Saxlingham Nethergate is a beautiful village with a lovingly tended church which lies on a small green between good examples on one side of an Elizabethan manor and on the other a parsonage built by Sir John Soane in 1784.
Inside the church are rare examples of stained glass from the 13th to the 15th centuries which are certainly among the best in Norfolk. An interesting citizen of Saxlingham when Soane was building the parsonage and nearby Shotesham Hall was George Watson the miller of Saxlingham Mill. George was a member of the Norwich Revolution Society and an advocate of equal representation for both rich and poor.
It was the time of Tom Paine and The Rights of Man and when Norwich had a reputation as a Jacobin City. The agitation for greater democracy was however, put on hold when the price of wheat went up to 57s a combe. “The greatest price I ever received” said Parson Woodforde and the flour mills of Trowse and Hellesdon were attacked by a rioting population.
A parish information pack can be downloaded HERE.
