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Foulsham

Coordinates: 52°46′50″N 1°00′38″E / 52.78055°N 1.01057°E / 52.78055; 1.01057
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Foulsham
Church of the Holy Innocents, Foulsham
Foulsham is located in Norfolk
Foulsham
Foulsham
Location within Norfolk
Area4.85 sq mi (12.6 km2)
Population1,028 (2021 census)
• Density212/sq mi (82/km2)
OS grid referenceTG0325
• London119 miles (192 km)
Civil parish
  • Foulsham CP
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townDEREHAM
Postcode districtNR20
Dialling code01362
PoliceNorfolk
FireNorfolk
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Norfolk
52°46′50″N 1°00′38″E / 52.78055°N 1.01057°E / 52.78055; 1.01057

Foulsham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.

Foulsham is located 7.40 miles (11.91 km) north-east of Dereham and 16 miles (26 km) north-west of Norwich. Foulsham is renowned in the local area for its unspoilt nature and the number of Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century buildings.[citation needed]

History

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Foulsham name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for Fugol's homestead or village.[1]

Foulsham has been the site of major Bronze Age discoveries including a golden torc ploughed-up in 1846[2] and a hoard of 141 copper-socketed axeheads, discovered in 1953 and now in the care of Norwich Castle Museum.[3]

In the Domesday Book, Foulsham is listed as a settlement of 103 households in the hundred of Eynesford. In 1086, the village was part of the East Anglian estates of King William I. The worth of Foulsham is recorded as two churches, a mill, twelve cattle, four hundred pigs, fifty goats and 13 sesters of honey.[4]

Old Hall Farm was built in the parish in the Sixteenth Century and was at one time the residence of Maj-Gen. Philip Skippon, a Parliamentarian commander at the Battle of Naseby.[5]

In the Seventeenth Century, Foulsham was a thriving market place until a store of gunpowder exploded on the 15 June 1770 which led to a fire that consumed the whole market place.[6]

Foulsham railway station opened in 1882 as a stop on the Great Eastern Railway line between Aylsham South and County School. The station closed in 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts, with Foulsham's closest railway station today being Sheringham for Bittern Line services to Cromer and Norwich.

RAF Foulsham opened in 1942 as an air-base for various squadrons of No. 3 Group and No. 100 Group RAF throughout the Second World War. On 28 July 1943, RAF Foulsham was the site of a forced landing by a B-17 Flying Fortress piloted by Lt-Col. John C. Morgan after a strategic bombing raid of Hanover. For his actions, Morgan was awarded the Medal of Honor. The airbase was retired in 1945 and the Ministry of Defence eventually sold the land in the 1980s.[7]

Geography

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According to the 2021 census, Foulsham has a population of 1,028 people which shows an increase from the 1,021 people recorded in the 2011 census.[8]

Church of the Holy Innocents

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Foulsham's parish church is dedicated to the Holy Innocents and dates from the Fourteenth Century. The church is located within the village on Hindolveston Road and has been Grade I listed since 1961.[9] The Church of the Holy Innocents is still holds services on Sundays and remains open during the week.[10]

The church was severely damaged by an explosion and fire in 1770 but was heavily restored in the Victorian era. Inside the church is a Sixteenth Century font and some fragments of Fifteenth Century stained-glass.[11]

Amenities

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Foulsham still has a public house, known as the Queen's Head, which has operated on its current site since the mid-Nineteenth Century.[12]

The majority of local children attend Foulsham Primary School, which was rated as 'Good' by Ofsted in 2020.[13]

Puritan emigration

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The village gave its name to a family of Puritan dissidents, who fled England for the town of Hingham, Massachusetts (and later Exeter, New Hampshire) and whose spelling of the name was slightly changed to Folsom.[14] Today, these American descendants of Foulsham have given rise to Folsom, California, Folsom Street in San Francisco, Folsom Prison (all named for California pioneer and New Hampshire native Joseph Libbey Folsom), as well as General Nathaniel Folsom, who represented New Hampshire in the Continental Congress.[15]

Notable Residents

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Governance

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Foulsham is part of the electoral ward of Eynesford for local elections and is part of the district of Broadland.

The village's national constituency is Broadland and Fakenham which has been represented by the Conservative Party's Jerome Mayhew MP since 2019.

