Jake Harley McConnell

To the west of Thetford Forest lies the village of Methwold. This parish is one of the largest in Norfolk, comprising over 12,280 acres. The local village is situated on a slope at the edge of a chalkland, with the Thetford Forest to the east and extensive fenland on the west.

The parish of Methwold contains about twenty farms, which employ many of the locals.

Many of the older buildings are constructed of chalk, or chalk clunch, which was found in a local area known as “The Pit.”

Kelly’s Directory of Norfolk (1896) describes the soil of Wellington as “a mixture of fen peat, light loam, sandy and strong gault; subsoil, chalk and sand.” The main crops grown were wheat, barley, oats and turnips.

A nearby village is Northwold, which stands on the river Wissey. Northwold’s population in the early 1870s was 1,370.

A Brief History

Methwold was evidently inhabited long before the Romans arrived. But it was the Anglo-Saxons who gave the village its modern name. ‘Methelwaud’ was so named as it was the “wold,” or high ground, in the middle, between Northwold and Hockwold.

Due to its strategic location, Methwold was the site of three fortified houses built in 1070 to strengthen Norman rule.

In medieval times, a local market was established at Methwold. This contributed significantly to the village’s growth. Later, King Charles I was so impressed by a meal of “Muel Rabbit,” as the local rabbits were called, that he granted Methwold a charter to hold a market every Tuesday. The village market had closed by 1809, but later returned. In 1879 cattle and corn were being sold on Mondays.

The population of Methwold in 1851 was 1,669. By 1861, the figure had dropped to 1,509.

The village’s National School was built in 1858. By 1896, the school had been enlarged to hold 200 students, with an average attendance of 160. An infant school of 70 children was also held at Methwold, with an average attendance of 60.

The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (John Marius Wilson, 1870-72) stated that the inhabitants of Methwold were exempt from jury service and from tolls at markets and fairs.

Six almshouses were opened in 1888. St George’s Hall was established in 1893.

Genealogical Records Available for Methwold

Do you have ancestors from Methwold?

Forebears.io provides a valuable list of resources available for this parish. These include parish registers, censuses and electoral rolls, newspapers, wills, monumental inscriptions, military records, legal records, taxation records, education records and local history books, to name a few.

The Norfolk Family History Society has collected parish registers and monumental inscriptions for Methwold. These can be searched via their site.

The Norfolk Record Office also holds valuable records for Methwold. For example, wills often state the occupation of the testator.

Digitised books are available on HathiTrust. Try searching for your ancestor’s name in quotation marks. For example, “George Rumball” Methwold, or “Eliz Howard” Methwold.

The collection of publications at the Norfolk Record Society might also be worth reading, especially if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the Norfolk County your ancestors lived in.

Searching Google

And as I always emphasise, search Google with quotation marks! You never know what you might find. Were your ancestors named in a local history book? Has a distant relative compiled a family tree with detailed notes, perhaps sourced from records not yet available online? Have they provided their contact details for collaboration? They might benefit from your expertise too.