SPARHAM

Sparham is a small village on the A1067 between Great Witchingham and Bawdeswell. The village church and the village centre – such as it is – are to the north of the main road, but the parish also extends to the south of the road, as far as the river Wensum, with the village of Lyng on the other side of the water. Sparham has a long history, with written records going back into the middle ages. The name is Anglo-Saxon. The earliest period of Sparham’s history I will recount dates from the 1370s, the next from the 1480s and then a leap forward to 1779. We we will continue with a snapshot of life in he village in 1825. Finally I will say a brief word about life in the village today.

SPARHAM CHURCH of ST MARY THE VIRGIN

Sparham appears in a manuscript written at Bury St Edmunds lists many of miracles being carried out in the name of St Edmund King and Martyr.  It is recorded that in the year 1372 a girl in Sparham was killed in falling from her horse. This account has never been completely translated into English, but it was printed in Latin by Thomas Arnold in 1896 in volume III of the Memorials of St Edmund’s Abbey. The story continues…her family and friends go down the hill to Lyng where there is a chapel to St Edmund (see the photograph below). They pray to the saint on behalf of the young girl. To show their devotion they have gone all the way barefoot. When they return home to Sparham they find that the young girl has miraculously recovered.

The Dance of Death

The next episode in the history of Sparham comes about a century later, when these paintings (one of which is illustrated here) were made in the church. The  pictures, originally on the rood screen, now rest against the north wall of the nave.  There is one of the local saint, Walstan, whose shrine was a few miles away at Bawburgh. There is also this skeletal picture of  The Dance of Death.  In fact Death does not seem very threatening; he is wearing a hat which is perched jauntily on his head and his mouth shows a friendly grin. The church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The tower has three bells which are still rung on a regular basis.

Moving on several hundred years the Revd Mr Attle built the eighteenth century Rectory in 1779 at a cost of £1,000. This information we have from his friend Parson Woodford. The elegant eighteenth century building still stands just across the road from the church, although it has lost its clerical use and is now used a private home. For some time  until a few years ago it hosted the annual fête on its lawn.

In 1825 a band of men stole the valuables of an agricultural labourer in the next village of Whitwell. The man who owned various items of value had gone to work early to harvest the farmer’s corn. On his return after an exhausting day’s work he found his strong box had been broken into and his money, watch and silk handkerchiefs gone. He raised the hue and cry, and his neighbours reported seeing four men in the vicinity that morning – the obvious suspects. They were followed through Sparham to the main Norwich road and eventually were caught near the marl pit by Taverham church. (This is now the site of the Scout hut.) Various items of the victims property were found nearby, where they had been disposed of by the felons.

The men were apprehended after a struggle, during which several punches were thrown. There being no gaol cell in Taveham the miscreants were locked up overnight in  the Papermakers Arms (the local pub) before being transferred to Norwich gaol. The local constable, John Burgess, had taken them into custody; he was the manager of Taverham paper mill at the time. He later moved to Bungay run the paper mill there.

At their subsequent trial it was revealed that the gang of young men were army recruits who had been awaiting deployment. One of them was the son of an agricultural labourer from Sparham. Their punishment was harsh although they escaped with their lives – something that not all thieve did at the time. They were transported to New South Wales, although one of their number appears to have died on the ship that transported them to the antipodes.

These glimpses of the past in Sparham cover a period of nearly 500 years, and reveal different aspects of rural life. Today it contains more than its fair share of retired people and has a care home in the village too. I guess the average age of the inhabitants of the village is now the highest it has ever been. We have a number of friends and acquaintances who live in Sparham. My wife’s sister (my sister-in-law) had a cottage on the main road which she used as a holiday home, although her husband has a business in Leicestershire where she spends most of her time. It no longer has a Post Office or a shop; the school is long gone and so too have almost all the children. The old schoolroom, built next to the church in 1852, is now used as the parish room. The pub was on the main road; it was called the Green Man and was closed by 1966. Both the Wesleyan and the Primitive Methodist chapels that had their own flourishing congregations a century ago are no more; neither the drinker nor the teetotaller now have anywhere to go. From 1854 to 1888 there was also a beerhouse in the parish, but its location is no longer known.  One business that does remain as a reminder of the past is the coal yard. The nature of the village has changed over the years, but it continues its long story.

JOSEPH MASON

joemasonspage@gmail.com

THE BLOG FOR MEMORIES OF EAST ANGLIAN LIFE