View E of St Withburga's Well, St Nicholas Church & detached bell tower, East Dereham, Norfolk, England, UK. Traditional site of a C7th convent.


View E of St Withburga's Well, St Nicholas Church & detached bell tower, East Dereham, Norfolk, England, UK. Traditional site of a convent founded in the C7th by Withburga, youngest daughter of King Anna of East Anglia, but West Dereham has rival claim. Her burial in the churchyard c. 743, or her enshrinement in the church 50 years later, reputedly created the miraculous sunken spring. In 974, Abbot Brithnoth & his monks stole her incorrupt body to inter it near her three royal sisters already at Ely. The present church is Norman in origin, but mainly Decorated & Perpendicular Gothic: parts of chancel are C13th, the central tower mostly C14th on Norman foundations, the S porch C15th, the detached bell tower early C16th.


Size: 4961px × 3760px
Location: St Nicholas' Church, East Dereham, Swaffam, Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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