was first recorded in about 1275, and continued in importance for five hundred years. Early modern At the Reformation, there were four territorial parishes in the present parish area: Beachamwell St Mary, Beachamwell St John, Beachamwell All Saints and Shingham. However, St John's church did not survive. It was still in use in 1535, but abandoned by 1552. Despite this, because the priest-in-charge was a rector, he had a guaranteed income from the property, so a rector were appointed to the ruined church until 1723. The post was a sinecure. In about 1750, the antiquary Francis Blomefield paid a visit, and found that some poor people were living in huts within the ruin. All Saints’ church also seems to have fallen into decay, but it was restored in 1612 by Thomas Athow, the Lord of the Manor of Well-Hall, and the family used it as a mausoleum. However, it was abandoned in 1688 when the roof collapsed. The problem allegedly arose when the Athow family sold the manor, for the new Lord declined to accept responsibility for the upkeep of the whole church (the Lord of the Manor was responsible for the chancel only). The church was in ruins by 1721, and Blomefield was indignant about the dereliction when he visited around 1750. The three manors were consolidated into one country estate by 1760, based on Beachamwell Hall, which was rebuilt and provided with an ornamental deer-park. The Warren was enclosed by Act of Parliament in 1777; although rabbits were still reared, it was recorded in 1785 that much of the Warren had been arable farmland for some time. The Beachamwell Estate owned almost all the land in the Beachamwell and Shingham parishes, in the form of a few large tenant farms (there was only one in Shingham, called Shingham Farm). In 1765, the rector of St Mary's found two Nottingham alabaster relief sculptures under the floor of the church's chancel. Francis Blomefield saw these, and described them as painted and gilded. One depicted the Deposition from the Cross, and the other showed St Peter. These were probably from one or both of the two altars in the church in medieval times, and were hidden at the Reformation. Their present whereabouts seem to be unknown. In 1685 a Huguenot family named Motteux had fled Rouen in France for the City of London, in response to the Edict of Fontainebleau of