Briningham

Briningham
St. Maurice's Church, Briningham
Briningham Location within Norfolk
Area	4.96 km2 (1.92 sq mi)
Population	112 (2021)
• Density	23/km2 (60/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TG030340
• London	124 miles (200 km)
District	North Norfolk
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MELTON CONSTABLE
Postcode district	NR24
Dialling code	01263
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	North Norfolk
List of places UK England Norfolk 52°52′06″N 1°01′31″E / 52.86825°N 1.02538°E / 52.86825; 1.02538

Briningham is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.

The village is located 3.6 miles (5.8 km) south-west of Holt and 20 miles (32 km) north-west of Norwich.

Briningham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for the village of Bryni's people.^[1]

In the Domesday Book, Briningham is recorded as a settlement of 35 households in the hundred of Holt. In 1086, the village was part of the estates of Alan of Brittany and Bishop William of Thetford.^[2]

There are numerous Grade II listed buildings in Briningham including No. 2 & No. 4 on Church Lane (c.1840),^[3] Home Farmhouse (Eighteenth Century),^[4] Garden Cottage (Seventeenth Century)^[5] and Rose Cottage (Eighteenth Century).^[6] White House and Mission Hall dates from 1809.^[7] The Old White Horse operated as a pub in the Nineteenth Century but is now a residential building.^[8]

The Bellevue Tower still stands in the village and is most likely the remains of a smock mill built in 1721 on the orders of Sir Jacob Astley.^[9]

Briningham Hall still stands within the village and was built in 1838 in the Greek Revival style.^[10]

There is also a telephone booth built in 1935, which is Grade II listed.^[11]

According to the 2021 census, Briningham has a population of 112 people which shows a slight decrease from the 130 people recorded in the 2011 census.^[12]

The nearest railway station is at Sheringham for the Bittern Line which runs between Sheringham, Cromer and Norwich. There is an abandoned railway line which is considered as a footpath, it runs parallel with an old track "the lane" that leads up to Bellevue Tower. The nearest airport is Norwich International Airport.

The B1110, between Holt and Dereham, runs through the village.

Briningham's parish church is dedicated to Saint Maurice and dates at its earliest to 1300. The church has been Grade I listed since 1959.^[13] The church boasts stained glass depicting the ascension of Christ by William Wailes (installed 1862) and another depicting Saint Cecilia and Saint Agnes by Alfred L. Wilkinson.^[14] Within St. Maurice's Churchyard there is a large monument made from stone dedicated to a family of local landowners, the Breretons.^[15]

Briningham is part of the electoral ward of Stody for local elections and is part of the district of North Norfolk.

The village's national constituency is North Norfolk, which has been represented by the Liberal Democrat Steff Aquarone MP since 2024.

• Peter Whitbread – English actor and screenwriter who lived and died in Briningham.

Briningham War Memorial takes the form of two brass plaques inside St. Maurice's Church. It lists the following names for the First World War:^[16]

And the following names for the Second World War:

In addition, Frederick W. Jarvis, a native of Briningham, was killed during the Norwich Blitz, part of the Baedeker Blitz, when a Luftwaffe bomb hit his house on 41, Patterson Road on the 27 April 1942.

• 
  "The Street"
• 
  Briningham Plantation Viewed across harvested cereal field beside the B1354
• 
  "The Street"
• 
  The bus now calls at the houses of people who have phoned the day before requesting to be collected
• 
  St Maurice Church
• 
  Houses on The Street

Media related to Briningham at Wikimedia Commons