Official Guide to North Walsham 2023-2024

cromer
gimingham
4
mundesley
3
r i
The Pastons are perhaps best known as the
authors of the Paston Letters – “the world’s
earliest collection of family letters”.
These unique letters, by Paston women and men, take us
around the villages and along the lanes of Norfolk, through
plague-ridden streets of Norwich and to the oldest surviving
Valentine’s letter in English.
This journey tells the story of a family desperately trying to
navigate their way through tumultuous social and political
times and preserve their hard-won status.
The map shows the coastal area where the Pastons
established themselves: it shows Oxnead Hall, where the
family reached their high point before a rapid decline.
The Paston Letter collections were discovered in 1735 at
Oxnead Hall. The Pastons once owned much of the land
covered in this map. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Paston
Country was one of the wealthiest and the most densely
populated areas in England.
v er b u r e
b1145
felmingham
5
7
trunch
church
1381
r i v er m u n
b1145
NORTH WALSHAM
r
i
v er a n t
6
knapton
church
pas to n wa y l d fp p a t
spa
commo
w ea v er s wa y l dfp pa th
a149
aylsham
skeyton
captain's
pond
worstea
10
swanton abbott
church
marsham
b u r e va l le y r ai lwa y
b1150
brampton
9
8
oxnead church
b i t tern ra il way li n e ( n o r w i ch to cr omer)
"For I sha
doublet a
for the gl
Judge W
scottow
OXNEAD HALL
“the sweetest place in the world”
Sir Robert Paston
sco ruston
norwich