Grimston, Norfolk Genealogy

England   Norfolk

Parish History
Grimston St Botolph's is an Ancient parish in the diocese of Norwich.

Church of St.Botolph has late Saxon or early Norman origins, largely extended in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The village is just a few miles away from the Royal family's residence at Sandringham.

The village was built on a spring line, and a Roman Village was found in 1903, 300 yards West of St.Botolph's Church. Subsequently Roman villas were found in the neighbouring villas of Gayton Thorpe and Well Hall to the South and Congham and Appleton the North. Some red bricks from the Villa were re-used in the church, on buttresses and on the South Wall. Grimston, and particularly the nearby hamlet of Pott Row were quite significant centres of pottery production from the 11th to 16th centuries and important suppliers of this to Scandinavia. Grimstonware finds have also been made in Italy and Spain. Pots often had faces carved just under the rim. Some of these can be seen in local Museums including the Castle Museum, Norwich.

Adam Thorowgood was born in Grimston in July 1604. He was a prominent Virginia settler in the 1620s, naming the city of Norfolk after his home county and the district of Thoroughgood in Virginia Beach is named after him, and a house he built there is open as a museum.

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.

Church records
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

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
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.