ham Village Web Site

Photo of The Old Post Office on Anmer Rd added January 2017 - Days Past - Flitcham Scenes.......Flitcham War Dead - personal details added - access via the War Memorial photo on Flitcham Scenes....

          

Flitcham is a small west Norfolk village situated 7 miles north east of King's Lynn and straddles the B1153, just to the north of the A148 Fakenham Road at Hillington. The parish is known as Flitcham cum Appleton although the latter now consists of a farm and a few cottages while Appleton church is just a ruin.

Along with the villages of Anmer, West Newton, Wolferton and Shernborne, Flitcham is part of the Royal Sandringham Estate. The original carved village sign was a gift of King George V in 1912.

Like most of Norfolk, the land is not flat but is gently undulating, and to the north, the land rises quite steeply towards Anmer.

Just to the south, the little Babingley River flows east to west. This small stream has waters so cold and clear sometimes, that legend has it that the waters flow underground direct from glaciers in the Alps and across the continent to re-emerge in springs that source the river. St Felix, whom the village is held to be named after (though see here for another explanation), is said to have sailed up this river.

The Church of St Mary at the far western end of the village is unusual because its tower is at its eastern end. The original cruciform church has largely disappeared - there is no north transept and the south is in ruins while an area of raised ground to the east indicates where the chancel once stood.

There is distinctive blank arcading to the eastern elevation of the Norman tower, directly beneath which is the modern chancel. The Royal Family undertook restoration in the early 20th century from which time the pews date.

At the 2001 Census there were 96 households in the village, with 236 residents split equally between the sexes. By 2011 these figures had grown to 276 residents in 121 households. A popular and successful school flourishes.

The school and many of the cottages are built in the very attractive local "carrstone". This distinctive brown stone is seen over a relatively small area of west Norfolk only. It does not work easily and the irregular shaped pieces are traditionally laid flat, rather like a dry stone wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

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