OS Grid Reference: 52°42'N 0°38'E
Name Origin: The town was originally Acre, from Old English æcer field (or the dative plural æcrum), and was divided into the villages of West Acre and Castle (or East) Acre.
Doomsday Book: The division of Acre into Castle and West took place after the Domesday Survey, so the two villages share an entry
History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk, White, 1845:
WESTACRE is an ancient village, lying in a secluded dell on the north side of the river Nar, 4½ miles N.W. by N. of Swaffham, comprehending in its parish 490 inhabitants, and 3,338 acres of land, mostly of a sandy soil, and all belonging to Anthony Hammond, Esq., the lord of the manor, impropriator and patron of the CHURCH, (All Saints,) which is a curacy, now enjoyed by the Rev. Geo. Hanbury, of Swaffham,and valued at only £31 per annum. Near the church are the ruins of the celebrated PRIORY, founded for monks of the Clugniac order, about the year 1200, by Ralph de Tony, who endowed it with his manor of Westacre. Edward IV. granted the monks an annual fair. Wm. Wingfield, the last friar, with eight monks, surrendered the priory, at the general dissolution, to Henry VIII. and in return they received pensions for life, - the prior having £40 a year. The convent boasted that they had a piece of St Andrew's finger, set in silver, which they had pawned for £40, but the King's visitors did not think it worth redemption at such a price. The priory revenues were estimated by Dugdale at £260 13s. 7d., and by Speed at £308 9s. 11d. per annum. Part of the tower of the conventual church is still standing, and under an arch is represented the Virgin and Child treading on a dragon; and on each side of them stands a monk in the attitude of prayer. Above these is a profane representation of the Trinity, as depicted in the Roman breveries. WESTACRE HIGH HOUSE, the seat of Anthony Hamond, Esq., stands in a pleasant situation, nearly two miles north of the village, and is a handsome building in the Italian style. The park and pleasure grounds are adorned with plantations and shrubberies, and the venison of the former is highly esteemed. Directory:-- William Floyd & Son, shopkeepers; Wm. Miller blacksmith; Stephen Joyce, farm-steward; and Thomas Mark, George Davy Conchey, John Garner, and Edward Sherringham, farmers.
The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, ed J.H.F.Brabner, 1895:
Westacre, a parish, with a village, in Norfolk, 2½ miles ENE of Narborough station on the G.E.R., and 5 NW of Swaffham. Post town, Swaffham; money order and telegraph office, Castle Acre. Acreage, 3579; population, 416. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. A Black Friary was founded here in the time of William Rufus by Ralph de Toney, went at the dissolution to Sir T. Gresham, and has left some remains. The living is a donative in the diocese of Norwich; net value, £31. The church is a small building of stone in the Perpendicular style.
Faden's Map of Norfolk
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| Faden's Map of Norfolk was the first large-scale map (at one inch to the mile) of the whole county and shows the landscape just prior to Parliamentary Enclosure of the early 19th century. Surveyed between 1790 and 1794 the map was published in 1797 in London by William Faden, Geographer to His Majesty. Within 15 years of the map's publication the extensive commons, heaths and warrens had largely disappeared. |
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Associated Families: Lift Skipper Tilthorpe
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