North Elmham Chapel, North Elmham, Norfolk
In the late Saxon period North Elmham was the main seat of the Bishops of East Anglia and the centre of a great church estate. Excavations have revealed evidence for an earlier timber structure, probably the Anglo-Saxon cathedral, which went out of use when the seat of the Bishop was transferred to Thetford in 1071. Some time between 1091 and 1119 Bishop Herbert de Losinga founded a new parish church for the village and built a small private chapel for his own use on the site of the old timber church. This image is a reconstruction drawing of the chapel in c1100. In the 14th century, Bishop Henry le Despencer held the manor of North Elmham. He turned the chapel into a house and in 1388 obtained a royal licence to fortify it. He was not a popular man, especially in Norfolk where he was despised for his merciless quashing of the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. These fortifications suggests he felt ill at ease among his tenants. There is no record of any bishop occupying the site after Henry’s death in 1406 though manorial courts continued to be held there. When Elmham passed into the hands of the notorious Thomas Cromwell the ‘castle’ site was assigned to the vicarage and gradually fell into ruin. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2011). Read more.
