Place:Blofield, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Blofield is a village and civil parish in the Broadland District of Norfolk, England. The parish includes Blofield and the hamlets of Blofield Heath and Blofield Corner and, according to the 2001 UK census, had a population of 3,221, increasing to 3,316 at the 2011 UK census. It is on the A47 road, five miles (8 km) east of Norwich and 14 miles (23 km) west of Great Yarmouth. Since construction of a bypass in 1982, the A47 no longer passes through the village.

The oldest building in the village is the Parish Church of St. Andrew and St. Peter, built sometime between 1420 and 1444, and largely replacing an earlier Norman structure. Large in size, it reflects the prosperity of the wool trade over this period.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Blofield from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BLOFIELD, a village, a parish, a [registration] subdistrict, a [registration] district, and a hundred in Norfolk. The village stands near the Yarmouth railway and the river Yare, 1 mile NE of Brundall [railway] station, and 7 E of Norwich; and it has a post office under Norwich, and is a seat of petty sessions.

"The parish comprises 2,334 acres. Real property: £7,548. Population: 1,155. Houses: 265. The property is subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £896. Patron: Caius College, Cambridge. The church is good. An endowed school has £10, and other charities £75."

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Blofield. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of Blofield Hundred.
• GENUKI also advises that the following lists for Norfolk are to be found in FamilySearch:

• England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997
• England, Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts, 1600-1812
• England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941
• England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915
• England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901

• Ancestry.co.uk has the following lists as of 2018 (UK or worldwide Ancestry membership or library access required). With the exception of the index to wills these files are browsible images of the original documents. The files are separated by type and broken down into time periods (i.e., "Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812" is more than one file). The general explanatory notes are worth reading for those unfamiliar with English parish records.

• Index to wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich : and now preserved in the District Probate Registry at Norwich
• Norfolk, England, Bishop's Transcripts, 1579-1935
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1990
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940

• FindMyPast is another pay site with large collection of parish records. As of October 2018 they had 20 types of Norfolk records available to browse including Land Tax Records and Electoral Registers.