Houghton St Giles, Norfolk Genealogy

England   Norfolk   Norfolk Parishes

Parish History
HOUGHTON-IN-THE-HOLE (St. Giles), a parish, in the union of Walsingham, hundred of North Greenhoe, W. division of Norfolk, ¾ of a mile (S. W.) from Little Walsingham.

Houghton St Giles is an Ancient Parish in the Walsingham deanery of the Diocese of Norwich.

The parish church of Saint Giles was rebuilt by William Eden Nestfield in 1877 and much of the building materials for the new church were re-cycled from an older church on the site. At the western end of the church there is a low tower with a pyramid cap. The nave and the chancel are under one tiled roof.

Walsingham Norfolk Shrine Churches links to the other churches of the Walsingham area Barsham is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, and includes the villages of East Barsham, North Barsham, West Barsham and Houghton St Giles. The villages are all situated with 3 km of each other, about 5 km north of the town of Fakenham and 45 km north-west of the city of Norwich. The headwaters of the River Stiffkey flow through both East and North Barsham and Houghton St Giles. Originally all four villages had their own parishes, but these were merged to create a single civil parish in 1935. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of North Norfolk

The parish is catalogued as Houghton St Giles by Norfolk Record Office It was also known as Houghton-in-the-Dale or Houghton-in-the-Hole. FamilySearch adopts the latter in it's catalogue and Presentation of images at FamilySearch Historical records.

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.


 * Walsingham 1837-1938
 * Fakenham 1939-1974

The Register Office, Fakenham Connect, Oak Street, Fakenham, NR21 9SR. Tel: 01328 850111. E-mail: registration.fakenham@norfolk.gov.uk

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

Norfolk Record Office Houghton St Giles reference PD 584

The parish is most commonly known as Houghton St Giles but may be referred to also as Houghton-le-Dale or Houghton-in-the-Hole This less used form is the hierarchy adopted by the Family History Library Catalogue and images for the parish registers and the images at FamilySearch Historical Records.

Parish registers of Houghton-in-the-Hole, 1559-1908  Microfilm copies of original records in the Norfolk Record Office, Norwich. Norfolk Record Office no.: PD584/38-40. Some early records in Latin. Also known as Houghton-le-Dale and Houghton-St. Giles.

Baptisms, 1559-1812; Marriages, 1559-1902; Banns, 1754-1812, 1824-1828, 1837-1902; Burials, 1559-1762, 1783-1812; Register bills of baptism, 1874-1878; Register bills of burials, 1875-1876. FHL BRITISH Film 1526327 Items 1 - 7 Baptisms, 1813-1904; Burials, 1813-1908. FHL BRITISH Film 2147146 Items 4 - 5 Register bills of burials, 1858-1859. FHL BRITISH Film 2186443 Item 17 Archdeacons transcripts

Baptisms 1600-1609, 1623-1636, 1666-1812 Marriages 1600-1609, 1623-1634, 1666-1811 Burials 1600-1608, 1625-1636, 1669-1812 FHL BRITISH Film 1526785 Item 10

Poor Law Unions
Walsingham Poor Law Union

Norfolk Poor Law Unions

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

 * Norfolk: Houghton St Giles on GenUKI
 * Houghton St Giles on A Church Near You
 * Houghton St Giles onNorfolk Churches website