Great Massingham No. 2 / Dertford / Marsincha / Marsincham / Masinaham / Masincha / Masingham / Massingham Magna / Massingheham

Massingham has seven entries in the Domesday survey [under variant spellings] [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/great-and-little-massingham/] [accessed 21 November 2013], but mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "At the survey no distinction is made of the townships of Great and Little Massingham, so that it seems at that time to be undivided"; he does not give a date for the founding of the churches here, but notes: "Ivo the priest, seems to be rector of Massingham St. Mary, and AllSaints, in the time of William Turbus Bishop of Norwich". In his entry for Walsingham Priory, Harrod (1817) gives the period for Turbus' episcopalian mandate as "from 1146 to 1172], and the first edition (1883-1921) of the Dictionary of National Biography entry for "William de Turbe or Turbus (bishop of Norwich)" gives his death date as 1175. Furthermore, as Blomefield (ibid.) writes: "There being a dispute with the prior relating to the tithes of his manor, William Bishop of Norwich ordained that the prior should pay yearly to the churches of Massingham, for the tithes of their demean lands, &c.[...] and because it lay in two parishes of the churches of Massingham, the portion to be paid to the church of St. Mary, after the death of Yvo the priest, should be 10s. and the portion to that of All-Saints 5s. per ann. [...] This seems to be in the time of William Turbus, Bishop of Norwich, and before the year 1149, when William, the archdeacon, was dead. We therefore know that two churches existed in Massingham before 1149. Blomefield (ibid.) lists the rectors of St. Mary's all the way down the times, from the aforementioned "Ivo", rector of both, St. Mary's and All Saints' [aka All Hallows'], to the one who died at the time of Blomefield's writing in the 18th century. It appears from this list that, as of 1452, the two rectories are consolidated into St. Mary's, and the rectors' list for All Saints' stops with "William Gaweleston", who took office of All Saints' rectorate in 1427; the list stops after him. The Norfolk Heritage Explorer [www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?mnf14479] [accessed 21 November 2013], [NHER ref. no: 14479] notes: "All Saints' was the second parish church in Great Massingham, and was consolidated with St Mary's Church, NHER 2345, in the mid 15th century. The church was disused by the mid 16th century. The location of All Saints' is unknown although it may have been to the south of St Mary's Church".