What’s new?
Latest Site Updates – with links
New in April 2025
Information has been added to the Carriers page speculating on the identity of the two people driving the carts in the old photograph at the top of that page. The details are contained in the grey features box just below the photograph.
New in March 2025
A brand new page has been added: Burton family under the People menu. It gives the history of Wreningham’s Burton family members from the beginning of the 1700s until the end of the Wreningham line in the second half of the 1800s. In the usual way, there are many links within the text which lead to other pages – both in this website and also to third-party sources.
Information has been added to the Ernest Scott Fardell page. It shows the printed cover of the new Parish Magazine commisioned by Fardell directly after his arrival in Wreningham. The new information is in a grey features box near the bottom of the page.
New in February 2025
A brand new page has been added: Added Colour! under the Stories menu. It illustrates a range of old black and white village photographs from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s which have been colourised using a new and innovative technique.
Another brand new page: Chapel Sunday School has been added under the Places / Places of Worship menu. It describes the contents of two Sunday School attendance record (roll) books which were kindly made available to us.
There is an addition to the Methodist Chapel page providing details of Nigel Barber being recognised as a local preacher in 1965 – in a grey features box near the bottom of the page.
Information has been received about the construction of The Homestead on Church Road in the early 1900s. This has been incorporated into the Bothway Family page under the People menu button. Scroll down to the Paragraph between the two grey features boxes.
New in January 2025
A brand new page has been added: Elm Tree / George’s Farm under the Places / Farms menu. It tells the story of this farm, centred on Hethel Road, together with some of the people who farmed it, from the early 1800s until the present day.
Recreated map data showing the evolution of Peartree Farm’s boundaries between the 1700s and c1838 have been added near the top of the Peartree Farm page under the Places / Farms menu buttons.
New in December 2024
A brand new Menu button has been added called Gallery. This button can be found directly adjacent to the Home page button at the top of each page. It provides a dedicated page containing a small selection of the many images used across the site. Clicking on any image will take you directly to the page containing the related information. The intention is to provide the visitor with a new, dynamic and unexpected way to engage with the site, to discover information they may otherwise have missed. More images will be added and others removed or rearranged over time to keep the experience fresh.
A second brand new Menu button has been added called Blog. This button is directly adjacent to the Home page and Gallery menu buttons at the top of each page. It provides summaries of all / recent Wreningham Heritage Group meetings (starting in February 2024) and additions will be made following each future meeting. The new page also gives guidance on how to get the best from this website.
New in November 2024
A brand new page Long’s Wood has been added under the Places menu. Extensively illustrated, it is based on Rachael Long’s recent talk at a Wreningham Heritage Group meeting.
New links have been added to the bottom of the Toprow Auction page under the Events menu.
New in October 2024
Our World War 1 Records page, under People / Parish Records has been extended and includes a link to a new set of pages: “Wreningham WW1 – those who served“. The link can be found at the bottom of this page.
New in September 2024
More information about the Christmas & New Year Card design, commissioned by the Fardells, has been added to the Ernest Scott Fardell page under the People menu. It’s near the bottom of the page. Information has been added to the same page about an ancient artefact he sold to the British Museum.
New in August 2024
A brand new page Court Books has been added under a new sub-header The Manor. In turn, this is positioned under the Places menu. A Simple History (of the Barons Berners) has been moved from under Stories to join Court Books under The Manor sub-header.
A photograph of Robert Bell has just been added to the Thrown out! page described below.
A brand new page Thrown out! has been added under Stories telling how, in 1911, three sets of tenants were told to quit their properties by one landlord. It includes a series of links between people, places and events already covered in these pages – but in a totally unexpected way!
New in July 2024
Newly discovered photographs of Elizabeth Long (1851-1933) have been added to the Church Farm and Long Family pages under Places and People menus, respectively.
The Home Guard page has been greatly extended with further images and text – under the Stories menu.
A series of extra details have been added to the Bird in Hand page under the Places menu.
Some website formatting changes:
Page titles have all been given a bigger bolder look which improves their appearance on each page.
In addition, we know from website analytics that half our visitors interact with this site using mobile phones. To optimise their experience – i.e. making it easier to read, the size of paragraph text displayed on mobiles has been boosted.
New in June 2024
A brand new page has been added under the Stories menu called Steam Threshing. It includes information from several sources, including extracts from a journal written by John Bullimore between 1879 and 1887. Steam threshing also features on the 1861 Diary page – also under the Stories menu.
New in May 2024
A brand new page has been added under the Stories menu called the 1805 Tenancy Agreement. This dedicated page describes the main aspects of a farm rental agreement (the original document remains in the village, today) between Suffolk landlord Charles Harrison and Wreningham farmer William Burton.
New in April 2024
The sub-menu header “Wreningham Church” has been renamed “Places of Worship” (under the Places menu) and the “Methodist Chapel” page has been moved to this location. The first 3 paragraphs of the Methodist Chapel page have also been extended to include additional information about its history.
A brand new page has also been added under the Places of Worship sub-menu called Village Nonconformists. This tells the story of a previously not so well known place of worship operating in the farmhouse at Hill House Farm during the 1800s. The new page provides information about the origins of nonconformism and information about the lives of a group of 19th-century village residents who followed it.
New in March 2024
There are 4 new “Village Voices” recordings. The first gives advice on what you need to know, should you ever wish to hire a reindeer! Find it near the bottom of the Bothway family page, under the People menu button. There are then three more – covering various aspects of life at Church Farm between about 1950 and the early 1990s. Topics include the initial use of Heavy Horses, Eggs and Poultry, Pigs, Cattle and early harvesting methods. Go to the Church Farm page under the Places menu button and it’s near the top.
