Pulham St Mary
| Pulham St Mary | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's Church, Pulham St Mary |
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 Pulham St Mary
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| Pulham St Mary shown within Norfolk | |
| Area | 12.26 km2 (4.73 sq mi) |
| Population | 892 |
| • Density | 73/km2 (190/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TM212851 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | DISS |
| Postcode district | IP21 |
| Police | Norfolk |
| Fire | Norfolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
Pulham St Mary is a village in Norfolk, approximately 7 miles (11 km) east of Diss and 18 miles (29 km) south of Norwich. It covers an area of 12.26 km2 (4.73 sq mi) and had a population of 866 in 365 households as of the 2001 census, the population increasing to 892 at the 2011 Census.
It is a small village and part of "The Pulhams" which also includes Pulham Market. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is believed to date from around 1258.
The name Pulham is thought to mean the farmhouse or enclosure by the pools or streams. The earliest recorded spelling is Polleham. The Romans 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 in the centre of the village, as part of Pennoyer's school.
Pulham St Mary railway station was a stop on the Waveney Valley Line which closed in 1953.
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 in the USA, which remains in place today.)
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 Pulham Market, 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 programme in an attempt to secure the necessary funds to transform the building into a new village centre.
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Wikipedia