Fordham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a village or homestead close to a ford, likely across the River Great Ouse.

[1] The Parish of Fordham has been the site of discovery for several significant Bronze Age artefacts, including a hammer, a decorated sword and a socketed axehead.

The hall has a good example of a sixteenth-century priest hole, and was the site of a council convened by King Charles I during the English Civil War.

For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

The memorial takes the form of a stone cross atop an octagonal plinth, located on Denver's village green.