Stoke Holy Cross is a village in

South Norfolk South Norfolk is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Long Stratton. The population of the Local Authority District was 124,012 as taken at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 ...

which lies approximately 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 ...

Geography

Stoke sits on the

River Tas The River Tas is a river which flows northwards through South Norfolk in England - towards Norwich. The area is named the Tas Valley after the river. The name of the river is back-formed from the name of village of Tasburgh (E. Ekwall, English-R ...

. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,568 in 674 households at the 2001 census. The village is accessed from the south of Norwich, about a mile east of the

A140 The A140 is an 'A-class' road in Norfolk and Suffolk, East Anglia, England partly following the route of the Roman Pye Road. It runs from the A14 near Needham Market to the A149 south of Cromer. It is of primary status for the entiret ...

. West of the village, the parish boundary meets

Swainsthorpe Swainsthorpe is a village in the English County of Norfolk in England. It lies on the A140 road, approximately 5 miles south of Norwich, and just north of Newton Flotman. It covers an area of and had a population of 374 in 159 households at ...

along ''Stoke Lane''. The boundar
crosses
the A140 and the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...

as
Hickling Lane
'. North o
Sprow's Pits
it meets Swardeston, and passes west of an electricit
substation
The boundary follows the A140 northwards, to the west, and east of Mangreen Hall. A few hundred metres south of the A140/A47 interchange it meets

Caistor St Edmund Caistor St Edmund is a village and former civil parish on the River Tas, in Norfolk, England. The parish covers an area of and had a population of 270 people in 116 households at the 2001 Census which increased to 289 people by the 2011 Cens ...

, where the parish includes the Mangree
quarry
owned by Lafarge. It crosses the A140 and the railway to meet the River Tas, which it follows southwards, with Dunston (part of the parish) to the west including Dunston Hall and the Dunston Hall Golf Club. It follows
Chandler Road
', part of

Boudica's Way Boudica's Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in East Anglia, England, United Kingdom. It is in length and runs from Norwich to Diss, near the border with Suffolk, and follows close to Roman roads and passes through Caistor St. ...

, eastwards and north of Notre Dame Wood. It passes north of Highfield Farm and Narborough House, and Upper Stoke (part of the parish). It passes on the western edge of the transmittin
station
(a forme
radar station
, and at ''Stoke Road'' it meets Poringland. South of Upper Stoke, it passes through Brickle Wood and along the western edge, and follows
Brickle Wood
' through Abbot's Farm and meets

Shotesham Shotesham () is a village in South Norfolk which lies approximately 5 miles south of Norwich. It sits next to Stoke Holy Cross and Saxlingham Nethergate in the valley of the River Tas. It covers an area of and had a population of 539 in 210 h ...

. It follows Willow Brook to the south of Warren Plantation. It passes to the south-west o
Maltkin Farm
meeting Swainsthorpe east of Swainsthorpe Hall.

History

The villages name means 'outlying farm/settlement'. 'Holy Cross' from the dedication of the church. Stoke Holy Cross Mill - geograph

Stoke Holy Cross mill, to the west of the village, was the location from which

Colman's Colman's is an English manufacturer of mustard and other sauces, formerly based and produced for 160 years at Carrow, in Norwich, Norfolk. Owned by Unilever since 1995, Colman's is one of the oldest existing food brands, famous for a limited ra ...

produced their very first mustard products. Holy Cross church, to the south of the village, being part of the parish of Stoke Holy Cross with Dunston. The village pub is the Wildebeest Arms on Norwich Road.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

in the same name exits. This ward stretches north to Trowse with a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 2,867.

Radio towers

There are two tall radio towers to the east of the village. One is one of three former

Chain Home Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the of ...

radar towers from the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

, then known as

RAF Stoke Holy Cross 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) and ...

. It is still owned by the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

and is in Poringland. A larger 'stepped' tower owned by BT sits nearby. This was originally built as part of the

British Telecom microwave network The British Telecom microwave network was a network of point-to-point microwave radio links in the United Kingdom, operated at first by the General Post Office, and subsequently by its successor BT plc. From the late 1950s to the 1980s it provided a ...

but like many such sites is now used for a variety of telecommunications and broadcast services, including FM transmission for

BBC Radio Norfolk BBC Radio Norfolk is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Norfolk. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Forum in Norwich. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 14 ...

on 95.1,

Greatest Hits Radio Norfolk and North Suffolk The Beach was a commercial FM radio station broadcasting to the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft areas. It used to broadcast from studios in Norwich and Ipswich. Before that it broadcast from studios at the junction of Hollingsworth Road and Oulton ...

on 99.9, Heart East (former Radio Broadland) on 102.4, and Kiss 105-108 on 106.1. It also carries the digital radio multiplexes

NOW Norwich Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...

Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It conta ...

and

BBC National DAB BBC National DAB is a digital audio broadcasting multiplex in the UK, for a number of radio stations which have UK wide coverage. The multiplex is owned and operated by the BBC and is transmitted from a number of transmitter sites across the c ...

. The masts are mostly in the parish of Caistor St Edmund. Dunston Hall Hotel - geograph

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Stoke%20Holy%20Cross

External links

Stoke Holy Cross Mill

Stoke Mill

Parish church

Wildebeest Arms

Dunston Hall Hotel

The Transmission Gallery: photographs, coverage maps and information
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Transmitter sites in England Civil parishes in Norfolk