Honing is a village and a civil parish in the English county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North ...

. The village is north-northeast of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

, south east of

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

and north-east of London. The village lies east of the town of

North Walsham North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England, within the North Norfolk district. Demography The civil parish has an area of and in the 2011 census had a population of 12,634. For the purposes of local government, the pa ...

. The nearest railway station is at

Worstead Worstead is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It lies south of North Walsham, north of Wroxham, and north of Norwich. The village is served by Worstead railway station on the Bittern Line. For the purposes of local ...

on the

Bittern Line The Bittern Line is a railway branch line in Norfolk, England, that links to . It passes through the Broads on its route to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the north Norfolk coast. It is named after the bittern, a rare bird found in t ...

which runs between

and Norwich. The nearest airport is

Norwich International Airport Norwich Airport is an international airport in Hellesdon, Norfolk, England, north of Norwich. In 2017, Norwich Airport was the 28th busiest airport in the UK and busiest in the East Anglia region. Norwich Airport has a CAA Public Use Ae ...

. The village and parish of Honing with Crostwight had in the 2001 census, a population of 319, but this fell to 312 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the village falls within the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was ...

Description

Honing is a large parish in north-east of the county of Norfolk. Its northern boundary is with the civil parish of Witton whilst to the south is the parish of

Dilham Dilham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 4.3 miles south-east of North Walsham and 12 miles north-east of Norwich, and is situated on the River Ant. History Dilham's name is of Anglo-Saxo ...

. West lies

and on the eastern boundary is the parish of

East Ruston East Ruston is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located south-east of North Walsham and north-east of Norwich. History East Ruston's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English f ...

. The disused

North Walsham & Dilham Canal The North Walsham and Dilham Canal is a waterway in the English county of Norfolk. It was authorised by Parliament in 1812, but work on the construction of a canal which ran parallel to a branch of the River Ant did not start until 1825. It in ...

runs along the south-west boundary of the parish. There are several areas of common land within the parish, including Crostwight Common and Honing Common. The

Weavers' Way The Weavers' Way is a long-distance footpath in Norfolk, England. Much of the Weavers’ Way footpath follows the old trackbed of the Aylsham to Great Yarmouth railway line, which was operated by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway an ...

long distance footpath A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking, cycling, horse riding or cross-country skiing. They exist on all continents exce ...

runs across the south east corner of the parish along the old track bed of the

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) was a railway network in England, in the area connecting southern Lincolnshire, the Isle of Ely and north Norfolk. It developed from several local independent concerns and was incorporated i ...

that ran between

and

Stalham Stalham is a market town and civil parish on the River Ant in the English county of Norfolk, in East Anglia. It covers an area of and had a population of 2,951 in 1,333 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 3,149 at the 20 ...

. The Weavers Way runs for between Cromer and Great Yarmouth. The

village sign In many parts of England, an ornamental village sign is erected to announce the village name to those entering the village. They are typically placed on the principal road entrance or in a prominent location such as a village green. The design ...

depicts a

labourer A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries ...

honing his

scythe A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor m ...

. Since 1935, the civil parish of Honing has incorporated its very small neighbouring village of Crostwight. The name ''Honing'' derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for something approaching ''settlement of the people at the hill or rock''.

History

There is very little evidence of any human settlement or activity in the parish of Honing until the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

period and beyond, apart from a

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymousl ...

or possibly

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

flint axehead.

The Domesday Book

Honing has an entry in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1085 where it, its population, land ownership and productive resources were extensively detailed In the survey Honing is recorded by the name of ''Haninga''. The main tenants being the Robert Malet from the abbot of Holme who had held the land before and after 1066, Robert de Glanville from Robert Malet, and Ranulf brother of Ilger. The survey also list that there have always been 13 smallholders on this land. 2 ploughs in lordship; 3 men's ploughs; meadow, ; woodland, 8 pigs; 1 mill: 2 cobs; 4 head of cattle; 12 pigs; 40 sheep; 30 goats. Also 8 freemen, . Always 2 ploughs; meadow, . Value of the whole 40s. It has 1 league in length and 10 furlongs in width; tax of 10d, whoever holds there.

Notable buildings and structures

The parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

The parish church is situated on raised ground north of the village. On its west elevation is a tall perpendicular tower with flushwork panelling at its base and battlements.Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East, By

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ( ...

and Bill Wilson, Honing entry, page 169/170. The tower has a three light window with transom and tracery. Below the window is another window which was once the west door and thought to have been filled in a period of reconstruction c.1795. In the same period of restoration the aisles were reduced to narrow passages and the length of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

was shortened to only four feet.The Popular Guide to Norfolk Churches,1:North-East Norfolk, By D.P. Mortlock & C.V. Roberts, 1981, Pub: Acorn Editions, Page 50, Honing, The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

dates from the 13th century.The King's England series, NORFOLK, by Arthur Mee,Pub:Hodder and Stoughton,1972, page 130 Honing, The stem is perpendicular with the bowl of Purbeck marble. The roof dates from the 18th century. Between the choir stalls is a brass to Nicholas Parker of 1496. He is depicted in full armour. On the north wall hang two hatchments, both to a man leaving a surviving wife. There are also two tablets, one to Thomas Cubitt who died in 1829, and the other to Edward George Cubitt who died in 1865.

Honing Hall

Honing Hall is a Grade II listed country house which was built in 1748 and altered and renovated in 1790 by the prominent architect

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the R ...

. Landscaping and further work on the hall was carried out under the instructions of

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

in 1792. The house was built originally for a wealthy Worstead weaver called Andrew Chambers on the land once occupied by previous dwellings. The hall and grounds are in private ownership and are currently owned by Cubitt Family whose descendants have lived at the hall since 1784.

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway

The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway ran through the parish, part of a line that linked

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

Sutton Bridge Sutton Bridge is a village and civil parish in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A17 road, north from Wisbech and west from King's Lynn. The village includes a commercial dock on the west bank of ...

via

Aylsham Aylsham ( or ) is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, nearly north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea, ...

Melton Constable Melton Constable is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 518 in 225 households at the 2001 census. The population had increased to 618 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes o ...

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north west of Norwich. The town is the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to Norwic ...

and

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

. It opened in stages between 1865 and 1933. The line closed in 1959, although some sections survive and are now part of the Weaver's Way footpath. Other remnants of the line that can still be seen in the parish are a cast iron, steel and brick railway bridge of 1881 on the Dilham road south of the village. At Briggate there are still the disused platforms of Honing Station.Butt, R.V.J. (1995). ''The Directory of Railway Stations'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, .

Gallery

File:St Peter & St Paul, Honing, Norfolk.jpg, The parish church of Saint Peter & Saint Paul, Honing, Norfolk File:Honing Hall.jpg, Honing Hall File:Dee Bridge.jpg, The disused

at Dee Bridge south of the village File:Old Waterpump on Honing railway station, 25th March 2009.JPG, Water pump on the station platform File:The North Walsham and Dilham Canal near Honing.jpg, The North Walsham and Dilham Canal near Honing

References

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk North Norfolk