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Dereham (East) in Norfolk County England History and GeographyDEREHAM (EAST), a market town and parish in the hundred of MITFORD, county of NORFOLK, 17 miles (W.N.W.) from Norwich, and 101 (N.E. by N.) from London, containing 3244 inhabitants, and, including the hamlet of Dillington, in the hundred of Launditch, 3273. This place, anciently called Deerham, from the number of deer by which it was frequented, and distinguished by its adjunct from a village of the same name, is of very remote antiquity. During the Heptarchy, Withburga, youngest daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, founded a monastery here, of which she became prioress, and dying in 743, was buried in the church-yard; her remains, in 798, were removed into the conventual church, and after the destruction of the monastery by the Danes, were, in 974, translated to Ely, where they were enshrined with those of her sisters, in the cathedral church of that city. A spring, to which miraculous cures were attributed, is said to have risen up in that part of the church-yard where she was first interred, which is now a public bath; the Norman arch with which it was covered is still carefully preserved. In 1581, the town suffered severely from fire, and in 1679 the greater part of it was by a similar calamity reduced to ashes. It is pleasantly situated nearly in the centre of the county, and within the last century has been so materially improved by widening and levelling the streets, as to render it one of the handsomest market towns in Norfolk: it is paved with pebbles; the houses are in general neatly built, and of modern appearance, and the inhabitants are amply supplied with excellent water: in the centre of the town is a handsome obelisk, erected by Sir Edward Astley, Bart. The theatre, a small but neat building of brick, is opened every alternate year by a regular company of performers: a book club has been established under good regulations, and is patronised by the most respectable inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood; and on the site of the ancient market cross, a handsome assembly-room has been erected by subscription. The market is on Friday, for corn, general provisions, cattle, and pigs, for which last it is the most considerable mart in the county: the fairs are on the Thursday and Friday before Old Midsummer-day, and on the Thursday and Friday before Old Michaelmas-day, for cattle, sheep, and toys. The county magistrates hold a petty session for the division every alternate week; and a court baron and court leet are held annually by the lord of the manor. The living is a vicarage with the perpetual curacy of Hoe, in the archdeaconry of Norfolk, and diocese of Norwich, rated in the king's books at £17. 3. 4½., and in the patronage of the Crown: there is also a rectory, rated at £41. 3. 1½. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, formerly the conventual church of the monastery of St. Withburga, and made parochial in 798, is a spacious cruciform structure, partly in the Norman and partly in the early style of English architecture, with a tower rising from the intersection, and open for a considerable height to the interior of the church: connected with the transepts were the chapels of the Holy Cross, over which was the treasury of St. Withburga, St. Mary, and St. Edmund; in the chancel is an ancient eagle on a pedestal of brass, supported on three small lions. The roof on the north side is supported by clustered, and on the south by round massive, columns; the font is beautifully sculptured with representations of the four Evangelists, eight of the Apostles, the Crucifixion, and the Seven Sacraments of the Romish church: in the south transept is an antique chest of oak, richly carved, taken from Buckingham castle, in which are deposited the records of the church and parish. Among the monuments is a white marble tablet to the memory of Cowper the poet, who resided in this place for the last nine years of his life, and was interred in the church. The bells, which were supposed to endanger the tower, have been removed into a detached building called the New Clocher, erected for that purpose in the church-yard. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school, for children of both sexes, is supported by subscription. Mr. Aaron Williamson, in 1710, left by will some houses and land for apprenticing two poor boys of the parish; and there are several charitable bequests for distribution among the poor. Bishop Bonner was rector of this parish from 1534 to the year 1540. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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