ACLE, a parish in the hundred of WALSHAM,
county of NORFOLK, 11 miles (E.) from Norwich, containing
698 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in
the archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich, rated in the
king's books at £20, and in the patronage of Lord Calthorpe.
The church is dedicated to St. Edmund. The
village is situated on a gentle eminence, on the banks
of the navigable river Bure, near its junction with the
Yare. A stone bridge of one arch, called Waybridge,
forms here an important pass, there being no other
bridge between this and the mouth of the Yare. At
the Conquest Acle became a fief of the Crown, and was
granted by the Conqueror to Roger Bigod, who obtained
for it the privilege of a market and fair; and further
advantages, including freedom from all tolls, and suits
of shire and of hundred, were bestowed on the inhabitants
by Richard II. At Waybridge a small priory of
Augustine canons was founded by Roger Bigod, Earl of
Norfolk, in the reign of Edward I.; at the dissolution
the revenue was £7 13. 4.