Place:Walpole St. Peter, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Walpole St. Peter from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WALPOLE-ST. PETER, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in the [registration] district of Wisbeach and county of Norfolk. The village stands near [Walpole railway] station, 8¾ miles W by S of [King's] Lynn; and has a post-office under Wisbeach. The parish comprises 6,982 acres. Real property: £15,776. Population in 1851: 1,361; in 1861: 1,252. Houses: 283. The manor belongs to the Rev. H. Townshend. Bricks and tiles are made. The Roman sea-wall crosses the parish, and Roman relics have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £1,187. Patron: the Crown. The church is later English. A chapel of ease is at Marshland Fen; and there are two Methodist chapels, an endowed school with £100 a year, alms houses with £82, and other charities £116."

In 1974 the civil parishes of Walpole St. Andrew and Walpole St. Peter merged to form the civil parish of Walpole in the newly formed district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk District.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Walpole St. Peter. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Freebridge Marshland Hundred may be useful. The small areas defined by letters are a group of detached parts of parishes which were reorganized in 1935. They are specified in this 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.