Pulham Saint Mary is a rural village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

, that lies next to the village of

Pulham Market Pulham Market is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, situated approximately northeast of Diss and south of Norwich. It covers an area of and had a population of 999 in 443 households as of the 2001 census, the population falling to 977 at ...

. It is situated approximately northeast of Diss and south of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

, covers an area of and a population of 892 at the 2011 census.

History

The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, which gives the village the St Mary in its name, is believed to date from around 1258. The parish church is of flint construction with parts that date back to the thirteenth century. Older maps and documents name the parish or village "Pulham Saint Mary the Virgin" - the latter two words are in modern times dropped, and Saint is typically abbreviated. The neighbouring parish and village, now called

, was historically known as "Pulham Saint

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

" after the dedication of its parish church. The earliest recorded spelling is Polleham
Pulham
is referenced in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as a single manor (Pulham St Mary with what is today called Pulham Market) and being part of th
Earsham
hundred. The name Pulham is thought to mean the farmhouse, homestead or enclosure by the pool, water meadow or stream. There is a 'beck' (Norfolk dialect for a small watercourse) that flows by both villages. In modern times the two villages of Pulham St Mary and Pulham Market are often together described as ''The Pulhams'', including on road signs in the surrounding areas. The

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

may have had a settlement in Pulham St Mary as pieces of Roman tile, coin and oyster shells have been found in the area. The village was well known in medieval times as a centre for hat-making, and the ancient Guild of St James the Lesser established the Guild Chapel, now forming part of The Pennoyer Centre. The nearest railway station is Diss. Until its closure in 1953,

Pulham St Mary railway station Pulham St Mary was a station in Pulham St Mary Pulham Saint Mary is a rural village and civil parish in Norfolk, that lies next to the village of Pulham Market. It is situated approximately northeast of Diss and south of Norwich, covers a ...

was a stop on the Waveney Valley Line; the station has since been demolished and the railway has been lifted. The village was struck by an F0/T1 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day. Another tornado had earlier struck Pulham Market.

RNAS Pulham and the "Pulham Pigs"

In 1912 under conditions of secrecy a large base,

RNAS Pulham RNAS Pulham (later RAF Pulham) was a Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) airship station, near Pulham St Mary south of Norwich, UK. Though land was purchased by the Admiralty in 1912 the site was not operational until 1915. From 1918 to 1958, the ...

, was constructed for the operation of

airships An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

. The airships were locally given the nickname of "Pulham Pigs". RNAS Pulham operated as a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

base until 1918 when it was transferred to the new

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. In 1917 two large steel-framed sheds were erected and in 1919 a -high mooring mast joined them. Following its historic both-way Atlantic crossing the R34 returned to Pulham. The large rigid airships R33, R36 and

R38 The ''R.38'' class (also known as the ''A'' class) of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were ...

also visited. The base's

airship hangar Airship hangars (also known as airship sheds) are large specialized buildings that are used for sheltering airships during construction, maintenance and storage. Rigid airships always needed to be based in airship hangars because weathering was a ...

was dismantled in 1928 and re-erected at Cardington. In the early 1920s a radio

direction finding Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio stati ...

station was located there that helped give accurate position reports for aircraft flying to

Croydon airport Croydon Airport (former ICAO code: EGCR) was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. Located in Croydon, South London, England, it opened in 1920, built in a Neoclassical style, and was developed as Britain's main airp ...

. The base became disused in the early 1930s after the crash of the

R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air M ...

when all work stopped in Britain on airships, although it continued as an RAF property until 1958. During World War II it was a dump for crashed aircraft from all over the east of England; parts were salvaged for reuse. Munitions testing was also conducted on the site.

Transport

The 38A bus service run by

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Harleston and

City Centre, passing through the village.

The Pennoyer Centre

In 1670 William Pennoyer, a puritan merchant, left money to pay for a schoolmaster to teach poor children in the village. (Pennoyer also left money to establish a scholarship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in the USA, which remains in place today.) St James Guild Chapel - geograph

The school was significantly expanded in the Victorian period. When the school finally closed in 1988, it was the longest-running free elementary school in the country. Most primary-age children in the village now attend the school in neighbouring

, and a cycle path built for this purpose runs adjacent to the road connecting the two villages. The Victorian frontage of the building concealed a listed medieval Guild Chapel dating from 1401, making it an expensive proposition for renovation and alternative use. Pennoyer's thus lay unused for almost two decades. In 2006, however, the building was entered in the third series of the BBC's ''

Restoration Village ''Restoration'' was a set of BBC television series where viewers decided on which listed building that was in immediate need of remedial works was to win a grant from Heritage Lottery Fund. It first aired in 2003. The host of all three series w ...

'' programme in an attempt to secure the necessary funds to transform the building into a new village centre. Although Pennoyer's School did not make the final of Restoration Village, the project remained on track, receiving almost £1m in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £210,000 from Norfolk's Investing in Communities programme. Construction work began in February 2009, and The Pennoyer Centre, complete with a 21st Century extension, and new facilities such a cafe and internet suite, opened in July 2010 for education, business, social and recreational use. The parish council meet there.

References

External links

Pulham St Mary Parish CouncilThe Pennoyer Centre
(including local & airship history) {{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk