Denton a village in South Norfolk, England

Denton Village News Archive for June 2020

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News From NCC

The latest news on the current Emergency from Norfolk County Council is now Available.

Slavery in Denton?

There has been a lot of publicity recently about the part that the slavery trade and slavery itself played in British history. Some interesting research by a former local resident has now revealed a link to Denton.

The Slave Trade Act of 1807 ended the transport of slaves in British ships from Africa across the Atlantic, but it was not until 1833 that another Act made the ownership of slaves illegal throughout most of the British Empire. Finally this was followed by the Slavery Compensation Act of 1837. This provided for £20M, the equivalent of £2¼B today, to be paid to former slave owners.

It has now emerged that in 1835 the Rev George Sanby, sometime Rector of South Elmham and Vicar of Flixton, who lived at Denton Lodge which he had inherited from his father, received the sum of £166.16s.11d as compensation under the Act. This would be £18,700 at today’s values.

Confusingly, he was the son of another Rev George Sanby who was Rector of Denton from 1750 to 1807. But it was through his mother Mary Acres that he received the compensation cash. The Acres owned the Tryall sugar plantation in Hanover Parish in Jamaica. It seems they were forced to liberate 314 slaves for which they were compensated to the tune of £5,337. Only a small part reached Denton. Tryall is now a luxury country club and golf course.

If you want to check if your family was involved, go to the Legacies of British Slave-ownership website.

Ten Years of Talk

Denton Talk is now ten years old.

It all started on 31st May 2010 when 31 local residents signed up to join the scheme.

Ten years, and who knows how many messages, later - there are currently 223 members.

Most people would agree that it has, in the main, provided a very useful service for the local community, particularly in the current emergency situation. From lost (and found) dogs to information about coming events it has helped us in so many ways. OK, it has perhaps been misused at times but, in spite of this, very few people have asked to be removed from the system.

In so many ways it has shown what a great community we all live in.

Here's to the next ten years!

UPDATE

Thanks to Matt Squirrell, we have discovered that Talk actually started in March 2009 as part of the work on our entry for the Calor Village of the Year Competition.

So Talk is really eleven years old!

Community Update

Norfolk Constabulary have issued a statement covering the current Covid-19 Crisis situation.

It can be seen HERE

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