Harleston, Norfolk

Description
Harleston or Redenhall-with-Harleston, a market town in Norfolk. It stands near the Waveney river, on the borders of Suffolk, 6 1/2 miles SW from Bungay, and has a. station on the Waveney Valley branch of the G.E.R. It is in the parish of Redenhall, the Norfolk portion of the parish of Mendham being added for civil purposes in 1885. The town is the head of a county court district, a seat of petty sessions,. and a polling place for the southern division of the county, and has a head post office. Its industries include large agricultural implement works, extensive mailings and granaries,. and a small manufactory of hosiery. A weekly market for corn and sales of live and dead stock is held every Wednesday, but the two annual fairs formerly held are now discontinued. The area of the parish of Redenhall with Harleston is. 3392 acres; population, 2003; the population of the ecclesiastical parish of Redenhall with Harleston and Wortwell is 2219. Gawdy Hall here is an ancient Elizabethan mansion, standing in a park and partly surrounded by a moat. It is now the seat of the Sancroft Holmes family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich; gross yearly value,, £780 with residence, in the gift of the Duke of Norfolk, on the nomination of the Bishop of Norwich. The church, which is an ancient Gothic building with a noble tower and eight fine bells, contains some interesting tombs and monuments. There was a chapel of ease to the parish church, which was replaced in 1872 by a building of stone and flint in the Decorated style, and there are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.