St. Olaves

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For the school in Orpington see St Olave's Grammar School.

St Olaves is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated on the River Waveney in England, some 10 km south-west of the town of Great Yarmouth and the same distance north-west of the Suffolk town of Lowestoft. It is within The Broads National Park.^[1]

Today the village forms part of the civil parish of Fritton and St. Olaves, which in turn is within the district of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. However prior to the Local Government Act 1972, the village was within Lothingland Rural District in Suffolk.^[2]

St Olaves Bridge, a suspension bridge, is the first bridging point on the Waveney above Great Yarmouth. Haddiscoe railway station, on the Wherry Lines service between Norwich and Lowestoft, is across the bridge approximately 1 km from the centre of the village. St Olaves used to have its own St Olaves railway station, but this is now closed.

On the site of the Priory there is Priory Mill, a drainage windpump.

[edit] History

In 1239 the Augustinian Priory of Black Canons was founded near the ancient ferry at St Olaves. The original dedication was to "St. Olave, The Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Edmund, King and Martyr". Saint Olaf was King of Norway. He was born ca. 995 AD and Christianised Norway. In Suffolk, there was no other dedication to Saint Olaf, but two in Norfolk, and a few in the rest of England.

The Priory was allowed to hold an annual fair on St. Olave's Day, July 29. It was also given the lordship over Herringfleet and Burgh St Peter.

The area has been excavated and several burials in the Canons' cemetery discovered.

Priors of St Olaves:

• 1273 William
• 1300 Bennedict
• 1303 Thomas of Norwich
• 1309 William Dale
• 1329 John de Tybenham
• 1341 Philip of Herlingland
• 1354 John of Surlingham
• 1370 Roger of Haddiscoe
• 1391 John of Hanewell
• 1401 John of Wylughy
• 1430 John Wells
• 1460 William Bugal
• 1468 William Beverley
• 1480 Thomas Baget
• 1541 William Dale

On August 20, 1536, Sir Humphrey Wyngefeld, the Commissioner for the Dissolution of the Monasteries arrived, and on January 16, 1546, Henry VIII made over the priory site to a local man, Henry Jerningham of Somerleyton.

[edit] References

1. ^ Ordnance Survey (2005). OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads. ISBN 0-319-23769-9.
2. ^ Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 1 Part II Non-metropolitan counties.

[edit] External links

• Map sources for St. Olaves.

Coordinates: 52.53694° N 1.62306° E