Holme Hale's name is of
Anglo-Saxon and
Viking origin and derives from an amalgamation of the
Old English and the
Old Norse for the island and the nook of land. In the
Domesday Book, Holme Hale is listed as a settlement of 5 households in the
hundred of South Greenhoe. In 1086, the village was divided between the
East Anglian estates of
King William I and
Ralph de Tosny. Bury's Hall was built in the parish in the Sixteenth Century and later expanded in later centuries. The building is the scene of a reported haunting of a priest who was murdered by
Roundheads during the
English Civil War. From 1795,
Stephen Watson's gibbet was located on
common land between
West Bradenham and Holme Hale. This remained hanging until at least October 1837, being the last gibbet to stand in Norfolk, and was at some point after this buried; it was discovered like this by H. Rider Haggard in 1899 and given to
Norwich Castle Museum.
Holme Hale Railway Station opened in 1875 as a stop on the
Watton and Swaffham Railway. The station closed in 1964 to both passengers and freight. == Geography ==