Cawston contains a village hall and play park. There is a post office within a Costcutterconvenience store, a company producing food for Meals on Wheels, The Bell public house, a cafe with delicatessen, and a cemetery not attached to the parish church. Two business areas are on Chapel Street: Old Winery Business Park and Old Station Yard. Old Winery Business Park includes an English wine suppliers, a motorcycle service and spares company, and three companies for, variously, water tap making and drinking water filter systems. Old Station Yard includes a building services company. Cawston railway station closed in 1952; the line has been dismantled. The village school is Cawston Church of England Primary Academy on Aylsham Road. The Cawston Brass Band are based for practice at the St. Faiths Centre in the village of Horsham St Faith, south-east from Cawston. The parish forms part of the ward of Eynesford, which returns a councillor to Broadland District Council.
At the centre of the village is the chiefly 15th-century parish church of St Agnes, a Grade I listed building. The exterior spandrels in the west door of the church contains images of the Wild Man and dragon, above which is a frieze with the Wingfield and De la Pole arms. The interior of the church contains a brick paviour floor which is listed in the SPAB top 20 floors in the UK, and is suspected to be original medieval flooring. The floor is in a poor state of repair, especially under the medieval backless pews. The rood screen has its original doors and twenty paintings by Flemish artists of the 15th century. A further screen depicts angels with instruments such as bells, percussion instruments and pipes. There are three 15th-century misericords: one shows two women facing each other, another a portrait of a man, and the third, a stag's head surrounded by foliage.
Duel Stone
The Cawston monument to the 20 August 1698 duel between Sir Henry Hobart of Blickling Hall and Oliver Le Neve of Witchington Hall, Great Witchingham, stands in a small National Trust plot on Norwich Road. Le Neve, described as a great sportsman and a great drinker, fought left-handed and was wounded in the arm by Sir Henry who had a reputation as a swordsman. However, Le Neve struck back and injured his opponent so badly that he died next day at Blickling. As there appear to have been no seconds or witnesses, the duel was illegal. Le Neve fled to Holland but returned to England two years later, was tried and acquitted. This was the last duel fought in Norfolk.
Notable people
Matthew Fletcher was born 26 September 1990. He suffered from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, which killed him on 23 November 2006 at age 16. He lived all his life in Cawston. First diagnosed in November 2005, Fletcher achieved significance for his constant struggle against the illness while studying at Reepham High School, Norfolk, United Kingdom. He is credited for doing much to raise awareness for Leukaemia sufferers, particularly through his work with the Anthony Nolan Trust. His work and life earned him considerable attention in the local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press, often to the size of double-page-inside spreads. He recorded an audio diary for BBC Radio Norfolk. Extracts from this audio diary were played on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Pick of the Week" presented by Robin Lustig. The week before his death Fletcher was given the "Community Student of the Year" award from Reepham High School and a recorded video message from him was played to the school.
