From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the English town. 'Diss' may also be shorthand for dissertation.

Diss
Diss shown within Norfolk
Population	7,444 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	TM1180
District	South Norfolk
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DISS
Postcode district	IP22
Dialling code	01379
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South Norfolk
European Parliament	East of England
List of places: UK • England • Norfolk

Coordinates: 52°22′52″N 1°06′28″E / 52.3812, 1.1079

Diss is a town (population 6742^[1]) on the Norfolk/Suffolk border in England.

It lies in the valley of the River Waveney, around a mere (lake) that covers 6 acres (24,000 m²). The mere is up to 18 feet (5 m) deep (although there is another 51 feet (16 m) of mud, making it one of the deepest natural inland lakes in England). The town may take its name from the Saxon term for lake, or from an old Viking word meaning 'village of the dancing horse'.

Diss has a large number of historic buildings, including the early 14th century parish church. It is also home to a museum. Diss railway station lies on the Great Eastern Main Line route from London to Norwich.

Famous people from Diss include John Skelton, a former poet laureate whose poem Ware the Hawk is set in St, Mary's Church. Others include Thomas Lord, founder of Lord's Cricket Ground and England defender Matthew Upson. Frequent visitors include the actor Dexter Fletcher who has called the town 'the jewel in Norfolk's crown'.

Opposite the fourteenth-century parish church of St. Mary The Virgin stands a sixteenth-century building known as the Dolphin House. This was one of the most important buildings in the town. It's impressive dressed-oak beams denote it to be a high-status building, possibly a wool merchant's house. Formerly a pub, the Dolphin, from the 1800s to the 1960s, the building now houses a number of small businesses.

Early in 1871, substantial alterations were made to a house in Mount Street, about 100 yards north of the parish church. The workmen were removing the brick flooring of one of the ground-rooms and excavating the soil beneath, to insert the joists of a boarded floor, when they discovered a hoard of coins. Beneath the bricks, they came upon the original hard clay floor, and in the centre of the room, at about 18 inches from the surface, the remains of an earthen vessel were found, containing over three hundred coins. With the exception of 2 fine gold nobles, all the coins were silver.^[2]

In March 2006, Diss became the third town in the UK to join Cittaslow, an international organisation promoting the concept of 'Slow Towns'.^[3]

The town's local newspaper, founded 1864, is the Diss Express.

Diss is a predominantly Christian town with Church of England (St. Mary the Virgin), Catholic (Most Holy Trinity), Methodist, and Baptist churches.

1. ^ Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council, 2001. Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes.
2. ^ Coin Hoard Article
3. ^ Cittaslow, 2006. Diss becomes Cittaslow.

• Map from discoversuffolk
• Diss Town Council - official town council website
• Diss Online - official town website
• Diss Express - town's local newspaper website
• Norfolk: Diss GENUKI Norfolk transcript from History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk, William White, 1845
• Diss Forum - Discussion forum for Diss, Norfolk
• History of Diss windmills