A place with an unusual story, told by graphic panels. The small Norman chapel here stood on the site of an earlier timber church, probably the Saxon cathedral of East Anglia. In the 14th century it was converted into a fortified manor house by Henry Despenser, the unpopular Bishop of Norwich who brutally suppressed the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. (EH)
Formerly North Elmham, is a village upon the N. or left bank of the Wensum river, to the N. of East Dereham. The lands here seem to have always been ecclesiastical possessions, belonging to the diocese of East Anglia. In the eleventh year of Richard II., Bishop Spencer obtained a licence to fortify and crenellate his mansum, the site of which is still visible on the N. side of the village upon a rather commanding eminence. It occupies a corner in an enclosed intrenchment, containing about five acres, which has been thought to have originally formed a Roman camp. The inner ward of the work contained about two acres, and was surrounded with a deep ditch. There is still a good well of water here. Little is left to see except a few fragments of the walls, and little indeed is recorded about the history of the place. The lands formed the subject of an exchange made between Henry VIII. and Bishop Nix. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)
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