Alburgh

The earliest evidence of settlement at Alburgh is from the Mesolithic era. A Bronze Age barrow near the church was excavated in the 19th century, when bones were removed. Little has been recovered from the Iron Age, or the Roman or Saxon periods. However, there are plentiful medieval remains.[2]

Parts of the church of All Saints, Alburgh, date back to the 13th century. The noted church architect Richard Phipson restored it in 1876, adding "pinnacles with little flying buttresses" and reworking the chancel.[3] Today the church holds a service every Sunday as part of the Earsham benefice.[4] Its ring of eight bells is among the oldest in Norfolk. The churchyard is a conservation area.[5]

The former Methodist place of worship was converted into a dwelling in the 1960s.[6] The local public house, the Kings Head closed in 1956.[7]

Homersfield Bridge, which crosses the River Waveney between Alburgh and Homersfield, Suffolk, opened in 1870, making it the oldest surviving concrete bridge in Britain. Homersfield railway station, on the Waveney line and within the parish of Alburgh, opened in 1860 and closed in 1953. Apart from the church and the bridge, there are 17 other Grade II listed buildings in Alburgh, most of them residential.[8]

John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Alburgh in 1870–72: "ALBURGH, a parish in Depwade district, Norfolk; on an affluent[9] of the river Waveney, near the Bungay railway, 3½ miles NNE of Harleston. It has a post office under Harleston, and a fair on 21 June. Acres, 1,512. Real property, £3,699. Pop., 587. Houses, 130. The [landed] property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the Diocese of Norwich. Value, £395.* Patron, St. John's College, Cambridge. The church has a large Norman porch. There are [sic] a national school, and charities £240."[10]

The civil parish, including the hamlets of Piccadilly Corner and Alburgh Street, has an area of 6.42 sq. km. Its 2001 population of 349 in 149 households increased to 410 at the 2011 Census.[11] It has a parish council, which meets monthly.[12] It lies in the district of South Norfolk.[13]

Alburgh is on the No. 84 Konectbus service between Norwich and Harlestone, which runs in the daytime on Monday to Friday.[14] The village is served by Alburgh with Denton CE VC Primary School, which has about 100 pupils.[15] Among the regular events at the modern Village Hall are monthly film shows.[16] There are sports clubs for tennis, badminton and carpet bowls.[17]

Alburgh has two convenience stores, a brewery in Tunbeck Road,[18] an ice cream maker,[19] and garment-printing firm.[20]

• Media related to Alburgh at Wikimedia Commons
• Alburgh, Norfolk village website
• Alburgh in the Domesday Book