WALSINGHAM, a small town, a sub-district, and a district, in Norfolk. The town stands on the river Stiff-key, and on the Eastern Counties railway, 5 miles N by E of Fakenham; is in the parish of New Walsingham; was formerly famous for an Augustinian priory, founded in 1061 by Faverches; had also a grey friary founded in 1346 by the Clares, and a lepers' hospital; drew to its shrines, for a long period, many distinguished pilgrims, one of the last of whom was Henry VIII. in the second year of his reign; gives the title of Baron to the family De Grey; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts; and has a post-office‡ under Fakenham, a r. station, a police station formerly a bridewell, a parish church, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £110 a year, a national school, eight alms houses, charities £180, and three annual fairs. The priory was preceded by a chantry, built in imitation of the Sancta Casa at Nazareth; contained a highly venerated image of the Virgin, which Henry VIII. eventually caused to be burnt at Chelsea; was devastated at the Reformation; and is now represented mainly by the W entrance-gateway, by a window-arch 60 feet high, and by part of the cloisters. The parish church is later English and cruciform; has a tower with slender spire; and has been partially restored. See Walsingham (Little).—The sub-district contains 19 parishes. Acres, 28,251. Pop., 6,492. Houses, 1,437. -The district includes also Fakenham and Wells sub-districts, and comprises 87,342 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £13,438. Pop. in 1851, 21,883; in 1861, 21,118. Houses, 4,724. Marriages in 1863, 134; births, 601,- of which 74 were illegitimate; deaths, 440,-of which 134 were at ages under 5 years, and 26 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,447; births, 6,728; deaths, 4,402. The places of worship, in 1851, were 48 of the Church of England, with 10,705 sittings; 9 of Independents, with 993 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 754 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 160 s.; 14 of wesleyans, with 1,948 s.; 22 of Primitive Methodists, with 2,489 s.; and 6 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 712 s. The schools were 30 public day-schools, with 2,070 scholars; 58 private day-schools, with 1,205 s.; 52 Sunday schools, with 2,873 s.; and 7 evening schools for adults, with 97 s. The workhouse stands on the boundary with Great Snoring, about a mile S of Walsingham.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))