Place:Burnham Westgate, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

Burnham Westgate was an ancient and civil parish on the north coast of Norfolk and the major forerunner of Burnham Market. The change of name occurred in 1929.

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

"BURNHAM-WESTGATE, a village and a parish in Docking [registration] district, Norfolk. The village stands adjacent to the rivulet Burn, and on the Heacham and Wells railway, 8½ miles NW of Fakenham. It has a post office, of the name of Burnham, under [King's] Lynn, and a railway station; was formerly a market town; and still has fairs on Easter Tuesday and 1 and 2 Aug. The parish comprises 3,047 acres. Real property: £6,219. Population: 1,094. Houses: 255. The property is divided among a few. Holkham Park is a seat of the Earl of Leicester. There are two iron-foundries, and an agricultural implement manufactory. The living is a rectory, united with half of the rectories of Burnham-Norton and Burnham-Ulph, in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £768. Patron: Christ's College, Cambridge. The church is a neat building of flint and freestone, with a square tower. There are an Independent chapel, a Primitive Methodist chapel, large national schools, and charities £28."

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Burnham Westgate. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of Brothercross 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.