WYMONDHAM (pronounced

See also:

• WINDHAM, WILLIAM (1750-1810)

Windham)  , a market town in the mid-parliamentary division of Norfolk, England, ro m . S.W. of Norwich by the Great Eastern railway . Pop . (19o1) 4764 . The church of St Mary the Virgin rises on an eminence on the outskirts of the town . It was attached to a Benedictine priory, founded about the beginning of the 12th century as a cell of St Albans abbey by William de Albini . In 1448 this foundation became an abbey . The nave is of ornate Norman work, with a massive triforium, surmounted by a Perpendicular clerestory and a beautiful wooden roof . The broad N. aisle is Perpendicular, and has also a very fine rood screen . At the W. end there is a lofty and graceful Perpendicular tower . The choir, which was used as the conventual church, has left only slight traces, and one arch is standing of a large chapel which adjoined it on the S . In the centre of the town is a picturesque half-timbered market cross (1616), with an octagonal upper chamber raised on massive pillars of wood .

A chapel, dedicated to St

Thomas of Canterbury, is used as a grammar school . At Wymondham on the 7th of July a festival was formerly held in honour of the saint . It was at this festival in 1549 that the rebellion of Robert Ket or Kett came to a head .