Place:Wiggenhall St. Germans, Norfolk, England

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NameWiggenhall St. Germans
Alt namesWiggenhall St. Germansource: GENUKI
Wiggenhall-St. Germanssource: hyphenated
Eau Brinksource: settlement in parish
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates52.7°N 0.36°E
Located inNorfolk, England
See alsoFreebridge Marshland Hundred, Norfolk, Englandhundred in which it was located
Downham Rural, Norfolk, Englandrural district 1894-1974
King's Lynn and West Norfolk District, Norfolk, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Wiggenhall St. Germans is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk in eastern England. It is 85 miles (137 km) north of London and 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of King's Lynn. The parish covers an area of 18.98 km2 (7.33 sq mi) and had a population of 1,370 in 554 households in the 2011 UK census. Since 1974 the parish has been part of the District of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

The parish is situated on the River Great Ouse which divides the village into two parts. Most of the parish lies below the high-water mark and some areas are level with the bed of the river, which is confined by high banks.

Since 1935 the parish includes the hamlets of Wiggenhall St. Mary the Virgin and Wiggenhall St. Peter which had formerly been separate civil parishes. Wiggenhall St. Mary was the site of Fitton, the ancient seat of the Howard family, later the dukes of Norfolk.

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

"WIGGENHALL-ST. GERMANS, a parish and a village, in Downham [registration] district, Norfolk; on the river Ouse, 2½ miles NNW of Watlington [railway] station, and 4 SSW of [King's] Lynn. It has a post-office under Lynn, and a wooden bridge over the Ouse. Acres: 1,219. Real property: £3,648. Population in 1851: 750; in 1861: 633. Houses: 156. The decrease of population was caused by absence of labourers on the Eau-Brink drainage works. The property is much subdivided. All the four [Wiggenhall] parishes are in Fitton manor; and much of the land is below the high-water level of the Ouse, and protected by strong embankments. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £160. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of N. The church is ancient; and there are three Methodist chapels.

Research Tips

  • 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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Wiggenhall St Germans. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.