Narford is situated in the

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 ...

District 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 ...

and covers an area of 970

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

(3.75 square miles). Narford village has all but

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing ...

, with a population of only 41. At the 2011 Census the population of the area remained less than 100 and is included in the

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 ...

of South Acre. The villages name probably means 'narrow ford' or 'ford at the narrow place'. The large 18th-century Narford Hall built by Andrew Fountaine, art collector and amateur architect, is nearby.

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (29 April 1675 – 2 or 5 November 1741) was one of the leading Venetian history painters of the early 18th century. His style melded the Renaissance style of Paolo Veronese with the Baroque of Pietro da Cortona ...

's decorations were removed from

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private English Baroque and then Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earl of Burlington, Earls of Burlington. It was significantly expanded in the mid-19th cent ...

in London by 1727 and survive at Narford Hall. Andrew Fountaine (1918–1997) who was a founder member of the National Labour Party and deputy leader of the

British National Front The National Front (NF) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently led by Tony Martin. A minor party, it has never had it ...

lived at the hall. To the rear of the hall runs the river

River Nar The River Nar is a river in England, a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises at Mileham near Litcham in Norfolk and flows 15 miles west through Castle Acre and Narborough (the latter giving the Nar its name), joining the Ouse at King's ...

on its way from

West Acre West Acre is a village and civil parish in the King's Lynn and West Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 187 in 83 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 260 at ...

towards Narborough. Adjacent to the hall is St Mary the Virgin church in the

Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of Narborough and part of the Nar Valley Group of Parishes. Both the church and the hall are Grade I listed. The village is on the Nar Valley Way path. In 1870-72,

John Marius Wilson John Marius Wilson (c. 1805–1885) was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazetteers. The '' Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (published 1870–1872), was a substantial topographical dictionary in six volumes. It was ...

's ''

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes h ...

'' described Narford.Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer
/ref>

Gallery

File:Narford Hall - geograph.org.uk - 454207.jpg, Narford Hall File:Neale(1818) p3.068 - Narford Hall, Norfolk.jpg, Narford Hall (1818)

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Narford {{authority control Villages in Norfolk Breckland District Civil parishes in Norfolk