Odds & Ends
This page contains a variety of miscellaneous historical information which we plan to expand.
Denton's Administrative History
Denton's parish boundaries were laid down in Saxon times by the church. They have probably not changed significantly for more than a thousand years. The boundaries were originally defined by a number of physical features. These included significant trees and these were shown on the older OS maps. Locally they included an oak tree east of Middle Road and an ash tree near Denton Lodge. The part of the boundary formed by the river Waveney, the county boundary, will have moved as the river has changed its course but it is less than a mile in length.
Under the Saxon system Norfolk was divided into 33 hundreds (nominally the area occupied by 100 households) and Denton formed part of the Earsham hundred.
The hundred system was swept away by the creation of Rural District Councils in 1884. Denton became part of Depwade RDC. Four year's later the Local Government Act of 1888 created Norfolk County Council.
The Act of 1894 created civil parishes, separate from the ecclesiastical ones, and parish councils. It transferred the civil functions of the older parish authorities to the new institutions. As a result, the church was excluded from formal participation in local government. Denton Parish Council has existed since that date.
Another Local Government Act, of 1974, merged a group of small urban and rural district councils, including Depwade RD, to create the current South Norfolk District Council.
Great Green Windmill
In medieval times there would have been a parish watermill probably near the church on the Beck (it is mentioned in Domesday Book) to grind the village's corn but windpower was regarded as more reliable and in most areas watermills were eventually replaced by windmills.
Denton's windmill stood on what was originally Great Green, close to Darrow Green Road (marked as Windmill Road on old maps). It's age is not known but it was there in 1752. It is shown on Bryant's map of 1826 and the first Ordnance Survey one–inch map of 1838. It was a postmill, built on 5ft high piers and turned manually into the wind by a tail pole. It was demolished around 1899. The site can still be identified near Mill House, Mill Farm and Mill Cottage (Grid Ref: TM277898).
For a photograph and more information go to The Norfolk Windmills site.
Denton Workhouse
In 1601, during the last years of Elizabeth 1st's reign, the Poor Law Act placed the duty of poor relief on the parish. This continued until Gilbert's Act of 1752 allowed parishes to join together in Unions to build poor houses or "Workhouses".
The Norfolk Museums Service's "Historical Atlas of Norfolk" records that in 1832 Denton's Parish Workhouse contained 26 paupers and made out-relief payments to 108 men women and children - a substantial portion of the village population. Its location is unknown.
The 1834 Poor Law Union Act established the new Union system with workhouses in each single or grouped hundred. The Depwade Union's new building at Pulham Market (on the A140, now flats) served Denton and the parish workhouse presumably closed. The 1881 census records that four of the inmates were born in Denton. The Pulham workhouse building, which later also served as the offices of the new Depwade Rural District, closed as recently as 1929.
Further infomation is available at The Workhouse site.
Population Change
A national census has been held in the UK every ten years since 1801 (apart from 1941 because of the war). The figures for Denton are as follows:
- 1801 451
- 1811 498
- 1821 601
- 1831 580
- 1841 625
- 1851 571
- 1861 518
- 1871 525
- 1881 484
- 1891 451
- 1901 406
- 1911 376
- 1921 381
- 1931 337
- 1951 337
- 1961 325
- 1971 327
- 1981 382
- 1991 382
- 2001 352
Further census information on Denton is available from the Vision of Britain website.
Our Trig Point
The Ordnance Survey Trig Point - on the right -
(officially a "Triangulation Station") on the boundary with Topcroft north of Darrow Green has a height of 52.6 metres (172.6 ft) above sea level. Comparatively rare in Norfolk (because of the lack of hills most trig stations are on top of church towers, as at Alburgh and Redenhall), this was erected "on December 13th 1948 at a cost of £9 14s 2d" (£9.71). It is one of the 6,575 such points which originally covered the whole of Great Britain.
Officially this is called the Bush Wood TS, Ref. No. TG12/T10, it bears the flash number S4912. It's Grid Reference is TM26219019. It is one of the many trig points that the Ordinance Survey has now declared to be redundant; with modern satellite-based surveying methods far fewer fixed TPs are needed. It could reasonably be regarded as a modern "ancient monument".
Misery Corner
The junction of Darrow Green Road and Manor Farm Road has been called "Misery Corner" for as long as people can remember. There are at least three versions of the origin of this name:
- A nearby field contains Hangmans Hill and the passing condemned were obviously having a pretty miserable time.
- It is claimed that many years ago a young servant girl working at Ivy Farm, one of the houses at the Corner, was so ashamed of becoming pregnant that she committed suicide by hanging herself.
- Finally, during the Civil War some roundhead soldiers were billeted at Ivy Farm. One of them misbehaved (something to do with the servant girl perhaps?) and was duly executed by firing squad in a field by the Corner.