Extract from the map attached to a Conveyance dated 11 October 1964
Courtesy J & A Hughes
Homelea Farm is tucked away along a ‘driftway’ off Penhill Road. Historically, the road is also referred to as Penhill Lane and Pen Hill. In Part I, we established that the farmhouse was probably built between 1843 and 1861.
Homelea Farm in the distance centre of the photograph. June 2026
The property has been known as Penhill Lane Farm, Low Lane Farm and Low Farm. However by the 1930s, it is known as Homelea Farm. However, for ease of reference, I will usually refer to the property as Homelea Farm whether or not it called ‘Homelea Farm’ at that particular time.
We left Part I around 1879, when the Dixon family relocated to Bush Green. Here we carry on with the history of the owners and occupiers of the property.
1881 census
The 1879 Electoral Register finds Charles Surrage occupying ‘house and land’ at Penhill Lane. I have no doubt that he is at Homelea Farm.
The 1881 census captures 50 year old Charles Serge with his 45 year old wife Harriet in Penhill Road. Newmarket born Charles is farming around 10 acres. The couple have a lodger, 55 year old thatcher George Lusher of Attleborough. I have no doubt that they are at Homelea Farm.
White Hart, Rocklands
Courtesy Sue Fay
However, before coming to Great Ellingham, Charles Surrage was the landlord of the White Hart Public House in Rocklands (1875-1879).
Charles and Harriet Surrage are at Homelea Farm until at least 1883. The death of 53 year old Charles Surrage is registered between April and June of 1883.
I do not know who owned Homelea Farm during the occupations of Samuel Dixon and Charles Surrage. However by 1885, the property is owned and occupied by Charles Corston.
Charles Corston
Early Life
A son of Charles and Mary Corston, Charles was born on the 24th April, 1834. His baptism is recorded on the 5th June, 1837, in the Wesleyan Methodist Circuit of New Buckenham. His sister Rose Ann (born 31 December 1836) was baptised on the same day.
Various census returns gives his place of birth as either Besthorpe or Wymondham. However, it is possible that he was born in Wattlefield.
Both the 1841 and 1851 census captures Charles with his parents and siblings living in Wattlefield. Nevertheless at some point before April 1859, Charles ‘up sticks’ and relocates to London.
Move & Marriage in London
On the 22nd April, 1859, 24 year old Charles Corston marries 23 year old spinster Susan Barnard in the Parish Church of St Botolph in Bishopsgate, London. Susan was born in Besthorpe on the 6th November, 1835.
The 1841 census captures 5 year old Susan with her parents, John and Elizabeth Barnard, and siblings Martha 3 and William aged five months, in Besthorpe. At the time of the 1851 census, Susan is a house servant for 56 year old Jane Limmer at The Hall in Besthorpe.
We can but wonder how Charles and Susan came to be in London and, whether they relocated independently or together. Did they first meet in Norfolk and decide to move to London? Did something happen which hastened a move? For example, a pregnancy before marriage. However, I cannot find any evidence of a child being born to the couple either shortly before or after their marriage. Indeed, the later census of 1911 confirms that they had no children.
At the time of their marriage in 1859, Charles and Susan are living at 25½ Acorn Street in Bishopsgate, London. Charles’s occupation is a glass dealer. The corresponding entry in the marriage register gives Charles’s age as 25 and Susan’s as 24 – they had each added a year to their actual age.
By 1861, the couple had moved to 10 Heneage Street, Spitalfields. Aged 26, Charles is working as a warehouseman. Susan is 25. By 1871, Charles and Susan have moved ’round the corner’ and are living at 62 Brick Lane. Charles is now a china and glass dealer. Ten years later in 1881, they are still living at 62 Brick Lane.
Great Ellingham
However by 1885, Charles and Susan Corston return to Norfolk. The couple make their home at Homelea Farm in Great Ellingham. Charles Corston probably purchased the farm before October 1885.
At an auction held in July 1884, Charles Corston purchases two pieces of freehold land (near to Homelea Farm) from the executors of the late Robert Boyce. Boyce’s property and land is being sold in 7 lots. Corston was the highest bidder at £115 for Lot 4, which comprised the two parcels of land. One parcel of land has the name ‘Mary’s Pightle’.
The 1891 census captures 56 year old Charles Corston with his 55 year old wife Susan at ‘Penhill Farm’, Great Ellingham. Also at ‘Penhill Farm’ is Frederick Brighton and his wife Helen.
I have no doubt that Charles and Susan Corston are actually at Homelea Farm – which is a mere stone’s throw from the property we know today as Penhill Farm.
The census describes Charles as a ‘farmer and owner’ which is a far cry from a china and glass dealer. Did Charles possess any farming skills before coming to Great Ellingham? I do not know what livestock Charles had on his farm or what he was cultivating. However, I do know that he owned around 12 acres of land and that he had some 26 hens.
