I should here like to record my deep indebtedness to him for the great amount of information, traditionary and otherwise, with which he so willingly furnished me; also for the free use of his deeds and papers and, still more, for the sympathy and interest which he displayed in all my researches. Nothing which had to do with Blo' Norton was otherwise than of interest to him. I cannot help expressing my satisfaction that, although he did not live to see the completion of this paper, the notes I had already been able to put together cleared up many doubtful points, and shed some new light on the history of the old manor house. His only son, John Wilgress Goldson, who resides at Middlesbrough, is the present owner and Lord of the Manor. He was born in 1880 and married, March 3rd, 1908, Alice Mary, younger daughter of the Rev. Joseph Golightly, M.A., Vicar of Holy Trinity, North Shields, and Hon. Canon of St. Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle-onTyne, by whom he has issue, Helen Marjorie, b. Dec. 14th, 1908, and Charles Paston Browne, b. Feb. 28th, 1910. All things considered, it is not much that it has been possible to put together. Some errors have been rectified, some facts established, and some vague traditions have been confirmed or refuted. With regard to such, one wonders what ground there is for the belief that a number of Royalist Troops were once secreted in the roof here!! When everything is said and done, this is only one of those old houses, whose owners can never have been said to have made history, but who have been content to live the uneventful lives of country gentlemen, whilst 1 Perhaps, after all, Gawdy was a secret sympathiser with the principles of his more worthy cousin, Sir Charles Gawdy of Framlingham, the Royalist. a quiet pride in their old home has prevented them from re-building and re-decorating it when the fashions changed. In this sense it is typical of the less important Manor House, scores of which existed all over the country. Not a parish in Norfolk but can show remains of one or more. There were three Manors in this comparatively small parish of Blo' Norton, each with its Hall and, I have no reason to doubt that, the other two were as good houses as this, certainly Seymers Hall-from 1520 to about 1640, the seat of the Cootes-must have been. There are two interesting facts to be remarked with regard to Blo' Norton Hall-(1) that since about 1280 it has never been sold outright, but there has, ever, been a connecting link with each possessor, and (2) the curious association of the letter B with Blo' Norton, as is evinced by the succession of the families of Bigod, Brome, Brampton, Best, and Browne. It is generally usual when writing about a place to start by discussing the origin of its name; I have reserved this to the end. One is often asked the reason of the apostrophe after the word "Blo'," obviously the shortening of the prefix. A learned friend of mine says he believes that Blo' Norton stands for Norton below (i.e., in a hole), in contra-distinction to some unknown Norton, on a hill. Blomefield says it is equivalent to "Bel'eau" (Beautiful Water), as he had seen it so written in ancient deeds. My own opinion-for what it is worth is that if, as Mundford says, Bylaugh and Belaugh mean "by the water," then "Blo'" is a phonetic shortening of Belaugh-probably Blomefield's Bel'eau-and the name means merely Norton by the water, which is a very apt description of its situation, as the village is quite near to, and the parish lies on the North bank of the Little Ouse. LIST OF PORTRAITS AT BLO' NORTON HALL. 1. Gawdy Brampton, aged about 38, circa 1625. 2. Dorothy, second wife of Gawdy Brampton, aged about 22, circa 1660. 3. John Best, second husband of No. 2, aged about 55, circa 1665. 4. Man (unknown), said to be a Brampton, aged about 45, circa 1668. 5. Nathaniel Best, aged about 25, circa 1690. 6. Robert Browne, aged about 24, circa 1720. 7. Hester, wife of Robert Browne, aged about 20, circa 1720. 8. King Charles I., length, in armour with right hand on a large glass sphere: after Vandyck. N.B. This picture was found in a cottage at Thelnetham. |