Congham is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the English

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 ...

of Norfolk. It is situated some 10 km east of the town of

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, ...

and 55 km west of the city 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 ...

History

Congham's name is of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

origin and derives from the Old English for a farmstead or homestead built upon a mound. 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 ...

, Congham is recorded as a settlement of 54 households located in the hundred of Freebridge. The village was divided between the estates of William de Warenne and Berner the Bowman. Congham Oil Mill was built in the village in 1797 and was used to process whale carcasses into oils and other products. The whales were brought to Congham from Kings Lynn. In 1973, remains of a Roman villa were discovered close to Congham. Several artefacts were recovered from the site and are now exhibited in Kings Lynn Museum.

Geography

According to the 2011 Census, Congham is a settlement of 241 residents living in 116 households. Congham falls within the constituency of North West Norfolk and is represented at

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

by James Wild MP of the Conservative Party. The River Cong rises close to the village and joins the River Babingley close to Hillington.

St. Andrew's Church

Congham's parish church is of Norman origin and dedicated to Saint Andrew. St Andrew's features a Thirteenth Century example of a

font In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "Sort (typesetting), sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of ...

made from Purbeck Marble.

Notable Residents

* Robert Elwes- English painter and traveller * Sir Henry Spelman- English antiquarian * Henry Spelman- English soldier, colonist and abductor of Pocahontas * Sir John Spelman- English historian and politician

War Memorial

Congham's war memorial takes the form of a paper Roll of Honour located in St. Andrew's Church. It lists the following names for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

: * Second-Lieutenant William R. C. Ffolkes (1898-1917), 1st Battalion,

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United S ...

* Able-Seaman Richard Smith (d.1917), 6th (Howe) Battalion, Royal Naval Division * Gunner William Goodburn (d.1917), 76th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery * Private Horace Rallison (1897-1917), 8th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment * Private Thomas A. Harper (1875-1917), 1/5th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Edward Smith (1890-1917), 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Herbert Coomber * E. H. Griff * Fred Smith And, the following for the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

: * Major John H. Elwes (1906-1940), 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Leading-Seaman Stanley R. Mason (1911-1942), '' HMS Arethusa'' * Private Wilfred Utteridge (1915-1941), 8th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment Imperial War Museum. (2022). Retrieved December 19, 2022. https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/99365

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk