DEREHAM (WEST), a parish in the hundred of
CLACKCLOSE, county of NORFOLK, 3 miles (W. by N.)
from Stoke-Ferry, containing 520 inhabitants. The
living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of
Norfolk, and diocese of Norwich, endowed with £33
per annum private benefaction, £4.00 royal bounty, and
£500 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the
Rev. C. L. Jenyns. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew,
has at the west end a large round tower, built of ragstone,
upon which another of brick has been erected,
of an octagonal form, embattled and coped. Another
church, which was dedicated to St. Peter, formerly stood
here, but no traces of it are discernible. An abbey
for Premonstratensian canons was founded in 1188,
to the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Hubert,
Dean of York, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury;
it was valued, in the C26th of Henry VIII., at
£252. 12. 11. There are considerable remains of this
once stately structure, particularly the gate-house, a lofty
quadrangular pile of brick, embattled, from each angle
of which rises an octagonal tower, groined with freestone;
over the arched entrance is a shield, bearing the
arms of the abbey.