Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Norfolk

Norfolk, a maritime co. in E. of England, bounded N.and E. by the North Sea, S. by Suffolk, and W. by Cambridgeshire; greatest length, 70 miles; greatest breadth, 43 miles; area, 1,356,173 ac., pop. 444,749. The coast line is about 90 miles in extent. All along the seaboard the land is low, and has suffered greatly from encroachments of the sea. Many thousands of acres however have been reclaimed from the waters of the Wash, and the work is still being prosecuted. A level surface characterises the appearance of the co., which is watered by the Yare, with its tributaries the Wensum, Waveuey, and Bure, and by the Ouse and its tributaries. Light sand and loam is the prevailing character of the soil, which generally has been rendered productive through the excellence of the system of farming that has been pursued during recent years. (For agricultural statistics, see Appendix.) The barley of the co. has especial celebrity. Great attention is paid to live stock, and the cobs and cart horses of the co. are well known. Large numbers of geese and turkeys are supplied to city markets. Besides the great herring fishery of Yarmouth, there is all along the coast an important and valuable fishing industry, which employs many thousands of the people. Norfolk comprises 33 hundreds, 736 pars, with parts of 9 others, the parl. and mun. bors. of King's Lynn (1 member) and Norwich (2 members), and most of the parl. and mun. bor. of Great Yarmouth (1 member), and of the mun. bor. of Thetford. It is mostly in the diocese of Norwich. For parliamentary purposes the co. is divided into 6 divisions - viz., North-Western, South-Western, Northern, Eastern, Mid, and Southern, 1 member for each division.


(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a maritime county"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 2nd order divisions")
Administrative units: Norfolk AncC
Place: Norfolk

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