WIGGENHALL-ST. MARY-MAGDALENE, a parish, with a village, in Downham district, Norfolk; on the river Ouse, at Watlington r. station, and 6 miles SSW of Lynn. Post town, Lynn. Acres, 4,248. Real property, £8,895. Pop., 825. Houses, 181. The property is subdivided. About three-fourths of the area are fen, drained by a steam-engine of 40 horse-power. An Augustinian nunnery, a cell to Castle-Acre, was founded here in 1181. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £270.* Patron, Rev. W. B. Dalby. The church is ancient. There are Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a national school.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))