CAISTOR-near-YARMOUTH, a parish in the
eastern division of the hundred of FLEGG, county of
NORFOLK, IQi miles (E.) from Norwich, containing 772
inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, with the rectory
of St. Edmund consolidated, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Norwich, rated in the king's books at £10,
and m-the patronage of John Steward, Esq. The church
is dedicated to St. Edmund. The name is evidently
a corrupted Saxonism of Castrum, it being clear, from
the visible remains of fortifications and the discovery of
numerous coins, that the Romans had a camp here,
opposite to, and connected with, Garianonum. The manor
was anciently in the possession of the family of
Fastolf; and Sir John Fastolf, a celebrated warrior and
estimable man, whose character some consider Shakspeare
to have pervertedly drawn in his Sir John Falstaff,
was born here. He was the founder of the castle,,
which at his death, in the 38th of Henry VI., he requested
should be kept as a college for priests and an
hospital for poor men: but it was besieged some time
afterwards by the Duke of Norfolk, at the head of three
thousand men, under the pretence of having purchased
it, to whom the defenders were compelled to surrender
it: it was supposed to be one of the oldest brick mansions
in the kingdom, but is now in ruins. Caistor was
formerly divided into two parishes, Castor Trinity and
Castor St. Edmund's, which were consolidated September
22nd, 1608; the church belonging to the former
has been suffered to fall into ruins. A line of sand-hills,
called the Meals, or Marum Hills, commences here, and
extends, with occasional interruptions, to Hapsbury
Point, where two lighthouses have been erected, and
thence to Cromer bay.