Scoulton

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Map sources for Scoulton at grid reference TF9800

Scoulton is a small village and civil parish in the county of Norfolk, England, situated 16 miles (26 km) west of the City of Norwich and 21 miles (34 km) NNE of Thetford.

Scoulton lies on the main road between Norwich and the market town of Watton. Increasingly a dormitory for workers in Norwich's insurance and other service industries, it was traditionally agricultural, relying particularly on the production of sugar beet and on pig farming. It has a fine, partially thatched saxon church.

The civil parish has an area of 9.02 square kilometres and in 2001 had a population of 241 in 94 households. The population is split between two main areas of settlement and a number of small, isolated farms. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of Breckland.^[1]

Scoulton is known for its artificial and heavily-wooded lake or "mere", which was the product of extensive flint quarrying, and which was the only known breeding ground of the Great Black-headed Gull in the UK. Considered by many to be only a rare vagrant visitor to Europe, anecdotal evidence suggests that Scoulton mere was home to a colony until the early 1970's, with the eggs being harvested and forming the basis of a now obsolete dish known as Scoulton Pie. The collection of these eggs is depicted on the village sign.