Cawston is a considerable parish 2 miles East of Reepham and 4 miles W.S.W. of Aylsham comprising 1010 inhabitants.  4296A of land and the scattered hamlets of Eastgate, Southgate and Woodrow, the latter of which has a good Inn on the Norwich and Holt road one mile east of the village.

Three fairs are held here annually on February 1st and the last Wednesday in April and August, the latter of which is a sheep fair.

W.E.L. Bulwer esq. Owns a great part of the soil and is Lord of the Manor which he holds in free socage of the Duke of Lancaster in token of which he has carried before him on the court days a brass hand holding a plough share and a mace surmounted by a bearded arrow. In 1263 John de Burgh obtained a charter for a market here every Wednesday and a fair on October 1st and 2nd but these have long been obsolete.

The Church of St. Agnes is a noble cruciform structure of freestone with a fine square tower containing six bells. The whole built by Michael de la Pole (Earl of Suffolk) and Catherine, his wife except the North aisle. In the windows are some fragment of ancient stained glass and on the east wall of the south transept a painting of St. Agnes was discovered some years ago. The ancient screen still remains and its twenty lower panels have nearly obliterated paintings of saints, including a remarkable one of John Schorn holding a boot into which he has just "conjured the devil". The door of the screen has figures
of the four doctors of the church:- St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory and St. Augustine. The building has lately been restored. The Rectory valued in K.B. (Kings Bounty) at £15. 13s. 11d is in the gift of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge and incumbency of the Rev. Theodore Henry Marsh. M.A. who has a spacious
residence and a yearly rent charge of £1023 awarded in 1845 in lieu of tithes.

The Church land is 1a 3r. In a small planting near the Woodrow Inn is a monument in memory of Sir Henry Hobart who was killed there in a duel with Oliver Neve in 1698.

On the north side of the parish is Docking Farm, where it is said there was anciently a large village called Alvington. In 1818 Dr. Baker the late rector left £100, the interest to support a Sunday School. At the enclosure of the  Heath in 1802 an allotment of 106a was awarded to the parishioners for fuel.

There are two chapels belonging to the Wesleyans and the Primitive Methodists, the former built in 1829 and the latter in 1861. A National school is about to be erected. A Reading room and library were established here in 1863 and have about 50 members who pay 1s 6d each per quarter.