 Prior to the Norman Conquest, Heacham was controlled by two Saxons, Alnoth, and Toki the king's thegn, whose estates were based around a hall in Castle Acre.After the Norman Conquest, the lands passed to William de Warenne and his brother-in-law Frederick de Warenne, who was later killed by Hereward the Wake.The name Heacham is more likely to have derived from the name of the river, the Hitch, in conjunction with the Old English word "ham", which meant either "homestead, village, manor, estate" or "enclosure, land hemmed by water or marsh or higher ground, land in a river bend, river meadow, promontory".