Place:Riddlesworth, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Riddlesworth is a civil parish in Norfolk, England. It covers an area of 8.26 km2 (3.19 sq mi) and had a population of 147 in 48 households at the 2001 UK census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the District of Breckland.

During the Second World War, part of Riddlesworth Park was given over to a British Army camp for British troops. In 1946 this camp was redesignated as one of the nearly 150 Polish resettlement camps. These camps were set up under the 1947 Polish Resettlement Act to receive the nearly 250,000 Polish troops and displaced Poles stationed all over Europe at the end of the war.[2] Riddlesworth Camp was one of five set up in Norfolk to receive 4,500 troops and housed the 3rd Heavy Machine Gun Battalion of the 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division. This unit had fought through Italy at all the major battles against German forces and had distinguished itself at the Battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944. The majority of the Polish troops from this camp decided to stay in England after 1948 and were gradually found jobs in the locality and made new lives for themselves never to return home to Poland.

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

"RIDDLESWORTH, a parish in Guiltcross [registration] district, Norfolk; on the Little Ouse river at the boundary with Suffolk, near the Peddar way, 4½ miles S S W of Harling [railway] station, and 6 E by S of Thetford. Post-town: Harling, under Thetford. Acres: 1,157. Real property: £769. Population: 97. Houses: 21. The manor, with [Riddlestone] Hall, belongs to T. Thornhill, Esq. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Gasthorpe, in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £212. Patron: T. Thornhill, Esq. The church is early English."

In 1935 the neighbouring parish of Gasthorpe was abolished and the area absorbed into Riddlesworth.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Riddlesworth. 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.