South Lopham is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

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 No ...

. It covers an area of and had a population of 371 in 157 households at the 2001 census. For the purposes of local government, it 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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Breckland.

History

In the 1950s evidence for occupation of the area dating back to Neolithic and Bronze age times was found in the locality in the form of a Neolithic polished flint axe head and a quartzite stone axe hammer (Neolithic or Bronze age). The settlement is first recorded 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 manus ...

of 1086 as Lopham, held by Roger Bigod, later becoming known as Lopham Parva to mirror the existing village of Lopham Magna (now North Lopham), and then finally becoming known by its present name of ''South Lopham''. The name Lopham originates from the Old English for 'Loppa's homestead'. The manor house in the vicinity of the two Lophams was held by the Bigod lords until 1302 when the land was surrendered to the crown. In 1310 King Edward I in turn granted the manor to his brother

Thomas of Brotherton Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1 June 13004 August 1338), was the fifth son of King Edward I of England (1239–1307), and the eldest child by his second wife, Margaret of France, the daughter of King Philip III of France. He was, t ...

who became Earl of Norfolk in 1313. The manor passed to Brotherton's daughter in 1375 who was subsequently created Countess of Norfolk in 1313. On her death in 1399 it passed to her grandson Thomas de Mowbray, first Duke of Norfolk, remaining with the Mowbrays until 1506 when it passed to the Howard family. It was eventually sold in 1872 to Henry Edwin Garrod of Diss. From the earliest Domesday records the vicinity of the Lophams was noted as ploughland. Agriculture has continued to be the principle occupation in the area throughout its history including arable,

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

and

sheep farming Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat (lamb and mutton), milk (sheep's milk), and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin an ...

on the manorial land,

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a ...

, freeholdings and copyholdings. There is evidence of linen production in the Lophams from 1400. The villages became famous for the quality of their linen in the 19th century before the decline of this cottage industry in favour of mechanised production.

Church of St Andrew

The church, originally dedicated to St Nicholas, is a Grade I listed building of rubblestone and flint with a central tower dating from c.1120. It retains evidence of earlier origin in the form of a high round window in the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

suggestive of a large Saxon church. The south aisle and chancel are 14th century and the south porch 15th century. The battlemented parapet was added in the 15th century. Restorations were carried out in 1866 and 1874.

Notes

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District