The place-name 'Rishangles' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Risangra in the ancient hundred of Hartismere.

Edward Grimston was well-connected, and his third marriage (1471) to Philippa, daughter of John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft and sister of the Earl of Worcester was held in the presence of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister of Kings Edward IV and Richard III.

[4] Located around seven miles south of Diss, in 2005 its population was 80.

[1] At the 2011 the population was included in the civil parish of Bedingfield.

Despite its small population the village is at one time believed to have been home to three churches.