Stiffkey One-Place Study

Stiffkey has been a village of interest to me since discovering some years ago that it was home to at least three generations of my family during the 18th and 19th centuries. My study of the village, initially covering the 18th and 19th centuries, will primarily focus on, but is not completely restricted to, researching the people who lived in Stiffkey, where they were born, married and died, the places they inhabited, where and how they toiled, and generally lived their lives.

Below are extractions from the description of Stiffkey in William White’s 1845 History, Gazetteer and Directory:

Stiffkey, 3 miles E. of Wells, is a fine rural village, seated in a deep, romantic and well wooded dale, on the banks of a small river, which discharges itself into the ocean, about 1 & 1/2 miles to the north-east, and formerly had a quay and harbour.

The parish contains about 2,235 acres, of which, about 600 are salt marsh on the north side of the village, extending to the beach.

Here were formerly two CHURCHES (both rectorial) in one enclosure, dedicated to St John the Baptist and to St Mary, but the latter is gone.

To the west of the village, near the Wells Road, is a promontory called Warborough Hill … one to the east of it is a green knoll called Camping Hill.

The Common was enclosed in 1793.