Snettisham

Correct pronunciation

"Snettsham"; "Snettsum" (the emphasis is placed upon the vowel in the first syllable); "Snettshum"

Etymology

The village's name means 'Snaet's/Sneti's homestead/village'.

Geographical and historical overview

The civil parish has an area of 28.03 km2 and in the 2001 census had a population of 2374 in 1097 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. The population of the civil parish had increased to 2,570 by 2011 and to 2,710 by 2021.

St Mary's Church in the village has a 172 ft high spire, a landmark for ships in The Wash. The church is a Grade I listed building. Nikolaus Pevsner called it "perhaps the most exciting 14th-century Decorated church in Norfolk". It served as the model for Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, built 1845–1853.

The Snettisham coast is often said to be "where Norfolk stares at Lincolnshire". This is because, unlike much of Norfolk's coast where the sea stretches to the horizon, Snettisham looks across the square-mouthed estuary of The Wash at the county of Lincolnshire, only 15 mi away. Snettisham RSPB reserve, on the coast of The Wash some 2 mi to the west of the village, is a nature reserve in the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It consists of bird lagoons and bird-observation hides, including a rotary hide.

The River Ingol runs to the south of the village, upon which stands Snettisham watermill, now renovated as a holiday let. This was built in 1800 for £800 and it was paid for by the community of Snettisham for the people of the village at a time when bread was scarce. It is believed that the present mill was built on an existing site although virtually no records have so far been found apart that Thomas Stonne was a Snettisham miller in 1626. At the time of Domesday, there were seven mills in Snettisham more than in any other Norfolk village. The mill is very small and originally consisted of a single structure built of local dark brown carrstone with a pantiled roof. The mill worked on until 1940 producing flour and after that was used for animal feed production until 1960. The mill was restored, and brought back to working order by 1984.

Though traces of Snettisham railway station and the railway line can still be seen, the service, which opened in 1862, was terminated in 1969.

The Snettisham Hoard is a series of discoveries of Iron Age precious metal, including nearly 180 gold torcs, 75 complete and the rest fragmentary, found in the area between 1948 and 1973 at Ken Hill. In 1985 there was also a find of Romano-British jewellery and raw materials buried in a clay pot in AD 155, the Snettisham Jeweller's Hoard. Although this latter find has no direct connection with the nearby Iron Age finds, it may be evidence of a long tradition of gold- and silver-working in the area.

Snettisham has a complex entry in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is divided in ownership between William de Warenne and the Bishop of Bayeux. Related berewicks are West Newton and Castle Rising and Weston Longville is said to be in Snettisham's valuation. The name of the manor is spelt in four different ways, two very similar to the present pronunciation, one of Snesham and one of Nestesham.

In 2024 Snettisham received national attention on account of its feral chicken population. Residents reportedly had mixed views about the birds.

Governance

An electoral ward of the same name exists and had a population of 4,032 at the 2011 Census.

Gallery

UK Snettisham2.jpg|Bench and signpost in Snettisham UK Snettisham1.jpg|Village sign Snettisham Watermill 11th Oct 2007 (2).JPG|Mill Pond on the River Ingol

Notes

References

1. Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 250 - Norfolk Coast West''. {{ISBN. 0-319-21886-4.
2. Hales, J. and Bennett, W. "Looking at Norfolk" (October 1971), Charles N. Veal & Company.
3. https://friendsofnorfolkdialect.com/portfolio-items/norfolk-placenames/ (text and recorded audio)
4. https://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/norfolk_place_names.htm
5. Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). ''[http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/consumption/groups/public/documents/general_resources/ncc017867.xls Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes] {{webarchive. link. (2017-02-11 ''. Retrieved 2 December 2005.)
6. "Civil Parish population 2011".
7. "Snettisham (Parish, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location".
8. {{National Heritage List for England
9. (2002-01-01). "Norfolk 2: North-west and south". Yale University Press.
10. Thurlby, Malcolm. (2015). "Bishop John Medley (1804-1892), Frank Wills (1822-1857), and the designs of Christ Church Cathedral and St. Anne's Chapel of Ease, Fredericton, New Brunswick, with some elementary remarks on the impact of Bishop John Medley and Frank Wills on the arrangements of Anglican churches in New Brunswick". Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada.
11. "Snettisham Water Mill (1362) {{!}} Norfolk Cottages".
12. [http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Watermills/snettisham.html Norfolk Mills, Snettisham Watermill. ]
13. "The Snettisham Treasure". Current Archaeology.
14. "Jeweller's hoard from Snettisham". The British Museum.
15. ''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. {{ISBN. 0-14-143994-7 p.1075-6 and 1090
16. (2024-05-26). "'They're out of control': flock of 100 feral chickens torments village". The Guardian.
17. "Ward population 2011".