West Dereham Abbey

It was surrounded by a moat and was to become one of the larger religious houses in Norfolk, with up to twenty six canons in the late 13th century, and was also quite wealthy, with extensive estates.

Bishop Redman of Ely found several insufficiently taught; therefore he recalled Brother Robert Watton from the university, to be joined in office with the prior, and diligently to teach his brethren.

Leading up to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Thomas Cromwell's agent Sir John Prise reported in 1536: the canons were all lacking self-restraint, and were ready to confess themselves as such, longing to marry, and believing that the king had been divinely sent on earth to bring this about.

A house built on the site in the later 16th century was altered and extended in the 1690s by Thomas Dereham on his return from Italy, where he had been envoy to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

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