Looking East: Women of Herringfleet
This is the first of four planned Forgotten Women Fridays, that will take place over the next few years, researching the lives of women living in communities at different points of England and Wales. The chosen easterly parish is Herringfleet in Suffolk. The data set that we will be using is the 1881 census for Herringfleet RG11 1905 folios 107-111.
Herringfleet was a small rural parish in north-east Suffolk, situated on the south bank of the River Waveney and close to the Norfolk border. In the nineteenth century it lay within Mutford and Lothingland Hundred and was a short distance from the market town of Beccles and the expanding fishing and industrial port of Lowestoft. The parish landscape was characterised by low-lying marshland, grazing meadows and agricultural land; and settlement was dispersed rather than concentrated around a village centre.
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The parish church, St Margaret, is medieval in origin and is notable for its round tower, a feature found in only 38 churches in Suffolk. The church remained the focus of parish life throughout the nineteenth century, providing a place for worship as well as recording baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish registers.
Agriculture was the principal occupation in Herringfleet during the nineteenth century. Contemporary directories describe it as an agricultural parish, and census returns demonstrate the importance of farming within the local economy. Farmers, agricultural labourers and their families formed a significant proportion of the population, while local trades and occupations served the needs of a small rural community. The surrounding marshes were important for grazing, and drainage of the land was an essential aspect of agricultural management. Herringfleet Mill, a drainage windpump dating from the late eighteenth century, survives as evidence of the measures taken to manage the marshland environment.
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By Ashley Dace, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10985599
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Herringfleet was never a large parish. Census evidence shows that it remained a small community throughout the nineteenth century, reflecting its agricultural character and the absence of significant industry. Despite its rural character, Herringfleet was not isolated. The River Waveney provided communication routes and supported trade and movement between Suffolk and Norfolk. Nearby market towns offered opportunities for purchasing & selling, employment and social interaction, while improved transport links during the nineteenth century increased mobility.
The 1881 census provides a valuable snapshot of Herringfleet society at the end of the nineteenth century. It records not only occupations but also age, birthplace, marital status and household composition, allowing the experiences of women living in the parish to be examined within their social and economic context. Taken together with parish registers, trade directories and local histories, the census helps to place individual lives within the wider framework of a small Suffolk agricultural community.
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"HERRINGFLEET, a parish in the hundred of Mutford, county Suffolk, 6 miles W. of Lowestoft, its post town, 7 S.W. of Yarmouth, and 1 mile N. of Somerleyton railway station. The village is small, and situated near the navigable river Waveney, over which is a bridge called St. Olave's. The houses have an irregular appearance. There are traces of a priory of Black Canons, founded in the reign of Henry III. by Roger Fitz Osbert. It continued till the Dissolution, when its revenue was returned at £49 11s. 7d., and the site granted to Henry Jernyngham. The living is a donative curacy in the diocese of Norwich. The church, dedicated to St. Margaret, is an ancient structure, with a round tower containing two bells. The interior of the church contains some stained windows. The register dates from 1706. The parochial charities produce about £34 per annum. Here is an endowed National school for both sexes. Herringfleet Hall is situated in a wooded park, and commands extensive views of the surrounding country. Henry Mussenden Leathes, Esq., is lord of the manor and principal landowner."
"ST. OLAVE, a priory on the river Waveney, in the parish of Herringfleet, county Suffolk, 6 miles S.W. of Yarmouth. It is now a ruin."
Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
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Records Available Online
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Ancestry
Suffolk, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812 (indexes & images) www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62751/
Suffolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813-1924 (indexes & images)
www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62753/
Suffolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1949 (indexes & images)
www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62754/
Suffolk, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials 1813-1999 (indexes & images)
www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62755/
FindMyPast
Suffolk Baptism Index 1538-1911 (indexes)
Suffolk Marriage Index (indexes)
Suffolk Early Burials Index (indexes) – 1722-1730 so too early
Suffolk, Lambert's Family Almanack 1858-1917
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Family Search
Family Search Collections – Suffolk – index & images
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FreeReg
850 entries from St. Margaret Parish Records from 1813-1905 www.freereg.org.uk
The Genealogist
Herringfleet Baptisms 1706-1904
Herringfleet Banns 1754-1914
Herringfleet Marriages 1709-1971
Herringfleet Burials 1706-1905
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Poor Law Union - Mutford Workhouse www.workhouses.org.uk/Mutford/
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Sources:
A Vision of Britain through Time: Herringfleet. www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/7283
British History Online. www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp491-497
The Round Tower Churches Society. www.roundtowers.org.uk/herringfleet-st-margaret
Genuki. www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SFK/Herringfleet
Mills Archive Trust: Smock Mill, Herringfleet. https://millsarchive.org/mills/index/?which=2557
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Rebecca Daines 1812-1896, from Herringfleet, Suffolk - No Descendants, Women at Work, Herringfleet. 6 minute read.
