Place:Topcroft, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

':'the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Topcroft is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is around 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Bungay in Suffolk and 14 miles (23 km) south of Norwich in the South Norfolk District. The village lies close to the B1527 road.

The parish had a population of 265 at the 2011 census. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Margaret. It is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk.

Topcroft has an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is recorded by the name Topercroft and Topercropt and was part of the holdings of Eudo FitzSpirwic, Berenger from Saint Edmund’s.

The population peaked in the 1851 census at 477 people, falling to a low of 257 in 1931 and has stayed stable at this level since then.

During World War II RAF Hardwick was built just to the southwest of the parish boundary. The airfield was operated by Bombardment groups of the US Eighth Air Force during the war and closed in 1945.

Research Tips

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