Ditchingham's name is of
Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the
Old English for the homestead or settlement of 'Dicca's' people. In the
Domesday Book, Ditchingham is listed as a settlement of 36 households in the
hundred of Lodding. In 1086, the village formed part of the
East Anglian estates of
King William I. In 1855, an Anglican convent known as the
Community of All Hallows was founded in Ditchingham by
Lavinia Crosse and
Reverend William E. Scudamore. The convent acted as a refuge for women in 'moral danger' and other destitute individuals. The community closed in 2018.
Lilias Rider Haggard's novel,
The Rabbit Skin Cap (1939) tells the life story of George Baldry, a local inventor and poacher. The picture on the front cover of the book is a painting by
Edward Seago of local schoolboy, Douglas Walter Gower. In later life, Gower discovered the tusk of a
woolly mammoth near the
long barrow on
Broome Heath which is now displayed in
Norwich Castle Museum. Much of the surrounding countryside is part of the estate centred on
Ditchingham Hall which was built in the 18th century and features gardens designed by
Capability Brown. The Hall is the ancestral seat of the
Earl Ferrers and is currently in the possession of Robert Shirley, 14th Earl Ferrers. In the Nineteenth Century, a
silk factory was built in Ditchingham which was later converted into a
maltings and later use as a depot for the
US Army during the
Second World War. The building was severely damaged by fire in 1999 and is now in residential use. ==Geography==