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:''This article is about the English town. 'Diss' may also be shorthand for dissertation.''
'Diss' is a town (population 6742^[1]) in Norfolk, England. It lies in the valley of the River Waveney, around a ''mere'' (lake) which covers 6 acres (24,000 m²) and 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 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 and Thomas Lord, founder of Lord's Cricket Ground. England defender Matthew Upson also hails from the town. Frequent visitors include the actor Dexter Fletcher who has called the town 'the jewel in Norfolk's crown'. Alice Elmy, the great-great grandmother of Benjamin Franklin also hailed from Diss.
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 and exhibits impressive dressed-oak beams denoting it as a high-status building, possibly a wool merchant's house. The building was formerly a pub, the Dolphin, from the 1800s to the 1960s, it now houses a number of small businesses.
In the early part of the year 1871 some considerable alterations were made to a house situated in Mount Street, Diss, at about 100 yards North of the Church. The workmen were removing the brick flooring of one of the ground-rooms and excavating the soil beneath in order 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 coins to the number of more than three hundred. 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.

Contents

Churches in Diss

References

External links

Churches in Diss

Diss is predominately a Christian town with these churches:

★ C of E/Anglican - St. Mary the Virgin

★ Catholic - Most Holy Trinity

★ Methodist

★ Baptist

References

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''.

External links

★ 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