| North Elmham | |
Remains on site of Saxon cathedral |
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North Elmham
North Elmham shown within Norfolk |
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| Area | 19.20 km2 (7.41 sq mi) |
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| Population | 1,428 |
| - Density | 74 /km2 (190 /sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TF985208 |
| Parish | North Elmham |
| District | Breckland |
| Shire county | Norfolk |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | DEREHAM |
| Postcode district | NR20 |
| Dialling code | 01362 |
| Police | Norfolk |
| Fire | Norfolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Mid Norfolk |
| List of places: UK • England • Norfolk | |
North Elmham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of 19.20 km2 (7.41 sq mi) and had a population of 1,428 in 624 households as of the 2001 census.[1] For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Breckland.
The village is about 8 km (5.0 mi) north of East Dereham on the west bank of the River Wensum. North Elmham was the site of a pre-Norman cathedral, seat of the Bishop of Elmham until 1075.
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North Elmham comes from the Anglo-Saxon "Village where elms grew" and is first mentioned in 1035.[2] Only ruins now survive of the Saxon cathedral. It housed the episcopal throne of the bishops of Elmham from around 672 until the episcopal see was moved to Thetford in 1075. A mid ninth-century copper-alloy hanging censer was discovered at North Elmham in 1786. The earthworks and ruins at North Elmham stewarded by English Heritage are thought to be the remains of Bishop Herbert de Losinga's late eleventh-century episcopal church and the late fourteenth century double-moated castle built on this by Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich. To the north of the village was the Norfolk County School which on closing in the 1890s was taken over for the Watts Naval School. The village is also the birthplace of the actor John Mills. The fine buildings have now been demolished. The County School Station on branch line served the school, and today is preserved as a small visitor centre. The village once had its own station, North Elmham railway station, on the Mid-Norfolk Railway line from Wymondham to Fakenham. The building still exists and it is planned to build a new one or reopen the building as a station again. This would be needed to connect the County School station described above to the rest of the Mid-Norfolk railway.
North Elmham Mill, known locally Grint Mill, had two breastshot waterwheels until the early twentieth century when they were replaced by two turbines. By the 1970s the milling machinery was driven by mains electricity while the turbines were used to drive a sack hoist and two mixing machines. The mill continued to produce animal feed into the late twentieth century.