This is a place with an unusual story.
In the late Saxon period North Elmham was the principal seat of the Bishops of East Anglia and the centre of a great episcopal estate.
Excavations have revealed evidence for an earlier timber structure, probably the Anglo-Saxon cathedral, which went out of use when the seat of the Bishop was transferred to Thetford in 1071.
Some time between 1091 and 1119 Bishop Herbert de Losinga founded a new parish church for the village and built a small private chapel for his own use on the site of the old timber church. The private chapel was built mainly from blocks of local dark brown conglomerate rock with courses of large flints and a limestone dressing.
In the 14th century, Bishop of Norwich - Henry le Despencer - held the manor of North Elmham. He turned the chapel into a manor house and in 1388 obtained a royal licence to fortify. He was not a popular man, especially in Norfolk where he was despised for his merciless quashing of the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, maybe this is the reason for the fortification?
There is no record of any bishop occupying the site after Henry’s death in 1406 though manorial courts continued to be held there. When Elmham passed into the hands of the notorious Thomas Cromwell the ‘castle’ site was assigned to the vicarage and gradually fell into ruin.
Негізгі бет North Elmham Chapel Ruin
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