NECTON, a village and a parish in Swaffham district, Norfolk. The village stands 2½ miles S by E of Dunham r. station, and 3½ E by N of Swaffham; was formerly called Neighton; and has a post-office under Thetford. The parish comprises 3, 748 acres. Real property, £6, 520. Pop., 948. Houses, 216. The property is divided among a few. The manor, with Necton Hall, belongs to Lieut.-Col. W. Mason. The living is a rectory and a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £703.* Patron, the Rev. W. H. Walker. The church is early English; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower recently erected at a cost of about £1, 500; has an exquisitely worked and ornamental roof; and contains brasses and other monuments. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, an endowed school with £100 a year, a handsome school-house built in 1865, a village library and reading-room, and church charities £100.

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