They sailed flat-bottomed craft up the River Ant, looking for a "staithe" or landing place. They found an abundance of timber for fuel and building, good farm land and a dry site for settlement along the line of the present day High Street.

 "Stalham" was first mentioned in 1044-47 in the "Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici" ed Kemble JM London 1839-48, quoted in "Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Placenames, Oxford 1936". The early dependence on crop farming was confirmed by the 1085 Domesday Book and up to the nineteenth century made for a largely self-sufficient community. What produce did leave the village was carried by Wherries, large, shallow-draughted barges that sailed to and from Burton's Wharf at the Staithe. If you want to know who used to live in Stalham from 1888, then consult the copies of the Kelly's Directory on this site.

 According to the "Domesday Book 1085", there were four manorial demesnes, those of Count Alan (120 acres); Roger Bigot c80 acres; the Abbot of St Benets at Home, for the food supplies of the monks, 120 acres; and that of Aelmar, a freeman who held c50 acres. the first three holdings were only part of much bigger "honours" of he great men who probably never deigned to visit Stalham in person. These totals do not include other land held by villagers.

 45 men are referred to in the Domesday Book as being tied to the manors. If this figure is multiplied by 4.25 to take in women and children, then there were at least 190 people in the village.

 Sometime between the later middle ages, following the draining of the River Ant, which sunk to it present size and 1648, when the earliest house on the Staithe was known to have been built, the settlement almost certainly changed shape as many others had done earlier. It is reasonable to assume from known existing buildings and remains that it changed to a hollow square around what is still known as "the Common". This provided an area for an expanding population (possibly early C15th) to keep their animals.

 Cultivation was open field and by strip, and throughout this period there is no evidence that the cultivators were locked into mindless conservative agriculture. In fact there is strong evidence to suggest a high productivity. ("The Countryside of Medieval Englands". ed by Astill and Grants, Blackwell 1988). By the time of the 1807 Enclosure Map however, those strips had long been consolidated into fields, many named after previous inhabitants of the village and therefore their one-time owners?).

 Evidence of Stalham's past can most easily be traced through its buildings. the oldest being the 15th century perpendicular-styled parish church of St Mary, whose squat tower dominates the High Street. Just along the Old Yarmouth Road is the 17th century Jacobean Manor House, Stalham Hall.

Considerable rebuilding took place along the High street in the 1690's, when easily acquired timber and thatch was replaced by locally made soft red brick and tile.

 A century later, the old Granary at the Staithe, dated 1805, Church and West End Farms, Staithe House, date 1820 and a number of other premises were either built or rebuilt with unmistakable Georgian features.

 Then came the C19th and a gradual change in access to the land. Holdings were engrossed so that by the end of the century there were only five farms where in 1807 there had been those five farms plus over 40 small holdings. As elsewhere, the C19th population expanded. In 1841 it was 716, by 1891 it was 920 and today (1998), approx 2500.

 Throughout the C19th, the village was largely a self sufficient unit, exporting grain by river and beasts by road to Norwich via Rackheath and importing coal and fertilizer

 1833 saw the founding of the village Fire Brigade, one of the oldest in Norfolk, whose first station (next to St Mary's Church) and pump can be seen in the High street, the small door to the right of the Old Fire Station is the old Parish Lock-up.

Change came with the opening of the Board School in 1878 on Brumstead Road and the arrival of the M&GN Railway which reached Stalham in 1881. The Railway Station is still to be found at the far end of the High Street (now a council depot), the railway of course being superceded 80 years later as the main means of transport by the motor car. (The present day by-pass is actually built on the old line, the railway closed in 1959.) This put the village to within easy commuter distance from Norwich and Yarmouth. These buildings were built along with a number of residential properties in the St john's Road area.

 The traditional farming community and local institutions remained largely unchanged until the late 1950's and '60's. (The Norfolk accent was still predominant). Then came the changes in agriculture. Farming became increasingly intensive. Fewer men were needed on the land so the residue were forced to seek work elsewhere. This was a classic case of rural push and urban pull.

 Apart from pre and post-war Council Building, the biggest change to the village was wrought in the 1970's with the appearance of the three large commuter estates, Heron Gardens, Rivermead and Millside. The Lyndford and St Benet's developments were also added.