Place:Catton, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"CATTON, a village and a parish in St. Faith [registration] district, Norfolk. The village stands on high ground, amid pleasant environs, 2 miles N of Norwich; contains several large ancient houses; and has a post office under Norwich. The parish comprises 895 acres. Real property: £4,306. Population: 646. Houses: 133. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged, at the Conquest, to Archbishop Stigand; and was given, afterwards, to Norwich cathedral. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £142. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Norwich. The church is early and perpendicular English; has a round tower, surmounted by an octagon; and contains a rich monument to T. G. Adams, Esq. There are a free school and charities £10."

Old Catton

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Old Catton is a suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk which lies 2 miles (3.2 km) to the northeast of central Norwich. The parish is bounded by Hellesdon to the west and Sprowston to the east. The northern boundary is with the village of Spixworth while the A1042 road forms the southern boundary. It covers an area of 2.33 km2 (0.90 sq mi) and had a population of 5,954 in 2,512 households at the 2001 UK census For the purposes of local government, it falls within the District of Broadland.

The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Until recent times Catton was an agricultural village but following the late 18th and 19th century development of the Catton Park estate (laid out by Humphry Repton in 1788) several wealthy Norwich families including the Gurneys, Jewsons, Buxtons, Lindleys, Norman and the Tilletts built their houses here.

Anna Sewell and her parents moved into the house at Spixworth Road in September, 1867. She began writing the children's classic Black Beauty here in 1871 and completed her book in 1877. Sewell died in the house in 1878.

New Catton

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described New Catton like this:

"New Catton, [ecclesiastical district], Norwich St Clement [parish], Norfolk, in [the north] of Norwich city, population 4,287; [has a] P.O."

New Catton was part of the civil parish of Norwich St. Clement (one of the many ecclesiastical parishes of Norwich which were also civil parishes in the 19th century) which was absorbed into the City of Norwich in 1889. In other words it was the southern part of Catton and more urban than Old Catton.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Old Catton. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses. New Catton will be listed under Norwich St. Clement ecclesiastical parish.
• GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of Taverham 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.