Official Guide to North Walsham 2023-2024

Historical North Walsham 141
Fancy Fete & Bazaar at The Oaks, 1907.
Association. After Mr John Wilkinson suddenly
died in July 1901, Mrs Eleonora Wilkinson
continued to live there for another 31 years and
to host events, including a fund-raising bazaar
in 1907, in aid of the new Vicarage fund. In 1920
she donated land for the Memorial Cottage
Hospital and held an associated fund-raising
gala in July of that year.
Mrs Wilkinson is recorded there in the 1921
census – together with her two unmarried
daughters and a cook. The census notes the 18
rooms in the mansion! In 1932, Mrs Eleonora
Wilkinson died and in 1934 the mansion was
sold to various developers. The attendant Lodge
on Yarmouth Road was demolished in 1960.
References
• North Walsham Community Archive’s detailed
photographic collection & the North Walsham
Heritage Centre’s collection of sale particulars and
architectural plans.
• Norfolk Heritage Centre, Drawer 3.101, James
Corbridge’s “This Actual Survey of the County of
Norfolk.” Drawn 1730, published c1765.
• “North Walsham in the Eighteenth Century” by
Members of the WEA North Walsham Branch,
published 1983.
• “The History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk,”
Volume 9, by Mostyn John Armstrong, published 1781
• Norfolk Record Office, Road Order 1790, reference C/
SCE 2/2/20.
• Norfolk Record Office, Cooper Family Archive MC
78/11 and MC 78/45.
• British Library Newspaper Archive – Diss Express,
Eastern Daily Press, The Examiner, Norfolk Chronicle,
Norwich Mercury, Norfolk News.
• Pigott’s Directory of Norfolk, 1830, page 555.
• Ancestry.com, Findmypast.co.uk.
Diana Velhagen, 2022.
This photograph of The Oaks was taken circa 1912.