Wreningham is a 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 English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

. It is situated some south east of

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. It lies on the River Tiffey, south-west of Norwich and just off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The pari ...

and south west of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. The civil parish has an area of 6.24 square kilometres and in 2001 had a population of 493 in 199 households, the population increasing to 528 at the 2011 Census and to 582 at the 2021 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

South Norfolk South Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. The largest town is Wymondham, and the district also includes the towns of Costessey, Diss, Harleston, Hingham, Loddon and Long Stratton. The council was based in Long S ...

. From 1808 to 1814 Wreningham hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to its naval ships in the port of

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

. Superstitions Wreningham, allegedly, got its name from the Witch and the Wren myth. The myth tells the story of a witch living in Wreningham who was discovered by the villagers. A knight then came to kill her and upon being attacked she transformed herself into a wren to escape safely; in response the villagers beat the bushes with sticks and caught and burnt any wrens that flew out in an attempt to kill her. She supposedly returns to the village every St Stephen's Day, and traditionally the villagers would beat the hedges and burn any wrens they caught on this day.

References

* Ordnance Survey (1999). ''OS Explorer Map 237 - Norwich''. . * Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001).
Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes
'. Retrieved 2 December 2005.

External links

.
Information from Genuki Norfolk
on Wreningham.
Wreningham village website
Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk {{Norfolk-geo-stub