Place:Outwell, Norfolk, England

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

"OUTWELL, a village and a parish in the [registration] district of Wisbeach and counties of Cambridge and Norfolk. The village stands on the old river Nen and on the Wisbeach canal, immediately N of Upwell, and 5 miles S S E of Wisbeach [railway] station; and has a post-office under Wisbeach. The parish comprises 506 acres in Cambridgeshire; and, together with a part of Emneth, 2,512 in Norfolk. Real property of the portion: £2,107. Population in 1851: 442; in 1861: 381. Houses: 91. Real property of the [Norfolk] portion, £6,169. Population in 1851: 1,006; in 1861: 884. Houses: 197.

"The property is much sub-divided. The manor belongs to W. Townley, Esq. Beaupré Hall is the residence of the Rev. W. G. Townley. A hermitage or Benedictine house stood anciently at Molycourt; and was made a cell to Ely [Cathedral] by Henry VI. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £631. Patron: the Bishop of Norwich. The church is a brick building, covered with cement; was recently repaired, at a cost of £2,200; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and tower. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists, a mixed school, and charities £163."

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Up until 1935 Outwell parish was split with half in Norfolk and half in Cambridgeshire (pre 1889) and Isle of Ely (1889-1935) with the boundary falling along the old course of the River Nene. The boundary also cut straight through the middle of the village. In 1935 the part of Outwell which was in Cambridgeshire was transferred to the neighbouring parish of Emneth in Norfolk.

Outwell is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is 53.4 miles (85.9 km) west of Norwich, 18.3 miles (29.5 km) southwest of King's Lynn and 97 miles (156 km) north of London. The nearest town is Wisbech in Cambridgeshire which is 5.1 miles (8.2 km) northwest of the village. The village is on the route of the A1101 Bury St. Edmunds to Long Sutton road. The parish of Outwell had a population of 1,880 in the 2001 UK census, increasing to 2,083 at the 2011 UK census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Outwell#History.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Outwell. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• a map illustrating the individual parishes of Clackclose 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.
• See also Research Tips under any Cambridgeshire parish for information on searching in Cambridgeshire.