Pawlett, Somerset
| Pawlett | |
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 Pawlett village shop |
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 Pawlett
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| Pawlett shown within Somerset | |
| Population | 1,038 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | ST299428 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BRIDGWATER |
| Postcode district | TA7 |
| Dialling code | 01278 |
| Police | Avon and Somerset |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Pawlett is a small village 4 miles (6 km) north of Bridgwater, in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset.
The village has Roman or Saxon origins. It has a Norman church and expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries with the draining of the Somerset Levels.
During World War II it was the site of an experimental research station into anti-barrage balloon warfare. At the site experiments were performed to examine ways to use cable cutting devices on the wings of aircraft to sever the cable on which the barrage balloon was flown and thus allow the aircraft to continue on a mission unimpeded. Brave pilots actually flew their machines into cables to test the effectiveness of these cutters.
A survey in 2003 recorded an early system of flood banks in the "Hams" around the village which may have originated in the Roman or Saxon Period. An early field system was also identified, again possibly originating in the Saxon period. The Pawlett Hams form part of the Bridgwater Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and in the 12th century the Pawlett Hams, running west of the village, were known as being the richest 2,000 acres (8 km2) in England.
The name of the village is believed to come from an 11th-century estate and may refer to a stream either with stakes or below a steep-sided hill.
The village lies on a bend of the River Parrett near to its mouth and had a landing place, called Pawlett pill, by the 15th century. It continued in use in the 18th century, but by 1780 it had been blocked by Canham sluice as part of the drainage of the Somerset Levels. In the 19th century Pawlett had a jury of sewers to view rhynes and ditches and by 1936 the parish had its own water board to supervise drainage and freshwater irrigation of the Hams. It was absorbed into the Bridgwater and Pawlett drainage board in 1946.
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Wikipedia