NHER 2890 (Building record) - St Nicholas' Church, Dereham

St Nicholas' church.
Very large and grand Norman church, extended in 13th century, alterations 14th to 15th centuries. Much altered 19th century. Detached bell tower 16th century. St Withburga's holy well in yard claimed as site of Middle Saxon nunnery.
See (S1).

1970s or 80s. Alan Carter Norwich Survey.
See (S2), which includes (S3).
T.E. Miller (NLA), 19 April 2006.

April 1979. Digging new path.
Medieval and post medieval sherds found.
A. Rogerson (NAU), 25 April 1979.

Summer 1980. Surface find.
Medieval pottery found.
A. Rogerson (NAU), 1980.

One headstone listed grade II in 1999; Church is grade I.
See (S4).

This is one of the sixty five Norfolk churches selected for (S5).
D. Gurney (NLA), 17 February 2006.

2008. English Heritage Tree ring dating.
35 timbers were sampled, but only three were successfully dated. The samples were from the 'A' timbers from the guttering on the east side of the roof and were felled in 1682-1706. It was not possible to say what function these beams have or what their relationship with the rest of the roof timbers is. If these beams were not reused, it demonstrates that work was being undertaken on the roof in the late seventeenth/ early eighteenth century.
See (S6) for further information
H. White (NLA), 4 December 2008.

August 2008.
Clock face restored.
See (S7).
H. White (NLA), 15 December 2008.

November 2009. Watching Brief.
Maintained during repairs to southern churchyard wall.
The excavation revealed rubble deposits which are probably the remains of former buildings. The excavation demonstrated that the former wall had been built onto the remains of these buildings and was likely to be of 20th century date. Floor surfaces exposed on the southern side of the wall could support a claim that there were once outdoor toilets associated with nearby cottages in this location. The presence of medieval and post-medieval pottery and animal bone included in the rubble deposits could indicate that there is older waste from a midden mixed with the rubble and that this could have come from an earlier building. A second deposit of oyster shells, used as painting palettes, and high status faunal remains such as wild game could have been associated with the church rather than the near by cottages. Antler and ivory knife handles also suggest higher status remains. The pottery assemblage was mostly domestic wares with a single sherd of Chinese porcelain also indicating high status. A number of clay smoking pipes of 17th to 19th century date were also recovered.
See report (S8) for further details. Work also noted in (S10).
S. Howard (HES), 1 March 2011.

NIAS records.
After World War I a committee was held in Dereham to decide upon a memorial for the fallen. The committee settled on a carved oak rood screen to be set in the parish church and engraved with the names of the fallen which was unveiled in 1921. This was met with objection by many who were either non-conformists or non-church goers, who protested for an outdoor memorial.
The stone memorial in the market place (NHER 53134) was erected in 1922.
See (S9)
W. Arnold (HES), 21 February 2011.

There is a Listed headstone, 1721, limestone. Rectangular headstone with scrolled bifurcated top in the centre of which is incised skull. Inscription below commemorating Edward Williams.
The yard also includes a headstone for Jean de Narde of France, 1799, a Napoleonic prisoner of war. The detached bell tower was used as a prison.
D. Gurney (HES), 02 February 2012.

March 2013. Observations
The south porch of the church is extraordinary in several ways. It has a pair of holy water stoops flanking the entrance and in the spandrels of the entrance arch a very well-presrved and deeply carved Annunciation. The diagonal buttresses are very remarkable. Their truncated form is owing to the fact that each buttress supported 4-sided free standing pinnacles or possibly obelisks. The positions of these can just be detected. The corners of the porch were built with a wide chamfer to allow for a crocketted pinnacle. Just above the entrance is a shalllow inscription which is difficult to decipher.

The doorway into the church has 13th-century shafts supporting a semicircular roll-moulded arch. There is a trilobe typmanum, like the Monk's Door at Ely, with a pair of heads at the springing points turned to see the entering visitor.

The niches to the sides of the west doorway have fine ogee heads. Only that to the south has cusping whilst the northern niche is rebated and has the remains of iron hinges for a cupboard or grill. It may have been built to house a valuable sculpture which could be seen through a grill which kept it secure or else in a cupboard which was opened only at certain times.
S. Heywood (HES), 19 March 2013.

June 2013. Watching Brief.
Maintained during construction of a supporting buttress for the south side of the southern church wall.
The relatively small trench excavated for the buttress revealed no archaeologically-significant features or deposits. The loose, much-disturbed topsoil at this location contained fragments of brick, tile and large flint cobbles – all likely to be debris from the row of houses that had stood at this location prior to their demolition at some point during the 20th century.
See report (S11) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.188).
P. Watkins (HES), 16 June 2022.