Elsing 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 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 Nort ...

. The village is located north-east of

Dereham Dereham (), also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parish in the Breckland District of the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about 15 miles (25 km) west of the city of Norwich and 25 miles (40&nb ...

and 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 Episcopal see, See of ...

, close to the River Wensum.

History

Elsing'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 the settlement of Elesa's people. 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 ...

, Elsing is listed as a settlement of 20 households in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of Eynesford. In 1086, the village was part of the

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

n estates of William de Warenne. Elsing Hall was built in the late-Fifteenth Century as a fortified manor house for the Hastings family of

Gressenhall Gressenhall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The villages name origin is uncertain possibly 'Grassy nook of land' or 'gravelly nook of land'. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,008 in 443 households a ...

. The agricultural land surrounding the hall has yielded many Medieval artefacts including a pilgrim's badge, a French jeton and parts of a crossbow, with a good example of a Sixteenth Century

priest hole A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England, Wales and Ireland during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, there were se ...

inside. The hall was heavily restored in the mid-Nineteenth Century by Thomas Jeckyll. Some sources suggest that Medieval Elsing had a large population with its own marketplace and guildhall. Elsing Mill was first built in 1809 and operated as a paper mill until 1818. The mill subsequently reopened in 1854 as a grain mill and remained open until 1970. Today, the mill is a private residence.

Geography

In the 2011 Census, Elsing has a population of 244 residents living in 125 households. Furthermore, the parish has a total area of . Elsing falls within the constituency of Mid 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 George Freeman MP of the Conservative Party. 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 ...

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

St. Mary's Church

Elsing's parish church is dedicated to

Saint Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

and was built in the Fourteenth Century, largely as a mausoleum for Sir Hugh Hastings, who is depicted in the stained-glass of St. Mary's alongside

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...

and King Edward III.

Amenities

The Mermaid Inn pub dates from the mid-Sixteenth Century and is now closed.

Notable Residents

* Bob Simpson (1944-2006)- BBC journalist

War Memorial

Elsing's war memorial takes the form of stone column topped with a

Celtic cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses e ...

with the names of the fallen inscribed on a small plinth below, located inside St. Mary's Churchyard. The memorial was unveiled in August 1921 by a party of local dignitaries led by Bertram Pollock, Bishop of Norwich and 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 ...

: * Rgt-Sgt.Maj. Harry J. Mason (1872-1918), Royal Norfolk Regiment * Sgt. Donald W. Kerrison (d.1918), 7th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment * Cpl. Charles Candy (d.1917), 50th Company,

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use ...

* L-Cpl. John W. Kendall (1893-1917), 8th Battalion, Border Regiment * Pvt. Walter G. Isbell (1896-1917), 10th Battalion,

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

* Pvt. S. William Rix (1898-1918), 2nd Battalion,

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many wars ...

* Pvt. John C. Dack (d.1916), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Pvt. Benjamin R. Wire (1894-1916), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Pvt. Matthew E. Bowes (d.1918), 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Pvt. George Rix (1885-1916), 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Pvt. E. William Dack (d.1917), 7th Battalion,

Northamptonshire Regiment The Northamptonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1960. In 1960, it was amalgamated with the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment to form the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's O ...

* Harry Lawrence 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 ...

: * Sgt. Keith S. Bushell (1919-1940), No. 206 Squadron RAF * Pvt. Gordon R. Isbell (1920-1944), East Surrey RegimentSmith, L. (2003). Retrieved December 28, 2022. http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/Elsing.html

References

External links

*
Elsing Mill
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District