War Memorial

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Foulsham War Memorial is a stone obelisk above an octagonal plinth, located in an island on Foulsham High Street. The memorial was funded by a committee led by Mr. E. Holley and was unveiled in October 1920 by R-Adm. Sir Harry Stileman KBE.[16] The memorial lists the following names for the First World War:[17]

Rank Name Unit Date of Death Burial/Commemoration
Sgt. Edward V. Russell 14th (Scottish) Bn., London Regt. 28 Nov. 1917 Lebucquière Cemetery
Cpl. George L. Laing 1st Bn., Norfolk Regiment 24 Aug. 1914 La Ferté Memorial
Dvr. Samuel W. Mitchell 270th Bde., Royal Field Artillery 14 Jun. 1916 Suez War Memorial
Gnr. Alfred Barber 4 Depot, R.F.A. 23 Nov. 1914 Woolwich Cemetery
M2C Harry Mesney Royal Flying Corps 8 Dec. 1918 No grave/commemoration
Pte. Percy L. Arnold MT Branch, Army Service Corps 18 Jun. 1918 St. Omer Cemetery
Pte. Albert Budrey 2nd Bn., Bedfordshire Regiment 14 Nov. 1917 Three Trees Cemetery
Pte. Harry Massingham 5th Bn., Royal Berkshire Regiment 25 May 1918 Mailly Wood
Pte. George F. Hill 1/6th Bn., Durham Light Infantry 6 Dec. 1918 Holy Innocents' Churchyard
Pte. William Hindry 1st Bn., Essex Regiment 8 Oct. 1917 Tyne Cot
Pte. Charles G. Jarvis 11th Bn., Essex Regt. 15 Sep. 1916 Guards' Cemetery
Pte. Horace W. Hipkin 1st Bn., Royal Fusiliers 31 Jul. 1917 Menin Gate
Pte. Albert Brown 18th Bn., King's Regiment 31 Jul. 1917 Menin Gate
Pte. George Lane 2nd (Hawke) Bn., Royal Naval Div. 28 Apr. 1917 Arras Memorial
Pte. Robin H. Stroulger 11th Bn., Middlesex Regiment 5 May 1917 Arras Memorial
Pte. Benjamin S. Everitt 2nd Bn., Norfolk Regiment 24 Oct. 1916 Amara War Cemetery
Pte. Donald E. Scarfe 7th Bn., Norfolk Regt. 13 Oct. 1915 Loos Memorial
Pte. Alfred W. Stroulger 7th Bn., Norfolk Regt. 8 Jul. 1917 Monchy Cemetery
Pte. Charles Calver 9th Bn., Norfolk Regt. 2 Dec. 1917 Flesquières Hill Cemetery
Pte. George F. Seaman 7th Bn., Northamptonshire Regiment 14 Feb. 1916 Brandhoek Military Cemetery
Pte. John Prior 2nd Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment 2 Apr. 1917 Croisilles Cemetery
Pte. Charles Amiss 7th Bn., York and Lancaster Regt. 5 Sep. 1917 Bard Cottage Cemetery
Rfn. Edgar Hendry 18th Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps 28 Feb. 1917 Dickebusch New Cemetery
By1C Bertrand C. Fowler HMS Indefatigable 31 May 1916 Portsmouth Naval Memorial

The following names were added after the Second World War:

Rank Name Unit Date of Death Burial/Commemoration
PO Ernest G. Farrow Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 15 May 1943 Holy Innocents' Churchyard
Sgt. Ronald S. Allen No. 214 (Bomber) Squadron RAF 3 Mar. 1943 Sage War Cemetery
Sgt. Gordon W. G. Fletcher No.460 (Bomber) Squadron RAAF 15 Jun. 1943 Amsterdam Eastern Cem.
Cpl. Frederick S. Girling 5th Bn., Royal Norfolk Regiment 3 Sep. 1943 Kanchanaburi Cemetery
Cpl. E Reginald Margetson 5th Bn., Royal Norfolks 7 Oct. 1943 Yokohama War Cemetery
LAC Lawrence A. Blake No. 13 (Bomber) Squadron RAF 11 May 1944 Sangro River Cemetery
Pte. Leonard L. Gray 4th Bn., Royal Norfolk Regiment 6 Sep. 1943 Thanbyuzayat Cemetery
Pte. Arthur J. Cole 5th Bn., Royal Norfolks 19 Jan. 1944 Chungkai War Cemetery
Pte. Arthur E. Frost 7th Bn., Royal Norfolks 5 Jun. 1940 Dunkirk Memorial

References

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  1. ^ "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  2. ^ "MNF7188 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  3. ^ "MNF3089 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Foulsham | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  5. ^ "MNF7191 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  6. ^ "Norfolk Churches". www.norfolkchurches.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  7. ^ "MNF3100 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  8. ^ "Foulsham (Parish, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  9. ^ "CHURCH OF HOLY INNOCENTS, Foulsham - 1050984 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  10. ^ Churches, Heart of Norfolk. "Foulsham - Heart of Norfolk Churches". heartofnorfolkchurches.org.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  11. ^ "Norfolk Churches". www.norfolkchurches.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  12. ^ "QUEENS HEAD - FOULSHAM". www.norfolkpubs.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  13. ^ Ofsted. (2020). Retrieved January 3, 2023. https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50152008
  14. ^ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1876.
  15. ^ Jacob Chapman (1882). A Genealogy of the Folsom Family: John Folsom and His Descendants, 1615-1882. Harvard University. Printed by the Republican Press Association.
  16. ^ "Foulsham War Memorial, Foulsham - 1443368 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  17. ^ "Geograph:: Fakenham to Fundenhall :: War Memorials in Norfolk". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
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Media related to Foulsham at Wikimedia Commons