Great Fransham

Great Fransham is a village and former civil parish in the English county of Norfolk

Great Fransham
All Saints Church, Great Fransham
Great Fransham Location within Norfolk
Civil parish	Fransham
District	Breckland
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Dereham
Postcode district	NR19
List of places UK England Norfolk 52.683°N 0.805°E / 52.683; 0.805

Great Fransham is located 5.9 miles (9.5 km) west of Dereham and 21 miles (34 km) west of Norwich.

History

Great Fransham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for the larger Fram's homestead or village.^[1]

In the Domesday Book, Great and Little Fransham are listed together as a settlement of 56 households in the hundred of Laundich. In 1086, the village was part of the East Anglian estates of William de Warenne and Ralph de Tosney.^[2]

Hyde Hall in Great Fransham was built in the Eighteenth Century and has staircases that have been designated of national importance.^[3]

Fransham Railway Station opened in 1848 as part of the Lynn and Dereham Railway. The station closed in 1968 as part of the Beeching Cuts.

On 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged to form Fransham.^[4]

Geography

In 1931 the parish had a population of 222,^[5] this was the last time separate population statistics were collected for Great Fransham as in 1935 the parish was abolished.

All Saints' Church

Great Fransham's church dates from the Thirteenth Century, is located on Station Road and has been Grade II* listed since 1960.^[6] All Saints' remains open for Sunday services once a month.^[7]

The interior of All Saints' is mostly simple in design except for a Fifteenth Century font and some well preserved brass memorials of Sir Geoffrey de Fransham (1415) and Cecily Legge (1500).^[8]

Governance

Fransham is part of the electoral ward of Launditch for local elections and is part of the district of Breckland.

The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy MP since 2024.

War Memorial

Great Fransham's war memorial are a set of metal plaques in All Saints' Church which list the following names for the First World War:^[9]

Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Burial/Commemoration
2Lt.	Bertie E. Abbs	7th Bn., Suffolk Regiment	26 Mar. 1918	Pozières Memorial
Pte.	W. George Lincoln	641st MT Coy., Army Service Corps	2 Jul. 1918	Ribemont Cemetery
Pte.	Frederick W. Moore	2nd Bn., Norfolk Regiment	3 May 1916	Kirkee War Cemetery
Pte.	C. Arthur Prior	7th Bn., Norfolk Regt.	20 Sep. 1917	Duisans Cemetery
Pte.	Cecil B. Martin	9th Bn., Norfolk Regt.	24 Mar. 1918	Lagnicourt Hedge Cemetery
Pte.	Richard Webb	9th Bn., Norfolk Regt.	15 Sep. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Pte.	Walter J. Burton	3/4th Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment	4 Oct. 1917	Tyne Cot

The following names were added after the Second World War:

Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Burial/Commemoration
Cpl.	James J. O'Hare	Army Catering Corps	1 Apr. 1944	All Saints' Churchyard
Gnr.	Robert A. Syer	65 AT Regt., Royal Artillery	14 Dec. 1941	Knightsbridge War Cemetery
Gnr.	Ernest E. Woodgate	72 Field Regt., R.A.	31 May 1942	Alamein Memorial