Page:History of Norfolk 1.djvu/256

 I know not, and which is remarkable, it never altered its spelling from the Conqueror's time to this day, for in Domesday  we find it the same. In the Confessor's time Lopham was two distinct towns and different manors, Lopham-Magna, now North Lopham, belonged to Ofl, a freeman, his manor having three carucates of land in demean, and the other Lopham, called afterwards LophamParva, and now South Lopham, belonged to Alsius, a freeman, whose manor then contained two carucates in demean. This Alsius had a manor in Norton, which in the Conqueror's days he joined to this, making it a berewic to it, after which it came into the Conqueror's hands, who gave them to Roger Bygot Earl of Norfolk, who joined the two Lophams, and granted off the Norton part to Alured an Englishman; from this time Lopham hath continued as one manor to this day, though they are two distinct parishes, each having their separate bounds and officers.

Roger Bygot, who was possessed of this manor at the survey, died in 1107, and was buried in the abbey of Thetford, which he had built, leaving William, his son and heir, who gave the church of Lopham to the monks of Thetford,  in the time of Henry I. which was appropriated and then confirmed to that house,  with all its appurtenances, by King Henry II. This was South Lopham church, which by its conventual form, and Gothick tower, was in all likelihood built at this time, and it is probable some of those monks had a cell here, and served it for some time, and this is the reason that this church never