St+Cross+Directories

WHITES SOUTH ELMHAM ST. CROSS, or ST. GEORGE, alias SANCROFT, is a pleasant scattered village, on an acclivity on the south side of the vale of the Waveney 5 miles S.W. by S. of Bungay, and 4 miles E. of Harleston. Its parish contains 258 souls, and 130OA. 2R.7P of land. Wm. Adair, Esq., is lord of the manor, and owner of most of the soil. The manor of all the Southelmhams was formerly held, by the Bishops of Norwich, and the ancient family of Sancroft had an estate here of their own name. The Church is a small ancient structure, with a tower and four bells, and was repaired and repewed in 1841, when a new gallery was erected, and 107 additional sittings provided, and appropriated to the free use of the poor. The organ was presented in the same year, by Mrs. Mary Chaston. The rectorv, valued in K.B. at £10, is consolidated with that of Homersfield. The tithes of the two parishes have been commuted for £363 10s. and the incumbent has here 25A. of glebe, and a good Rectory House, built in 1834, at the cost of about £1000. Bruce Rev: Courtenay Boyle, B.A. rector Chenery Wm. wheelwright Fountain Henry, blacksmith Ling John, cow leech and vict. Fox and Hounds Squires Wm. corn miller FARMERS Borrett George Danby Daniel Moore Joshua Robinson Isaac Smith John Sadd Jacob Shearing Wm. (and land surveyor) Squires Noah KELLYS SOUTH ELMHAM ST. CROSS, ST. GEORGE OR SANDCROFT is a pleasant village on the borders of Norfolk, 5 miles south-west from Bungay and 4 southeast from Harleston, and 1.5 east from Homersfield station on the Waveney Valley section of the London and North Eastern railway. The church of St. George is a structure of flint in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells: it was repaired, repewed and enlarged in 1841, when an organ was presented by Mrs. Mary Chaston, of St. Margaret's, but a new organ was provided in 1905: the church was restored in 1887 at a cost of £1,400, and affords about 130 sittings. The register dates from the year 1558. The living is a rectory, consolidated with that of Homersfield, joint net yearly value £344 with 39 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of Sir Robert Shafto Adair bart, D.L., J.P. and held since 1927 by the Rev. Peveril Haves Turnbull B.A. of Queens' College, Cambridge, hon. C.F. In this parish is an ancient and now ruinous structure of rubble called " The Minster," consisting of a nave, 72 feet long by 27 wide, and a chancel, 24 feet in length, terminating in a semicircular apse; it is said to have been the church of an early monastic house once existing here, and is surrounded by a rampart and moat. Sir Robert Shafto Adair bart. D.L., J.P. is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is loam; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley and peas. The area is 1,310 acres; the population in 1921 was 186. Parish Clerk, George Jay. Post Office, St. Cross. Letters through Harleston (Norfolk). Metfield is the nearest M. 0. office & Flixton the nearest T. office Brock Mrs. Home Farm house Turnbull Rev. Peveril Hayes B.A., ~ hon. C.F. (rector), Rectory COMMERCIAL. Marked thus * farm 150 acres or over. Betts Arth. farmer, Mill farm Blogg George, Fox & Hounds P.H Brock Oliver Wm. frmr. College farm Debenham Hy. Edwd. farmer, Chestnut Tree farm Etheridge Oliver, farmer, Spring farm *Hadingham David Hy. farmer, Greshaw & Home farms Howlett Emma (Mrs.), shopkeeper,Post office Jeffries Mary Ann (Mrs.), steam saw mills Riches Albert, shopkeeper *Newham Ernest, farmer, School farm Sales Arthur Ernest, gardener to Sir Robert S. Adair bart. D.L., J.P *Self George, farmer, Church farm DUTT South Elmham St Cross, or Sancroft St George (1.5 m. E. of Homersfield).-In this parish is a remarkably interesting ruin known as the Old Minster. It stands a little S. of the centre of a square enclosure of about 3.5 acres contained within a low earthen bank and a shallow moat. This enclosure, which is undoubtedly Roman, is called the Minster Yard. The ruin, which is 104 ft. by 33 ft., consists of three distinct parts, which can be easily identified as the chancel, nave, and galilee of a church, the plan of which is similar to those of the churches of Llanwit Major in Glamorganshire, and Gillingham in Norfolk. Mr B. B. Woodward, F.S.A., in the " Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology," notes the following details :-The first part " at the W. end is 26 ft. in length, with one opening for a great W.door, and two openings for windows on each side; it communicates with the second part by means of two doorways, the jamb between them being opposite the W. door, and making it impossible for a spectator to see through the building to the E. end. The length of this part is 38 ft., and it had three windows on each side. It is almost open into the third part, there being no trace of any other division than what may have served as the piers to a wide arch. This third part is apsidal in figure, and is 26.5 ft. in length from the arch to the trace of the outer edge of the apse. The walls are most perfect in the W. compartment, and on the S. side, where they are about 18 ft. high. The form of the chancel alone can be traced: no walls remain." Mr Woodward goes on to remark that the plan and proportions of this minster are interesting, in that they exhibit the relation of the Christian Church to the Pagan Temple. That it is a building of very early date there is no doubt, and the best authorities on pre-Norman churches believe it to be of the first half of the seventh century. The late Mr H. Harrod was of opinion that this place, and not N. Elmham in Norfolk, is the Elmham referred to by Bede when he wrote of the division of the see of" Donmoc " into two sees; and he drew attention to the neighbouring village of Flixton having received the name of Felix of Burgundy, and that in "‘Sancroft' we have the Saxon 'Minster'-the mother church." He referred to the enclosure in which the church stands as a Roman camp. The parish church of St George has a Norm. S. doorway. The chancel and part of the nave are Dec., the rest is chiefly Perp.