The name Pulham is thought to mean the farmhouse, homestead or enclosure by the pool, water meadow or stream.

In the early 1920s a radio direction finding station was located there that helped give accurate position reports for aircraft flying to Croydon airport.

The base became disused in the early 1930s after the crash of the R101 when all work stopped in Britain on airships, although it continued as an RAF property until 1958.

During World War II it was a dump for crashed aircraft from all over the east of England; parts were salvaged for reuse.

[6] In 1670 William Pennoyer, a puritan merchant, left money to pay for a schoolmaster to teach poor children in the village.

[7] (Pennoyer also left money to establish a scholarship at Harvard University in the USA, which remains in place today.)

The Victorian frontage of the building concealed a listed medieval Guild Chapel dating from 1401, making it an expensive proposition for renovation and alternative use.

Construction work began in February 2009, and The Pennoyer Centre, complete with a 21st Century extension, and new facilities such a cafe and internet suite, opened in July 2010 for education, business, social and recreational use.