BALE is a parish 2 miles north-east from Thursford station on the King’s Lynn and Melton Constable section of the Midland and Great Northern joint railway, about 8 north-east from Fakenham and 5 west from Holt, in the Northern division of the county, Holt hundred and petty sessional division, Walsingham union and county court district, rural deanery of Holt, archdeaconry of Lynn and diocese of Norwich. The church of All Saints is an edifice of flint, with stone dressings, in the Later English and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, , nave, north transept, south porch and an embattled western tower containing. 5 bells, re-hung, and two re­cast, in 1903. at a cost of £150: the window on the south side of the chancel is filled with ancient stained glass and in the chancel is a piscina; a new reredos was provided in 1894 at a cost of £95; the church was repaired and re-pewed in 1863-4, and has 150 sittings. The register dates from the year 1538. The living is a discharged rectory, annexed to that of Gunthorpe, net yearly value £589, with 38 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the trustees of the late Henry Bowyer Sparke esq. and held since 1922 by the Rev. Frederic A. Chase M.A. of Pembroke College, Cambridge. The rectory is a good mansion of brick, and was erected in 1872. There was formerly a chapel dedicated to St. Botolph. Charities amounting to £7 annually are dis­tributed to the poor of the parish in blankets. Sir Lawrence John: Jones, bart. is lord of the manor, and the trustees of H. B. Sparke esq. are the chief landowners. The soil is mixed; subsoil, chiefly clay. The chief crops are wheat and turnips. The area is 1,067 acres; rateable value, £1,362; the population in 1921 was 233.
Sexton, Frank Preston.
Post Office.—Herbert W. Long, sub-postmaster. Letters through Melton Constable, Norfolk. Field Dalling, 2 miles distant, is the nearest money order & telegraph Office
The children of this place attend the schools at Gunthorpe & Field Dalling
Chase Rev Frederic A., M.A.(rector), Rectory
Hammond Arthur, Manor farm
Hammond John, Church house
COMMERCIAL.
Bennell Charles William. shopkeeper
Draper Edith (Mrs.), Oak Inn
Hammond Arthur, farmer
Hammond John M.R.C.V.S. veterinary surgeon & inspector under the. Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, Church house
Lacey William, farmer
Lake Harry, shopkeeper
Long Herbt. W. blacksmith, Post off
Preston James. farmer. Glebe farm
Riches Wm. Horace.farmer, Hall farm
Sands Charles, farmer
Spooner James Claude, farmer & landowner
Williamson Robert, farmer