Dereham

Sister cities

• Rüthen
• Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf

History

Dereham's name derives from the Old English word "deor" meaning "deer" or "wild animal" with the very common "-ham" ("village", "homestead", or to denote land that is closed in by water or other geographical features), so perhaps it referred to a place where deer or other animals were kept or grazed. According to local tradition, Saint Wihtburh (aka Withburga), claimed to be the daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, founded a monastery there in the seventh century after seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary, although the Venerable Bede does not mention her, or her monastery, in his writings, despite reporting the story of her more famous sister Æthelthryth /Etheldreda of Ely. Apart from reference to it in the eleventh-century hagiography of Wihtburh, little is known of her foundation and no evidence survives today. An archaeological report by Norfolk County Council indicates that the first "documentary evidence" of a settlement in this area is a reference in one of the versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to the exhumation of the remains of St Wihtburh in AD 798, said to be 55 years after her death but that reference is an eleventh-century addition to the Chronicle. Nonetheless, there is evidence for an early ecclesiastical site at Dereham. The Domesday Book of 1086 states that in the eleventh century, "St Etheldreda held Dereham that was already an important market centre with three mills". The report adds that the growing community was centred around St. Nicholas Church, from the Norman era; the structure was altered during the 1200s, 1300s and 1400s. Because numerous medieval buildings were destroyed in fires during 1581 and 1679, the town appears to have a Georgian aspect. A Neolithic polished greenstone axe head was found near the town in 1986, with another…