Originally, Hockwold was located next to the river. However, after the black plague infected the village, it was burnt down and relocated a mile to the north.
Hockwold Hall is an Elizabethan house on the site of an earlier manor. The manor of Hockwold is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Hockwold Hall, with origins in the late 15th century, is a Tudor manor house with a substantial extension built by a Royal Prince at the end of the 19th century. Sir William Tyndall is recorded as owning the Estate in 1489. The royalist Arthur Heveningham lived at the Hall until 1657: his brother, William Heveningham, was one of the regicides of Charles I, and his daughter Abigail married John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol. Sir Cyril Wyche, a founder member of the Royal Society, took over the estate in 1688 and lived there until 1707. Prince Victor Duleep Singh, the eldest son of the last Maharaja of Lahore, a godson of Queen Victoria, came to live at Hockwold Hall in 1895.
The village is rumoured to be haunted by several ghosts. The gates of Hockwold Hall are said to be haunted by the White Lady, a cause of distraction to many drivers on their way through the village, while the Little Ouse River that runs past the village is rumoured to be haunted by a group of nuns and a horseman.
An important Roman hoard of silver tableware and coins was found in Hockwold in 1962. It is now part of the Roman-British collections at the British Museum.
If anybody would like to expand this series please do. I would just ask that you let Smokeypugs know first so they can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication.