East Barsham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for the eastern part of Bar's village.

[1] In the Domesday Book, East and West Barsham are listed together as a settlement of 104 households in the hundred of Gallow.

The house was an important stopping point for wealthy pilgrims travelling to the Shrine at Walsingham and was used for this purpose by King Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.

[3] The White Horse Inn dates from the Eighteenth Century and is Grade II listed.

The village's national constituency is Broadland and Fakenham which has been represented by the Conservative Party's Jerome Mayhew MP since 2019.