Aylmerton is a village in the county of

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. It is in the area of

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer, and the largest town is North Walsham. The district also includes the towns of Fakenham, Holt, Norfolk, Holt, Shering ...

and lies south of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, south-west of

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

and east of Holt. The parish is bordered by the parishes of

Beeston Regis Beeston Regis is a village and civil parish in the North Norfolk district of Norfolk, England.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 – Norfolk Coast East''. . It is about a mile (2 km) east of Sheringham, Norfolk and near the coast ...

and

Runton Runton is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk consisting of the villages of East Runton and West Runton. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,633 in 784 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 1,667 ...

to the north, West Beckham to the west,

Felbrigg Felbrigg is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Felbrigg is located south-west of Cromer and north of Norwich. History Felbrigg's name is of Viking origin and derives from the Old Norse for a plank bridge. Felbri ...

to the east and Gresham and

Sustead Sustead is a small village and parish in the county of Norfolk, England, about four miles south-west of Cromer. The parish also includes the villages of Bessingham and Metton. The parish is bounded by Aldborough and Hanworth to the south, Ro ...

to the south. The centre of the village is ¾ miles south of the A148

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 north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

road with Sandy Lane and Beechwood Avenue north of it. The nearest railway stations are West Runton at the bottom of Sandy Lane,

at and Roughton Road at . The civil parish has an area of 6.86 square kilometres and in the 2001 census the population was 435 in 178 households, increasing to 458 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish is in

, whose headquarters are in Cromer.

History

The village name derives from 'Aethelmaer's farm/settlement'. Aylmerton 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1085. In the great book Aylmerton is recorded by the names Almartune, and Almertune, the main land holder being William de Warren and the main tenant Roger Bigot. The survey also states that there is ½ a church. In the Domesday survey fractions were used to indicate that the entry, in this case a church, was on an estate that lay within more than one parish.

Parish church

The parish church is called St

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

and is a 15th-century building. It has a round flint tower, thought to be over 700 years old. The church stands above the village on the side of a small hillside. The priest's room, which is over the porch, can be entered via the original ironbound door in the nave. The

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

windows date from the middle of the 14th century, and there are some beautiful carvings, a traceried screen dating 1500 and four elaborate bench ends with

poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug ...

heads which were carved over 400 years ago. There are the remains of a transept on the north side of the church, reduced when the nave was rebuilt.

Stone cross

One mile south of the village on Church Road, at a small junction of the Lower Gresham to Metton lane, is an ancient cross which has been restored. Aylmerton wayside cross (TG181388) is on the parish boundary with Gresham, and was said to be a guide to Walsingham. Three roads meet here, and a rough track heading westwards is said to have been part of the pilgrims' way heading to the holy shrines to be found there. In the fields near the cross are many shallow pits. These known locally as the 'Shrieking Pits', because of their reputation for being haunted by the ghost of a Stone Age woman.

War memorial

Aylmerton has two War Memorials, a plaque inside St. John the Baptist Church and a stone cross in the churchyard. They commemorate the following from the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

: * Private Albert C. Medlar (1889–1916), 4th Battalion,

Bedfordshire Regiment The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment was the final title of a Line infantry, line infantry regiment of the British Army that was originally formed in 1688. After centuries of service in many conflicts and wars, including both the World War ...

* Private George W. Tooke (d.1915), Depot,

Royal Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

* Private Henry Durrant (1893–1917), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Herbert Cooper (d.1915), 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment And, the following for the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

: * Flying Officer Richard E. Dent (1919–1941), Royal Air Force Reserve * Sergeant-Air Gunner Basil C. Marling (1915–1943), No. 40 Squadron RAF * Private Raymond L. Tuck (d.1944), 5th Battalion,

King's Regiment (Liverpool) The King's Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 when a single battalion was raised as The Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Foot. ...

* Private Harold Hunt (1906–1943), 4th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Ernest R. Atkins (1920–1944), 5th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Aylmerton

External links

Information from Genuki Norfolk
on Aylmerton.
St John the Baptist's on the European Round Tower Churches Website
* {{Authority control North Norfolk Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk