DEREHAM (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 bathj
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. 4., and
in the patronage of the Crown; there is also a rectory,
rated at £41. 3. 1. 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 Englisli 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 j 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 17103 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.