Place:Hardley, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"HARDLEY, a parish in Loddon [registration] district, Norfolk; on the river Yare, 2½ miles NE of Loddon, and 3 SW of Reedham [railway] station. Post-town: Loddon, under Norwich. Acres: 1,469. Real property: £2,524. Population: 271. Houses: 57. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to Sir William B. Proctor, Bart. Part of the land is marsh. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £150. Patrons: the Corporation of Norwich. The church has a round tower, and is good. There are a Wesleyan chapel, charities £11, and a cross of the date 1543."

Hardley was an ancient and civil parish in the Loddon Hundred of Norfolk and in the rural district of Loddon and Clavering from 1894 until 1935. In 1935 it was absorbed into the newly formed civil parish of Langley with Hardley.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Hardley. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Loddon Hundred may be useful.
• 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.