dates from 1925.The window depicts Christ in Majesty flanked by St Michael and St Gabriel, with the symbols of the four Evangelists surrounding them.

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.


 * Erpingham 1837-1938
 * North Walsham 1939-1974
 * The Register Office, 18 Kings Arms Street, North Walsham, NR28 9JX. Tel/Fax: 01692 406220. E-mail: registration.nwalsham@norfolk.gov.uk

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Images of the parish registers may be viewed online at FamilySearch Historical Records Norfolk Record Office reference PD 150

Poor Law Unions
Erpingham http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/norf/erpingham_workhouse.htm

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

Web sites
http://www.achurchnearyou.com/trimingham-st-john-the-baptist/ for information about the parish

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-224729-church-of-st-john-the-baptist-trimingham British Listed buildings

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51354 British History online

http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/trimingham/trimingham.htm Norfolk Churches website

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tinstaafl/ for link to Norfolk Baptism project