South Walsham

Correct pronunciation

"Sowolsam", "Wals'm"

History

The villages name means 'W(e)alh's homestead/village' or 'Britons' homestead/village'.

South Walsham is recorded in the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici as Súðwalshám in a document produced during the reign of Edward the Confessor. Early documents suggest that land in the present parish was owned by a freeman named under Guert, the brother of Harold Godwinson at the time of the Norman conquest of England, before passing under the stewardship of Godric the Steward. Its entry in the Domesday Book shows land ownership divided between William the Conqueror, William, Bishop of Thetford, Godric the Steward and St Benet's Abbey - in total, there were around 124 villagers excluding women and children. During the Middle Ages, much of the land in the parish was used to produce peat for fuel, and records of turbary show that around two hundred thousand turves were sold per annum, yielding an average income of around seven pounds per annum. These revenues dropped rapidly, from over eight pounds (and 250 000 units) in 1268–69 to around two pounds (and 56 700 units) in 1290–91, as the former peat cuttings began to flood and The Broads were formed. There are references to flooded land (or Broddinge) as early as 1315.

After the English Reformation, the abbey at St Benet's remained in use for some time, but had fallen into decay by the early stages of the reign of Elizabeth I.

In the twentieth century, war memorials list 14 deaths from within the parish during World War I. The tower of St Lawrence's church, damaged by a fire on the 30 May 1827, collapsed on the 18 March 1971, with little damage to the church itself.

Notes

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/South%20Walsham%20St.%20Mary

References

1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Office for National Statistics.
2. [http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/consumption/groups/public/documents/general_resources/ncc017867.xls Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes] {{webarchive. link. (2017-02-11 . Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Retrieved 20 June 2009,)
3. "Norfolk Parishes K-Z".
4. "Norfolk Churches".
5. "Fairhaven C of E VA Primary School : Welcome".
6. "The Ship Inn South Walsham, Norfolk Broads pub, Norfolk pubs, Norfolk restaurants.".
7. [http://www.st-lawrence.org.uk St Lawrence Centre website]
8. "About {{!}} Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden".
9. Amos, G. S.. "A history of South Walsham".
10. "The Boy John Letters" by Sidney Grapes: Letter, dated October 12th, 1949, originally published in the "Eastern Daily Press". Published in book form in 2003 by Mousehold Press.
11. "Dialect Matters" by Peter Trudgill, published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press
12. Kemble, John Mitchell. (1848). "Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, Volume 6". Cambridge University Press.
13. Kemble, John Mitchell. (1846). "Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, Volume 4". Cambridge University Press.
14. "Walsham Hundred: South-Walsham {{!}} British History Online".
15. "[South] Walsham {{!}} Domesday Book".
16. Lambert, J. M.. (1960). "The Making of the Broads: A reconsideration of their origin in the light of new evidence". Royal Geographical Society.