Place:Rushford, 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

Rushford is a small village and former civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north bank of the River Little Ouse, 3 1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) east of the town of Thetford and south of the main A1066 road. The river forms the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk and, until 1894, Rushford was in both counties. The manor, Rushford Hall, is south of the river and thus in Suffolk.

Rushford was abolished as a civil parish in 1935 and absorbed into the adjacent civil parish of Brettenham. The area is part of the Breckland District of Norfolk.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Rushford from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1871-72:

"RUSHFORD, a parish, with Shadwell hamlet, in Thetford registration] district, Norfolk and Suffolk; on the Little Ouse river, 4 miles E S E of Thetford [railway] station. Post-town: Thetford. Acres, with Snarehill extra-parochial tract, 4,250. Real property: £1,380. Population: 170. Houses: 35. Shadwell Court is the seat of Sir R. J. Buxton, Bart. A spring, called St. Chad's well, once a great resort of pilgrims, is near the mansion. A college for a master and six priests was founded here, about 1342, by Sir E. Gonville; and was given to the Howards. The living is a donative, exempt from visitation. Value: £100. Patron: Sir R. J. Buxton, Bart. The church was that of the college; and consists of nave and chancel, with a tower.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Rushford. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of Guiltcross Hundred. Parishes labelled with letters should be identifiable from the Ordnance Survey Map of 1900.
• 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.