Ditchingham St Mary
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1813 to 1880 Baptism Project Ditchingham St Mary |
Baptisms 1813 to 1880
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The parish of Ditchingham lies in
southeastern Norfolk forming an extensive stretch of the border
with neighbouring Suffolk, which is hereabouts formed by the
course of the River Waveney. Ditchingham is located no more than 2
miles north of the Suffolk market town of Bungay and with it forms
a pair of twin settlements separated only by the river.
Ditchingham is a much expanded large village which sits on the
junction of the A143, which follows the border between the two
counties from Diss through to Beccles, with the B1332 running out
from Norwich; the village has expanded with modern developments
particularly towards the northeast where it has become almost
contiguous with Broome. Whilst Ditchingham was mainly a typical
Norfolk farming village, here the regime was a little more mixed
with the Waveney granting pastures along its length as well as the
normal arable of cereals, beet and oil seed. In addition the
parish's hinterland lay within the grounds of Ditchingham Hall, a
fine house of the early 18th century built for the Bedingfield
family and occupying an extensive estate with much parkland, the
economy being dictated by the needs of that estate. Varying the
employment possibilities, and illustrated by the occupations of
some of the fathers in this transcript, was the presence of the
silk works which at its peak employed 650 hands split between
Ditchingham and Bungay. |
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| Two registers cover the period of this transcript, the first an 800-entry book, the second a 1600-entry book which runs onward to completion in the mid-20th century. Both register have legacy filming on Microfilms MFRO674 & 675 but in addition, for those with appropriate subscriptions, in recent times digitised imagery of these registers has been made available on the usual commercial sites. Whilst the first register is fairly straightforward (there are a few out-of-sequence entries), the second register is something of a a struggle. Firstly the book is not pre-stamped with its numbering and the clerk makes repeated mistakes in keeping count, this is exacerbated by frequently starting a new year on a new page. There are numerous out-of-sequence entries indicative, perhaps, that the register is made up retrospectively from other sources. To make matters even worse the register is badly faded and frequently with very poor handwriting making frequent reference to the extant BTs a necessity. Misreads will have undoubtedly have occurred, they are inevitable given the standard of clerical work shown in this register. |
Back 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880
Back 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880
Corrections to Tinstaafl Transcripts