A brand new page: “About us” has been added to provide many more details … about us!!
A new page has been added to describe the Carrier services for moving goods/parcels to & from Norwich in this area from the late 1700s and onwards. The page is under the People menu – in the sub-menu for Traders.
Information has been added about the travelling knife and scissor man – on a visit to Toprow in the 1950s. A photograph and details have been included under Shops and Buses near the bottom of the page.
New in February 2024
A map showing what we believe to be the extent of Wreningham’s Old Commons has been added to the top of The Old Commons page.
A further map has been added to the Maps – early 1800s page to show the c1839 tithe map but, in this case, colour-coded by identified land-owners.
Spratts Shop and bus business was nearly sold in 1961. The information has been added to the Shops and Buses page – and the complete page has been rearranged.
A new page has been added: Maps – early 1800s under the Places menu button. It provides an Ordnance Survey map of the village from 1818 and a modernised Tithe map from c1839. The latter includes a link to a transcription of the Tithe Table – listing all the landowners and their tenants from that time.
New in January 2024
A transcription of the (very long!) Wreningham “Inclosure” Act from 1777 is provided from a link part-way down the The Old Commons page, under the “Places” menu button. It describes who was allocated which Common lands – and where each piece of land was located.
A transcription of the (nine-page) July 1805 farm lease agreement between Charles Harrison (land owner) and Wreningham farm tenant: William Burton, has been added as a link near the top of the Burton / Poplar Farm page. The text provides a fascinating insight into the typical obligations and responsibilities of tenant farmers at this time.
A new page, Wreningham Raceway – under the “Events” menu button, tells the story of Wreningham’s Trotting Track where horses and their jockeys regularly raced around a grass track lined with white railings at Poplars Farm.
A story about a Fish & Chip van which caught fire in Penny’s Green in the 1970s has been added to the bottom of the Shops and Buses page.
Archived images from the Wymondham Town Archive have been added. These include an Auction Map of Fir Grove from 1912 and an extract from an Auction Document from The Mill dated 1887 – which can each be found on those respective pages.
A NEW FEATURE has been enabled on the website which permits most images to be enlarged on the screen. Simply click on the image (or tap when using a touch-sensitive screen) and the selected image will display with increased dimensions and on a white background. To return to the full page, click (or tap) for a second time. Note: this feature has mixed success on small-screen devices such as mobile phones – where rotating the phone can also help.
New in December 2023
A Wreningham School group photograph from about 1984 has been added to the Wreningham School page. This photograph was published in a set of laser discs by the BBC, in 1986, as part of their Domesday 900th anniversary project.
A high-quality Aerial Reconnaissance photograph from 1944 taken by the US Army Air Force has been added to The Airfield page – courtesy of Historic England. Scroll down to the middle of the page. It is possible to zoom into / roam around the photograph. A link is also included to many similar images from the same period. The Airfield page has been re-arranged and provides additional information about the aircraft.
A translated extract from the Will (proved in 1377) of the “Little Wreningham” Church Rector, Henry Fithel has been added in a grey features box on the Wreningham Church page.
A postcard image of Toprow has been added near the top of the Toprow 1918 Auction page. This photograph would have been taken at about the same period as the auction.
A new photograph of the Methodist Chapel has been added. This is believed to be from about the time of its opening. See here – near the bottom of the page.
A higher quality photograph of the Windmill has come to light which shows much greater detail of the mill’s wooden structure. This photograph has replaced the original at the top of the Windmill page. Further down the same page is an impressive photograph of a single F C Aldridge lorry has been added.
A new features box has been added near the bottom of the Wreningham School page describing the July 1973 retirement of teacher Irene Gray.
A photograph from a coach trip to Felixstowe (probably in 1955) has been added to the Shops and Buses page (under People / Traders) – part way down in a grey features box,
The Post Offices page has been re-arranged and now includes a higher quality postcard image of the Post Office in Ashwellthorpe Road, a photograph of the original Wreningham Post Office and details about the 1965 auction of the cottage containing the Toprow Post Office.
New in November 2023
A new page, here, has been added with links to listings of Wreningham participants in World War 1 – 1914 to 1919, not only those who gave their lives. The information also includes a listing of those who were not residents of Wreningham but had family connections in the village. A listing is also included of those who were eligible to vote in the General Election at the end of the war but who were absent as a result of their postings. This new page is in addition to the existing Commemoration page which gives details of the fallen.
New in September 2023
A new page has been added which provides information about Wreningham village content in the BBC Domesday Project from the mid-1980s. The new page is under the Events drop-down. A link is here.
Additions have been made to The Mill page adding the story – including photographs – of the Aldridge family haulage business and information about the sale of the Aldridge business to William Ashby and Sons (in a grey features box). Go here and scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page.
New in July 2023
A new page has been added which provides information about John William Bullimore’s 1861 Diary. The new page is under the Stories drop-down. A link is here. The page, itself, also includes a link to a pdf transcription for the diary’s entire year. The page content is based on the talk given at the 30th June 2023 WHG meeting.
New in June 2023
A link to the image of a presentation document given to Mabel Long in 1906 has been added to the Long Family page. Scroll down to the section headed “Mabel Long – organist”.
New in May 2023
Minor additions have been made to the Burton’s / Poplar Farm page (about halfway down the page) to include references to Elm Tree Farm (also known as George’s Farm) which had been owned by Burton family.
Two Cannon Balls have been unearthed in Wreningham. The information with a photograph is provided on the Archaeology page in a grey features box under Stories.
Details have been included about Queen Elizabeth I and her huge entourage passing through on their journey to Norwich in 1578 under A Simple History here (near the top of the page).