Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HILGAY

HILGAY, a village and a parish in Downham district, Norfolk. The village stands on the river Wissey, 2 miles from the Ouse, 3 NE of Hilgay Fen r. station, and 4 SSE of Market-Downham; and has a post office under Downham. The parish comprises 7, 860 acres; of which 5, 908 are in the Fens. Real property, £13, 492. Pop., 1, 624. Houses, 365. The property is much subdivided. The Hall, about ½ a mile from the village, belonged to the abbots of Ramsey; went at the dissolution to James Howe; belongs now to the Jones family; and was rebuilt, in the Tudor style, in 1840. Modney priory, a cell to Ramsey abbey, stood at what is now a farm house 2 miles SW. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £1, 600.* Patron, the Rev. W. J. Parkes. The parish church is mainly decorated English, partly later English, with a modern tower; and has been restored. A chapel of ease is in a hamlet on the Tennule bank W of the Ouse; and an iron church is in an isolated tract 7 miles distant; but that tract, together with portions of Littleport and Feltwell parishes, was made a separate charge in 1866. There are Methodist chapels, national schools, church lands about £150, and charities £290. P. Fletcher, the poet, was rector.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Hilgay CP/AP       Downham RegD/PLU       Norfolk AncC
Place: Hilgay

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