South Pickenham is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Breckland district Breckland is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Dereham, although the largest town is Thetford. The district also includes the towns of Attleborough, Swaffham and Watton, along with numerous villages and surr ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. It has an area of 758 hectares (2.93 square miles) and it had a population of 101 in 40 households at the 2001 census. This had dropped to an estimated 85 as at the 2007/2008 Breckland yearbook. The

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Council Tax (Band D) 1 April 2007 was £28.75. It was once in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of South Greenhoe. At the 2011 Census the village population had again fallen to less than 100 and was included in the civil parish of

Cockley Cley Cockley Cley is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Cockley Cley is located south-west of Swaffham and west of Norwich. History The village's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a "cl ...

. The village is about 4 miles south east of

Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District and England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the U ...

and 2 miles from its sister village North Pickenham. The village is centered on the Grade II listed Pickenham Hall, still the landlord for much of the village, which is owned by the Arumugam Packiri family. The original hall was designed by

William Donthorne William John Donthorn (Donthorne in some sources) (1799 – 18 May 1859) was an English architect, and one of the founders of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He was born in Swaffham, Norfolk. He was a pupil of Sir ...

but between 1902 and 1905 architect

Robert Weir Schultz Robert Weir Schultz (26 July 1860 – 29 April 1951), later Robert Weir Schultz Weir and known as R. W. S. Weir, was a Scottish Arts and Crafts architect, artist, landscape designer and furniture designer. He did much work on the Isle of Bute ...

extensively rebuilt and enlarged the hall, incorporating the previous house, in the style of the

Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

. The

Stanford Training Area The Stanford Training Area (STANTA), originally known as the Stanford Battle Area, is a British Army training area in the English county of Norfolk. The area is approximately in size; it is some north of the town of Thetford and south-west ...

lies to the south of the parish. The historic church of All Saints is one of 124 existing

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berks ...

es in

, 185 nationwide and five within a 9-mile radius. The restored church of Saint Mary's at

Houghton on the Hill Houghton on the Hill is a village and civil parish lying to the east of Leicester in the Harborough district, in Leicestershire, East Midlands in England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,524. An entry for Hough ...

is nearby. Historically part of North Pickenham since 1725,Necton All Saints church website
a Pastoral Order was raised transferring it to South Pickenham as a

Chapel of Ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

in 1992. The 46-mile

Peddars Way The Peddars Way is a long distance footpath that passes through Suffolk and Norfolk, England. Route The Peddars Way is 46 miles (74 km) long and follows the route of a Roman road. It has been suggested by more than one writer that it was ...

runs to the east, within the parish boundaries, aside the course of the

River Wissey The River Wissey is a river in Norfolk, eastern England. It rises near Bradenham, and flows for nearly to join the River Great Ouse at Fordham. The lower are navigable. The upper reaches are notable for a number of buildings of historic int ...

. South Pickenham Estate Co. Ltd., a large arable and livestock farming company, is based in the village.

References

External links

All Saints on the European Round Tower Churches website

Old postcards
Old postcards of both South and North Pickenham.

Some historical data from 1854 {{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District