Place:Claxton, Norfolk, England

Watchers
NameClaxton
Alt namesClakestonasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 188
Clarestunasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 188
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates52.568°N 1.44°E
Located inNorfolk, England
See alsoLoddon Hundred, Norfolk, Englandhundred in which it was located
Loddon and Clavering Rural, Norfolk, Englandrural district 1894-1935
Loddon Rural, Norfolk, Englandrural district 1935-1974
South Norfolk District, Norfolk, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Claxton is a small village 8.5 miles (13.7 km) southeast of Norwich, and south of the River Yare, between Rockland St. Mary and Loddon in the District of South Norfolk. In the 2001 UK census it contained 85 households and a population of 244, the population increasing to 291 at the 2011 UK census. Just to the south lie the small villages of Ashby St. Mary and Carleton St. Peter.

To the east of the village are the remains of Claxton Castle, which dates from the mid-14th century, licences to crenellate having been granted in 1340 and 1376. Situated on private land in the grounds of Claxton Manor House it comprises a massive brick-and-flint wall 130 feet (40 m) long with six bastions. Claxton Manor House itself was built in the reign of Elizabeth I but has a Victorian façade.

To the southwest of the village lies Claxton Church. It is thought that the Saxon settlement which would have been built around it moved down to the marsh edge in the Middle Ages. The church has a thatched scissor-beam roof with basketweave sarking. The flint tower is unbuttressed and dates from the 14th century, though much restored.

Between 1926 and 1936 a narrow gauge railway ran the 1 mile (1.6 km) from Claxton Manor Farm in the village north to the south bank of the River Yare. In 1928 it was extended south to Staines Barn, just east of the church. It was used to transport sugar beet bound for the factory at Cantley which was loaded onto wherries at the river. It used 2-foot (610 mm) gauge jubilee track and a converted Model T Ford as motive power.

Research Tips

  • 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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Claxton. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.