Denton a village in South Norfolk, England

Facts and Figures

Some basic information about the village of Denton, Norfolk.

  • The village lies on the southern edge of the county of Norfolk in the South Norfolk District Council area.
  • It is roughly fifteen miles south of Norwich and four miles from the two nearest towns, Bungay and Harleston.
  • One of 120 parishes in the district (and more than 700 in the county), it shares boundaries with the following parishes:
    Alburgh, Bedingham, Earsham, Hempnall and Topcroft in Norfolk,
    plus Flixton and Homersfield across the River Waveney in Suffolk.

Location: Villlage Hall

  • Grid Reference: TM 28063 88724
  • Position: 1 degree, 21 minutes, 17 seconds (1.3547194) East, 52 degrees, 26 minutes, 55 seconds (52.448840) North.
  • Post Code: IP20 0BD
  • A map is available on our Find Us page.

OS MAPS:

Rather confusingly, Denton lies on the edges of several Ordnance Survey maps:
At the 1.25 inch, 1/50,000, scale these are:

  • 156 - Saxmundham, and
  • 134 - Norwich & The Broads.
At the 2.5 inch, 1/25,000, scale these are:
  • 230 - Diss & Harleston,
  • 231 - Southwold & Bungay, and
  • 237 - Norwich.

Population: 2021 Census - 358 people.

This compares with 326 recorded in the 2011 census and reflects the changes to the parish boundaries in 2019.
Lots of other information emerges from the census:

  • Age Distribution:
    • 0-9 years – 29,
    • 10-19 years – 22,
    • 20-29 years – 22,
    • 30-39 years – 28,
    • 40-49 years – 43,
    • 50-59 years – 53,
    • 60-69 years – 66,
    • 70-79 years – 68,
    • 80+ years – 33.
  • Country of Birth:
    • UK - 335,
    • EU - 10,
    • Middle East & Asia – 4,
    • Africa – 4,
    • Other Countries – 5.
  • Ethnic Group:
    • White - 352,
    • Asian - 3,
    • Black - 1,
    • Other - 2.
  • Religion:
    • Christian – 203,
    • Jewish – 1,
    • Other Religion – 1,
    • No Religion – 127.
Older census details are available in the History Section.

Electorate:

At the start of 2024, the civil parish had 301 voters, living in 164 dwellings, on its electoral register.
Rather surprisingly, this is slightly down on last year when the corresponding figures were 312 and 167. This had followed the earlier increase resulting from the recent boundary changes which saw 8 properties and 14 voters move from Earsham into Denton.
With the rolling register system the figures change during the year. Thus, after the March update, they were 303 voters living in 164 dwellings.

Area:

1,011 hectares, 2,498 acres.
However, these figures were the ones quoted for the original parish boundaries, unaltered since Saxon times. The impact of the boundary changes implememted in 2019 has yet to be resolved.

Highest Point:

Ground Level - 52.6 metres (172.5 ft) above mean sea level, the Trig Point on the parish boundary north of Darrow Green.
However, it has been suggested the top of the Motte at Denton Castle might be even higher. Further investigation is perhaps needed.
This compares with the highest point in South Norfolk, 82 metres (246 ft) at Poringland, and the highest point in Norfolk, 103 metres (338 ft) at Beacon Hill near Cromer.

Lowest Point:

The River Waveney at the most south-easterly point on the parish boundary , normally approximately 15 metres above mean sea level.

Denton's Seven Hills:

Norfolk is always described as a flat county but, rather like Rome, Denton can lay claim to no less than seven hills. These are:
  • Chapel
  • Church
  • Marshall’s
  • Payne’s
  • Roundhouse
  • Trunch
  • Watt's
    There is also Hangman’s, more a bump than a hill perhaps, and not part of any road, but it does appear on some maps. Similarly, an OS map shows Denton Castle as "Castle Hill".
    There are of course two more Hills in Denton; namely Bridget and Peter and, finally, two more -
    HIL-da Thomas and HIL-ary Kemp!

Drainage:

Virtually the whole of the village is drained by the Beck (Denton Beck, though this name does not appear on any OS map), and its tributaries. It is of course itself a tributary of the River Waveney. The primary source is in Alburgh. A more correct name may be "Denton Wash" as this is used to identify the old A143 bridge on OS maps and Wash Lane runs along the western parish boundary where the stream enters Denton from Alburgh.
On the roads in Denton the Beck is bridged six times –
at Naughty Bridge (so named because horses are reputed to misbehave when crossing it!), on Paynes Hill Road,
at the bottom of Trunch Hill near the old school,
at the junction of Danacre Road, Alburgh Road and Church Hill,
to provide access to the Church and the Rectory from Danacre Road,
on the old main road at the junction of Danacre Road and Low Road,
and finally, by the “new” A143 on the line of the old railway.
There are several other bridges serving private houses and several footbridges on the footpath network.

Property:

It is interesting to compare the council tax bands of the properties in the village with those of England as a whole:
        Band Denton England
A 6 Properties, 3.5% 24.8%
B 56 Properties, 33.1% 19.6%
C 29 Properties, 17.1% 21.8%
D 25 Properties, 14.8% 15.3%
E 22 Properties, 13.0% 9.4%
F 18 Properties, 10.6% 5.0%
G 13 Properties, 7.9% 3.5%
H 0 Properties, 0% 0.6%
The effect of this distribution is revealed on the Parish Council Finance page.

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