West Dereham,Norfolk
Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1831
West Dereham, a parish in the hundred of Clackclose, county of Norfolk, 3 1/4 mile (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 £35 per annum private benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and £500 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of 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 26th of Henry III, 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.
