ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH - BRECKLES
St. Margaret's is a classic Norfolk round tower church located in the small- scattered village of Breckles. Its history is closely linked to that of the nearby, fine Elizabethan mansion, Breccles Hall, with intriguing stories and legends concerning Catholic recusants. Inside you will find an excellent example of a square Norman font with carved figures and, in the chancel, an unusual burial. The church was originally a dependent church of West Acre Priory and is now part of the Wayland group of parishes.
Location and Early History
The settlement of Breckles lies on a triangle of land measuring about a mile on each face. It is 5 miles SSE of Watton on the A1075 and the Bill 1, and 2 to 3 miles due east of the Peddars Way (the ancient walkway to the North Norfolk coast). According to the 1845 Whites directory, it comprises 1506 acres. Many years ago this was a bustling community; artefacts held in the Norwich Museum and the archaeological records at Gressenhall, show that people lived, hunted, farmed and probably fought in this part of Breckland, long before the arrival of the Saxons, who set the scene for Breckles as we know it today. Other indicators still await interpretation.
When the Domesday Book was compiled Breckles received a number of entries in it. According to these entries Breckles measured one league in length and a half in width (a league being probably 3-3.5 miles) and due to pay a tax of 11 pence. Originally it was owned by Harold but ceded to the Conqueror. Seemingly only men were counted and there was a population of 32, defined as being 26 sokemen and 5 villagers plus 1 slave. There were also, according to other entries, a total of 8 ploughs, with some measured areas in differing ownerships being allocated 1/2 a plough.
The name Breckles derives from the old English Braec-loes meaning the meadow by the newly cleared land. When the Normans arrived on the scene an established community already existed with its own community structure and its own church, that of St. Margaret's. The original settlement close to the church can be identified from aerial photographs.
Breccles Hall which can be seen nearby is a Grade 1 listed building, built in 1546, most probably on the site of an original Saxon Great Hall. Note that, while the village name is now spelled Breckles, that of the hall is spelled Breccles; the spelling used for the manor in mediaeval times. Through the ages the owners and other occupants of the mediaeval hall have played a considerable part in the affairs of the parish. With so many owners, only passing reference can be made to them, but one family in particular stands out in relation to the church and hall; that is the Woodhouse Family.
Francis Woodhouse and his wife Eleanor were devout Roman Catholics, and as such were tolerated in the in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, being allowed to retain priests to hold mass in their private chapel. However, by the 1590s any such priests were liable to the death penalty; hence the priest hole at the hall, still in existence today, as is the secret spy hole. Everybody at this time had, by law, to attend the Church of England services; failure by the recusants, as they were called, to attend these services could, and did, lead to fines of £20 per month. As for the Woodhouses, their faith never deserted them. Following fines and imprisonment for recusancy, they were, in 1599, forced to sell the hall. It is worth noting that they then moved to Caston where they proceeded to harbour a further three Roman Catholic priests. Since that time a persistent local rumour has existed, so far unsubstantiated, that an underground passage runs between the hall and the church.
Among the hall's visitors it is claimed Queen Elizabeth I stayed there; in its more recent history the hall hosted Queen Mary with three of her children. Winston Churchill regularly stayed with his wife and family; Clementine being a cousin to The Hon Mrs Montague, who, with her husband, was an owner of the hall at the time. Among a list of past tenants of the estate is Prince Frederick Duleep Singh. He was the son of Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh nation, who was a favourite of Queen Victoria, and former owner of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, now in the crown jewels. When Prince Frederick was a child the Maharajah's Norfolk residence was Elveden Hall, near Thetford.
During the Second World War the hall housed a number of London's East End evacuees; as recently as 2003 several still regularly returned for fetes and village events held at the hall. The hall is the setting for a well-known Norfolk ghost story, "Death at Breckles Hall" (a fine story to tell in front of a crackling fire with the lights down low). The author is unknown but a number of versions exist. The story centres around a ghostly coach and a beautiful lady with a deadly gaze; it is said that all who looked upon her would drop dead where they stood.
As time went by Breckles became Breckles Magna; Breckles Parva was just a mile further along the road, most probably on the site of what is now Shropham Hall; it had its own Church of St. Andrew, which fell out of use before the reign of Edward III in 1327. Later the village itself disappeared, probably due to migration away from the church in the eleventh to twelfth centuries, rather than to the Black Death, which tends to be a popular but often erroneous explanation for village migration.
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