BRANCASTER, a parish in the hundred of SMITHDON,
county of NORFOLK, 4 miles (W. N. W.) from
Burnham-Westgate, containing 770 inhabitants. The
living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Norfolk, and
diocese of Norwich, rated in the king's books at £24,
and in the patronage of the Duke of Beaufort. The church
is dedicated to St. Mary. Here was the Roman station
Brannodunwm, at which an eminent commander, styled
Count, or Earl, of the Saxon shore, presided over a troop
of Dalmatian cavalry, for the defence of the coast
against the Saxon invaders. The castle and station occupied
about eight acres of ground, a little westward
from the village, where numerous coins, vessels, and
other relics have been found. A considerable portion of
the materials was removed on the erection of a very
extensive malt-house, calledpre-eminently thegreatmalthouse,
three hundred and twelve feet in length, and
thirty-one in breadth, adjoining a quay, or staith for
ships, and all appearance of the station has been obliterated
by the ploughshare. A free school and two almshouses
were built by Robert Smith, about the close
of the sixteenth century, and endowed with land by his
sister: twenty-five boys are instructed, thirteen from
this parish, and the rest, in equal numbers, from Thornham,
Titchwell, and Burnham-Deepdale: the almshouses
now accommodate four poor widows.