Happisburgh, Norfolk Genealogy

England Norfolk   Norfolk Parishes

Parish History
HAPPISBURGH (St. Mary), a parish, in the hundred of Happing, E. division of Norfolk, 7 miles (E.) from North Walsham. The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship. Happisburgh St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the Waxham deanery of the Diocese of Norwich.

The tower of the 15th century St Mary's church is an important landmark to mariners warning of the position of the treacherous nearby sandbanks. In 1940 a German bomber released a trapped bomb from its bays during its return to Germany and the shrapnel from the bomb can still be seen embedded in the aisle pillars of the church. The church's octagonal font, also of the 15th century, is carved with figures of lions and satyrs. The part of the village near the coast regularly experiences severe erosion and houses that used to be over 20 feet from the sea now sit at the edge of a cliff and will later fall into the sea. Sea defences were built in 1959 to stop the tide from eating away at the coast. Changes in government policy, however, have discontinued management of coastal erosion in North Norfolk

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.


 * Tunstead 1837-1869
 * Smallburgh 1870-1938
 * North Walsham 1939-1974

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

Norfolk Record Office reference PD 516/1-7

Census records
http://www.btinternet.com/~e.c.apling/1891Census/Happisburgh.htm transcript of 1891 census

Poor Law Unions
For Tunstead and Happing see http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/norf/smallburgh_workhouse.htm

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: Happisburgh on GenUKI
 * Parish Info
 * British History Online
 * ;Literary Norfolk for Happisburgh connections
 * Happisburgh on Norfolk Churches