found in the 19th century. A site near the village called Decoy Close revealed a Roman cemetery with five burials, and also a rich assemblage of finds from the Neolithic through all eras into the Mediaeval. Saxons The Devil's Dyke is a linear bank and ditch running in an almost straight line from Narborough to near Oxborough, parallel to the western boundary of the parish, and this is postulated as an early Saxon boundary marker. The date is not conclusive, however. The “Decoy Close” site mentioned above is postulated as an early Saxon burial ground owing to the richness of the metalwork finds here, but no burials have been found yet. The church of St Mary is described as originally late Saxon, although the listed building description does not commit as to whether any of the surviving fabric is of this date. The Domesday Book of 1086 listed three Saxon settlements in the present parish: Bicham (Beacham), Wella (Well) and Shingham. There was a church in Bicham, taken to be St Mary's. Wella had two mills and was around the later church of All Saints, which was not mentioned in Domesday – although a fragment of a Saxon stone cross was found incorporated into later fabric here. These two places were in the Hundred of Clackclose. Shingham was very small, with two households. Its settlement was in the Hundred of Clackclose, but part of the parish was in the Hundred of South Greenhow with the brook running through it being the boundary. Medieval Beacham and Well consolidated to become Beachamwell when the settlements became contiguous in the early Middle Ages. Deserted medieval village earthworks around the All Saints church ruin, and in what is now Nut Wood, indicate that the resulting village was at least twice the size that it is now. There were three manors, called Well-Hall, Chervile’s and Ashfield and Joce’s; the latter two were named after families which had held them. Chervile's Manor included that part of Shingham in the Clackclose Hundred, and also had St Mary's Church. All Saints’ church was built in the 12th century, as was Shingham church. However St John's seems to have been a later foundation, since the first rector (priest in charge) was recorded in 1304 and the surviving fabric is of that period. It was attached to Well-Hall Manor. The farming of rabbits on an industrial scale at Beachamwell Warren