Norfolk Church Crawling

Monday 23rd March 2026

Filby:
Decided it was time to get back to exploring/re-exploring some Norfolk Churches. Lapsed a bit since Gill is not as mobile nowadays.
As Gill has been house-bound with this cough for ages we decided to go for a drive and to revisit the church of All Saints in Filby. The area of Filby and Mautby is where my paternal great, great grandparents Miles and Elizabeth moved to in the mid 1860’s from Hoveton where others of the family remained. They had 12 children who survived at least infancy, some into their eighties or nineties, plus a possible thirteenth who died in infancy.
The churchyard, along with St Peter & St Paul at Mautby is where many of their descendants (and my ancestors!) are buried.
Filby’s church is large, 14^th C. with a tower added in the succeeding couple of centuries. Its outstanding feature is a 15^th C. roodscreen with eight figures. My modest photo selection is from earlier visits in 2010 and 2014.
I hope to post more photos of Norfolk churches in the coming months and if anyone is interested in a bit of ‘church crawling’ do let me know.
I will also post this on the club blogsite and in the meantime would recommend Simon Knotts superb website - Norfolk Churches  - for far better details of Filby than mine, and also around 924 other Norfolk churches!

Anna Gurney

Alison Dow did mention Anna Gurney in her talk on Tuesday, so I thought a related article would be of interest.  Anna worked with Amelia Opie in forming the Anti-slavery Society in Norwich.  However, Anna was more well known as a geologist, who was disabled after contracting polio at a young age and who lived with her lesbian lover, Sarah Buxton, in Northrepps Cottage in Cromer, they were known locally as the “Cottage ladies”.  To find out more, please select the following link:  

https://norwichcastle.wordpress.com/2023/03/08/anna-gurney-norfolks-disabled-lesbian-geologist/

Ketteringham Hall

Such a lovely place to visit, especially if you like a walk and some tea and cake at The Orangery, and it is only just through Keswick off the A11.  There is a lovely view if you sit outside.  But what is the history of the hall?  The best article I could find was by Britain but Car - so not the normal historical source!  Did you know it is reputed to be the home of Lady Jane Grey - the nine day queen?  What was it’s military purpose during WWII?  And what is it’s connection to Lotus cars?  To answer these questions and learn more, please select the following article:

https://www.britainbycar.co.uk/ketteringham/339-ketteringham-hall

Earl Grey

My wife loves Early Grey Tea.  Long gone are the days when only the rich drank it.  I thought a related article would be of interest.  Where did it come from?  As is often the case, there are a number of theories.  Who was Earl Grey?  How was Bergamot oil used to flavour the tea?  To answer these questions and learn more, please select the following article:

https://tea101.teabox.com/earl-grey-tea/

The Corsbies - a family of Norwich Union clerks

Here is an article from the Aviva Group Archive that provides further details on some of the stories Grace was reciting on Tuesday.  It is interesting to learn how the clerks lived and worked in the early Norwich Union of 19th century, the fines for being late, how long you could stand in front of the fire to get warm, but there were a number of clerks that worked for the company for many years including Joseph Corsbie who worked for N.U. for 50 years and received a warping £130 p.a. (£129K today).  Poor fellow he only received this income for a year before he died.  To find out more, please select the following link:  

https://avivaarchive.medium.com/the-corsbies-a-family-of-norwich-union-clerks-1624536a085a

Why is Abraham Lincoln connected to Hingham and Swanton Morley in Norfolk?

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln’s (yes the 16th American President's) ancestors lived in Norfolk and if the eldest son of Richard Lincoln, named Samuel, had inherited his will, then he may never have emigrated from Hingham to the Americas and Abraham Lincoln may never has existed.  To find out more, please select the following link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/articles/2009/02/12/abe_lincoln_swanton_20090212_feature.shtml

Mary Wollstonecraft

An excellent talk by Chad Goodwin about Mary Wollstonecraft on Tuesday.  Mary was an English writer, philosopher, and foundational feminist advocate who argued that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear so due to a lack of education. Best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she demanded educational, social, and economic equality for women.  Here is an interesting article about Mary:  

https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/mary-wollstonecraft-life-works-death-legacy/