Guestwick is a village and a

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

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 ...

. The civil parish also includes the hamlet of Guestwick Green. Guestwick is located west of

Aylsham Aylsham ( or ) is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, nearly north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea ...

and north-west of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

History

Guestwick's name is of

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

origin and derives from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

for ''Guist's'' clearing. 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 ...

, Guestwick is listed as a settlement of 20 households

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

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

East Anglian East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

estates of William, Bishop of Thetford and Hagni the Reeve. In 1652, a Congregationalist Chapel was built in the parish which was re-built in 1840 and converted into a private dwelling in the 1990s. The chapel was one of the oldest in England and the minister was once John Godwin, the father of

William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous fo ...

and grandfather of

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

. Railway embankments and infrastructure are still visible from the old

North Norfolk Railway The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) – also known as the "Poppy Line" – is a heritage railway, heritage steam railway in Norfolk, England, running between the towns of Sheringham and Holt, Norfolk, Holt. The North Norfolk Railway is owned ...

Geography

According to the 2021 census, Guestwick has a population of 210 people which shows an increase from the 207 people recorded in the 2011 census.

St. Peter’s Church

Guestwick's parish church is dedicated to

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

and dates from the Twelfth Century. St. Peter's is located within the village on Church Lane and has been Grade I listed since 1961. The church is still open for Sunday services and is part of the Heart of Norfolk Churches Benefice. St. Peter's was restored in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

but still retains its Fifteenth Century

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

. The church holds a good collection of Fifteenth Century stained-glass and some stained-glass wildlife installed by Adam O'Grady in 2000.

Governance

Guestwick is part of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

of Eynesford for local elections and is part of 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, municip ...

Broadland Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. Its council is based at the Broadland Business Park on the outskirts of Norwich. The district includes the towns of Acle, Aylsham, Reepham, Spro ...

. The village's national constituency is

Broadland and Fakenham Broadland and Fakenham is a Norfolk constituency, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2019 general election by Jerome Mayhew, a Conservative. Prior to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, ...

which has been represented by the Conservative Party's Jerome Mayhew MP since 2019.

War Memorial

Guestwick's war memorial is a marble plaque inside St. Peter's Church which lists the following names for 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 ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Broadland