Pawlett, Somerset

Coordinates: 51°10′52″N 3°00′14″W / 51.181°N 3.004°W / 51.181; -3.004

Pawlett is a small village 4 miles (6 km) north of Bridgwater, in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset.

The village has Roman or Saxon origins. It has a Norman church and expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries with the draining of the Somerset Levels.

During World War II it was the site of an experimental research station into anti-barrage balloon warfare. At the site experiments were performed to examine ways to use cable cutting devices on the wings of aircraft to sever the cable on which the barrage balloon was flown and thus allow the aircraft to continue on a mission unimpeded. Brave pilots actually flew their machines into cables to test the effectiveness of these cutters.

History

A survey in 2003 recorded an early system of flood banks in the "Hams" around the village which may have originated in the Roman or Saxon Period. An early field system was also identified, again possibly originating in the Saxon period. The Pawlett Hams form part of the Bridgwater Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest.