Place:Heigham, Norfolk, England

Watchers
NameHeigham
Alt namesHechamsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 190
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish, Suburb
Coordinates52.6356°N 1.2818°E
Located inNorfolk, England
See alsoNorwich, Norfolk, Englandcity in which it was a suburb, now a part
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


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

"HEIGHAM, or Higham, a parish in the Norwich [registration] district, Norfolk; in the W side of Norwich city. Real property: £36,799. Population in 1851: 7,745; in 1861: 13,894. Houses: 3,181. The increase of pop. arose from the removal hither of families from other parts of the city, and of Norwich workhouse from St. Andrew's parish. Here also are the jail, a private lunatic asylum, and the girls' home. There are three livings, St. Bartholomew, Holy Trinity, and St. Philip; the latter two constituted in 1867; the first has two rectories, the last a [perpetual] curacy, in the diocese of Norwich. Value of St. [Bartholomew]: £300; of [Holy Trinity]: £420; of St. [Philip]: £200. Patron of all: the Bishop of [Norwich]. St. [Philip's] church was built in 1868, and is in the early French style."

A Vision of Britain through Time describes Heigham as an ancient and civil parish within the municipal and county borough of Norwich until 1889. Starting and ceasing errors have been found in other places in A Vision of Britain through Time. There is no article in Wikipedia which infers that it has been part of Norwich for a long time.

GENUKI's map illustrating the boundaries of the old County of the City of Norwich (comparable to a map of a hundred) places Heigham within the boundary, but immediately outside of the City itself. Examining Heigham in Google Earth certainly puts it in a very built up area today.

St. Bartholomew's Church was destroyed in World War II.

Research Tips

  • Wikipedia has a "Category:Church of England church buildings in Norwich" leading to descriptions of many of the old churches of the City of Norwich (but none in Heigham).
  • GENUKI provides a list of references for Heigham.
  • GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of County of the City of Norwich.
  • GENUKI also advises that the following lists for Norfolk are to be found in FamilySearch:
  • 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.