The Sign
Pakenham is famous for having two working mills, and both are shown on the village sign. The first sign was erected in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee being replaced in 2003; both have very similar designs.

At the top of the sign is the church of St Mary with an octagonal top on a square based tower. The main panel shows the Tower Mill on the left and the Watermill on the right. The new sign has removed the wheel, which in fact has actually gone. The river beneath the watermill is the Blackbourne. The spandrel decorations have also been removed in the present sign, which showed sheep, a wheatsheaf and water cress flower.

The Name and Population
The village was known as Pachenham in the Domesday Book. The name means "Pac(c)a's homestead or village", from Old English. The population was 922 at the 2011 census.

Other Points of Interest
Joanne Jennings, high jumper who competed for Great Britain twice at the Summer Olympics and won silver at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Pacca was the founder of a settlement on the hill where Pakenham church now sits, on an area higher than the waters of Pakenham Fen. The discovery of many Anglo-Saxon remains, notably that of a bone-toothed comb in the old school garden (near the church) in the 1950s, testify to the authenticity of the site.