Paston is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is north-east of North Walsham and south-east of Cromer. It is north-east of the city of Norwich. The village sits astride the coast road between Mundesley and Bacton. The nearest railway station is at North Walsham for the Bittern Line which runs between Sheringham, Cromer and Norwich. The nearest airport is Norwich International.
The village gives its name to the Pastonian Stage, a British regional subdivision of the Pleistocene Epoch. The village was served by Paston & Knapton railway station on the North Walsham to Cromer section of the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway from 1881 until 1964.
History
The manor of Paston is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Pastuna from the Roman name Terra Pastorini ("Shepherds' Land"), one of the many English holdings of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. The listing mentions the church and a mill. From about 1400, it was dominated by the de Paston family (later Paston), who had taken their surname from their seat. Clement Paston was sufficiently wealthy to have his son William Paston (1378–1444) educated as a lawyer and he later become a judge. The family went on to acquire lands throughout the county of Norfolk and became wealthy and part of the county gentry. Indeed, there is an old saying in Norfolk that "There was never a Paston poor, a Heydon a coward or a Cornwallis a fool". The Paston family are remembered today mostly for the Paston Letters, a rare surviving collection of fifteenth-century private and business letters. In 1597, Sir William Paston (1528–1610) moved the main family seat to Oxnead. The last Paston in the male line was William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth (d.1732). The Paston estate was then acquired by Baron Anson, passing in the early nineteenth century to the Mack family.
Archaeological test pits were dug in 2012. The report was published online.
Parish church of Saint Margaret
The parish church of Saint Margaret dates from the 14th century and is constructed from flint. English Heritage has given it Grade I listed building status. It has an embattled tower which looks down on a thatched roof. The porch is on the south side and opens into a plain nave and chancel which is divided by a 15th-century rood screen. The church has been restored three times, in 1601, 1843 and 1869. In 1922 medieval wall paintings were uncovered, one depicting Saint Christopher carrying the Christ child, another depicting the legend of the three kings who, when hunting merrily in the forest, suddenly encountered three hanging skeletons. There is also a small figure from a 'weighing of souls' and the remains of some post-Reformation texts.
The Paston family monuments are situated at the eastern end of the building. That of Katherine Knevet/Knyvett (d.1628) (the wife of Sir Edmund Paston (d.1632)) stands on the north side of the chancel. This was created by Nicholas Stone, master-mason to King Charles I, who was frequently employed by the Paston family. It includes a verse epitaph written by the famous metaphysical poet John Donne, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The monument is made of alabaster and pink-veined marble and features a semi-recumbent effigy of Lady Paston sculpted in white marble and surrounded by numerous allegorical figures. Stone also designed the adjoining monument to her husband Sir Edmund Paston (d.1632), comprising a plain urn on a bare base in an aedicule of black Doric columns. Pevsner commented: "the contrast between the severity of the one and the ebullience of the other is startling". The chancel also contains three chest tombs, the one at the eastern end probably of John Paston (d.1466) who was originally buried in Bromholm Priory following a magnificent funeral at which were consumed forty barrels of ale.
Surviving monuments to the Mack family include stained glass windows and memorial plaques within the nave. The east window in memory of John Mack (d.1867) of Paston Hall was made by the firm of Clayton and Bell. The south window next to the doorway of the rood loft is dedicated to Lt Cdr Ralph Michael Mack of the Royal Navy who went down with his ship HMS Tornado off the Dutch coast in 1917.