Whissonsett is a village and a civil parish in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 ...

. The village is south of

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 Norw ...

, west-north-west 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 See of Norwich, with ...

and north-north-east of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The nearest railway station is at King's Lynn for the Fen Line which runs between King's Lynn and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. The nearest airport is Norwich International Airport. The parish had in 2001 census, a population of 483 in 206 households, increasing to a population of 488 in 209 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish 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. The village lies close to the source of the

River Wensum The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation. The Wensum is ...

History

The name Whissonsett is thought to derive from ''Witcingkeseta'' as it has been known as in the past and means either the settlement of the Witcing tribe or a place of watery meadows.

Domesday Book

Whissonsett 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 manus ...

of 1085. In the great book Whissonsett is recorded by the names ''Witcingkeseta''. The main landholders being Roger Bigod with the main tenant being Ranulf Fitz Walter. The survey also mentions seven

Beehives A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

and ¼ of a Fishery. In the Domesday survey fractions were used to indicate that the entry, in this case the fishery, was on an estate that lay within more than one parish.

Saint Mary's parish church

Saint Mary's parish church was built mainly during the Early English period (cica 1250) and is constructed from flint with freestone dressing. The church has undergone considerable restoration over the past centuries. One of the features of Saint Mary's are the large image niches, one in the nave and two in the chancel, either side of the east window. The one in the nave contains the large head of an

Anglo-Saxon cross Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman ...

, unearthed in the graveyard by grave diggers in 1902.Norfolk 2: North-west and South, 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'' (1 ...

and Bill Wilson, Whissonsett entry.

Notes

External links

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