In the Domesday Book of 1086, Worstead is called Wrdesteda and Ordested. King Canute gave the village to the abbots of St. Benet's Abbey on the River Bure in the Norfolk Broads. At the time of the Domesday Book, the village had two churches, one of which is believed to have been St Andrew's Church, of which no remains exist.[4]
The village became prosperous from the twelfth century when weavers from Flanders arrived in the area. They had been encouraged to settle in Norfolk by King Edward III of England, who had married a Flemish princess. Worsted cloth derives its name from this weaving heritage, although it is no longer manufactured in the village and the last weaver, John Cubitt, died in 1882 at the age of 91. The oldest Act of Parliament kept in the House of Lords Record Office is the Taking of Apprentices for Worsteads in the County of Norfolk Act of 1497.[5] Weaving and spinning demonstrations are part of the annual Worstead Festival on the last weekend in July.[6]
Geography
The village is 3 miles (5 km) south of North Walsham, 5 miles (8 km) north of Wroxham, and 13 miles (21 km) north of Norwich, and is covered by a conservation area.[7] The civil parish has an area of 10.65 km2. The parish includes the hamlets of Bengate, Briggate, Lyngate, and Meeting Hill[8] at the north-east, and Withergate just to the north of the village. Another settlement is along Station Road in the south-west of the parish, with houses, and a food factory which since 2015 has been operated by potato supplier Albert Bartlett.[citation needed] The North Walsham and Dilham Canal runs along the north-east parish boundary at Briggate.
Governance
Worstead parish council, consists of 9 members, and meets at the Village Hall.[9]
Worstead electoral ward elects a councillor to North Norfolk District Council (one of 40).[10] with the most recent election in 2019. Before boundary changes in 2019, this ward stretched north to Suffield. The (pre-2019) ward had a population of 2,384 in 2011.[11] Since 2019 the ward comprises the parishes of Worstead, Westwick, Scottow, Swanton Abbott, and Skeyton.[12]
As of 2020 the village has a primary school (Worstead Church of England Primary School),[14] a village hall (the Queen Elizabeth Hall)[15] and adjacent recreation ground,[16] a pub with guest accommodation (The White Lady — formerly the New Inn),[17] a Church of England parish church (St Mary the Virgin),[18] and on Thursdays, mobile post office and fish and chips vans set up on the Church Plain.
