Official Guide to North Walsham 2023-2024

Historical North Walsham 109
North Walsham
Its origin and place in history
The Anglo-Saxon village of Walesam is first
recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The
derivation of the name itself tells us that it
was a small group of dwellings, Anglo-Saxon:
-ham meaning ‘home of’ or ‘homestead’ in Old
English.
Toponymy reveals various interpretations of the
name, the most likely is it relates to a person’s
name ‘W(e)alh’ and his or their family home.
Norfolk has a high concentration of Anglian or
Anglo-Saxon name-endings such as the early
-ingham and slightly later -ham and -ton. The
appearance of this name-ending tells us that
the family probably settled here sometime in
the sixth century AD.
There is also a possibility that it could originate
from the Old English ‘Walh’ meaning Briton
or Welshman. This may also be the case with
Walcott (Walh’s house or cottage). So it could
possibly be related to the foundation of a
settlement by an older group of the original
British or Romano-British population in the
area some of whom would have assimilated
while others chose to move west with the influx
of Anglians, Saxons and Friesians, settlers from
what is now Northern Germany and the lowcountries.
Perhaps also consistent with the
idea that there may be a Romano-British link, in
1844 Roman remains were found on the parish
border with Felmingham; a site close to the
line of a Roman Road which connected Burgh
Castle near Great Yarmouth to the great fort at
Brancaster on the northwest Norfolk coast.
The third, least likely, but most romantic idea is
that it may possibly relate to the name ‘Waels’
or ‘Waelsing’ family who feature in the famed
Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, written about
a sixth century warrior who slayed Grendel,