Place:Sedgeford, 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

Sedgeford is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, about 6 km south of the North Sea and 5 km (3.1 mi) east of The Wash. It is approximately 90 km (56 mi) northeast of Cambridge. It covers an area of 17.06 km2 (6.59 sq mi) and had a population of 540 in 224 households as of the 2001 UK census, the population increasing to 613 at the 2011 UK census when the small (under 100 inhabitants) neighbouring parish of Fring was incorporated into the count for Sedgeford. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the District of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

The parish church, Sedgeford St. Mary, is one of 124 round-tower churches in Norfolk.

The village lies in a fertile valley in the belt of chalk covering this area, with the small Docking river running through it. This river and the many springs feeding it have always ensured a good water supply for successive groups of people who have settled near it in the past.

The village is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. Part of the church, built of flint and stone, is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and it is known from archæological evidence that people have lived here from much earlier times. There are remains of Roman villas, pottery and a gold torc from the Iron Age and many earlier artefacts, like the Neolithic flint tools which are found in fields and gardens. Also it is crossed by two ancient roads - the prehistoric Icknield Way and the Roman-period the Peddars Way.

This is a predominantly agricultural area, with barley, wheat and sugar beet as the main crops, although tourism has become increasingly important in recent years.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Sedgeford. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Smithdon 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.