WILLINGTON

Source unknown - probably 1975

An agricultural village which since 1950 has gradually acquired a dormitory status, and with infilling has become suburbanised. Much of the original character fortunately survives particularly around the church where to the north stand a stable block and the famous dovecote with its stepped gables. Here Sir John Gostwick entertained Henry in 1541, and with hospitality and flattery ensured a smooth transition from his allegiance to Wolsey, to that of the most absolute monarch of that dogmatic dynasty. John Gostwick only had sixteen years to enjoy his manorial rights but in that time rebuilt the church in an assured and confident East Anglian style, the two southern windows of the chancel with their stepped lights for example are pure Norfolk.

The village is developed around a square or "loop" as the County Surveyor apparently prefers to define it, and can still show late 17th, 18th and 19th century cottages, several still attractively thatched. The northern boundary of the parish is the river, along which the "docks" mutilated by the railway offer a mysterious and complex historical site. The Anglo-Danish dating is now in doubt after recent excavation, but local allegiance may yet be justified in seeing the site as the inland limit of the long boats, and the base for the consolidation for a time of the southern frontier of Danish domination.