[8] The gatehouse itself – "the finest in Norfolk and a smaller copy of that at Thornton Abbey"[9] – dates from the 14th century and is a three-storey multi-unit lodging built of flint rubble with Barnack stone dressing.

[10] Pentney Priory became the centre of a religious and political controversy in the 1160s when Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, took the opportunity during the anarchic reign of King Stephen to seize its considerable lands, claiming the right under a weakness in the details of a property agreement between his father and Roger de Vaux.

This created a tension between Henry, who opposed the interdict, and the Bishops of London and Norwich, who with the support of Thomas Becket were expected to enforce it.

[11] In 1280, Archbishop John Peckham conducted a stringent visitation of the Priory as part of a crackdown on misconduct at religious institutions in the Norwich diocese.

[15] The church of St Mary Magdalene has stood on this site since Norman times and was originally built as a small chapel with an apse.

[17] In 1978, an East Dereham gravedigger, William King, found six silver Saxon brooches while digging a grave at the church.

Authorised by an Act of 1751, the river was opened for barge traffic, with ten staunches constructed, from King's Lynn to Narborough, a little east of Pentney.

[21] More recently a short documentary[22] follows the story and identity of the poacher, said to be Fred Rolfe who ended his life by suicide in Bungay, Suffolk.

For Westminster elections the parish forms part of the North West Norfolk constituency, represented by James Wild (Conservative).