Egg Production
On the 27th November, 1893, Charles wrote to the Editor of the Norfolk Chronicle in response to an earlier letter to the editor written by ‘B.W.’ It concerned ‘Fowl Feeding & Egg Producing’ and it reads as follows:
Dear Sir - Will you kindly insert this in the next issue of your valuable paper? As your correspondent B.W. says he will, if it is interesting to your readers, give his plan of feeding and treating fowls to produce eggs. I for one shall be much obliged to him for so doing, as I have twenty-six hens, and the last fortnight we have not had an egg to use. They are fed in the morning and afternoon, and housed at night and all day have their liberty to roam about on the homestead. My neighbour keeps a hundred and has only one that lays. Yours respectfully. Chas. Corston, Great Ellingham
I know from my research that several villagers kept a few chickens for their own consumption. However, the keeping of 26 hens is far more than a family would usually keep in their backyard. Accordingly, Charles Corston is expecting his hens to lay sufficient eggs to sell on which, in 1893, they are not doing!
Great Ellingham also had several poultry dealers. The letter to the Norfolk Chronicle also tells us that a neighbour of Charles Corston kept 100 chickens. The neighbour may well be at Penhill Farm.
Charles and Susan Corston are still living at Homelea Farm at the time of the 1901 census. However, Charles Corston sells Homelea Farm in 1902.
Sale to Purkiss
On the 13th November, 1902, Charles Corston completes his sale of Homelea Farm to bricklayer Henry Edgar Purkiss of No.1 Etta Street, Deptford, Kent.
The price paid by Purkiss for the property is £330. The deeds tells us that the property is subject to an annual rent charge of 4/9½d [four shillings, nine and a halfpence]. This annual sum relates to a piece of land which was formerly copyhold.
The Conveyance Deed to Henry Purkiss includes the dwellinghouse of Homelea Farm, barn, stables and other buildings together with 9a 3r 8p (nine acres three roods and eight perches), which had once been occupied by Samuel Dixon. It also includes the two pieces of land which Charles Corston had (in 1884) purchased from the executors of Robert Boyce.
Early Life
Henry Purkiss was a Suffolk man. He was born c.1844 in Haughley, a village around two miles from Stowmarket. Although he spent his early life in Haughley, by 1867 he is living in Croydon.
Henry marries Emma Goody
On the 24th November, 1867, Henry marries Deptford girl Emma Mary Goody at the Church of St James, Croydon.
1881 census
The 1881 census captures 36 year old bricklayer Henry E Purkins with his 35 year old wife Emma, four children and a lodger at 11 Albert Street, Deptford St Paul, London.
Sadly, Emma Purkiss dies in February 1890 and is buried at Lewisham.
1891 census
The 1891 census finds widower 46 year old bricklayer Henry Edgar Purkiss living in a three-roomed dwelling, No.1 Etta Street, Deptford. Henry has three of his children with him – Caroline 20, James Henry 16 and William Elijah 9. Caroline is keeping house for the family.
Henry marries Mary Partridge
On the 4th March, 1893, 47 year old Henry Purkiss marries 40 year old spinster Mary Elizabeth Partridge at Saint Mark’s Church in Deptford. Although Mary is living in Deptford at the time of the marriage, she was born in East Bradenham, Norfolk.
Following the marriage, Mary moved in with her husband at No.1 Etta Street, where they remained until Henry purchased Homelea Farm, Great Ellingham in 1902.
1902 Cash Buyer
As far as I am aware, Henry paid cash for the property i.e. he did not borrow against Homelea Farm and have a mortgage. A ‘google search’ suggests that in 1902 a fully skilled bricklayer typically earned a weekly wage of around £2. I do not know whether Henry owned No.1 Etta Street in Deptford.
Henry Purkiss decides to Sell-Up
The couple remained at Homelea Farm (then known as Penhill Lane Farm) for around 13 years.
By the summer of 1915, Henry Purkiss has decided to ‘sell up’. I found reference to the property in a report of the local property market published in the Norfolk News on the 7th August, 1915. This relates to an auction held at the Royal Hotel in Attleborough:
In Great Ellingham - freehold small-holding known as Penhill Lane Farm with dwelling-house, agricultural premiss and 13a 1r 19p of arable and pasture land occupied by Mr H.E. Purkiss. Withdrawn at £400.
It may be the case that by September 1915, Purkiss has agreed to sell Penhill Lane Farm to James Harrison of Stow Bedon. It may also be the case that James Harrison wanted to take up occupation of the farm sooner than later.
The following notice is found in the Norfolk News of the 11th September 1915:
WANTED to Buy or Hire near Watton, Wymondham or Attleborough COTTAGE with Garden, Orchard or Meadow, not particular, at Michaelmas - Purkiss, Penhill Lane Farm, Great Ellingham, Attleborough
New Owner James Harrison
On the 12th November, 1915, Henry Purkiss completes his sale to farmer James Harrison. The Conveyance Deed gives James Harrison’s address as ‘late of Stow Bedon but then of Great Ellingham’.
Likely Henry and Mary Purkiss have already moved to Mere Road, Stow Bedon, where they are found to be living at the time of the 1921 census.
Mortgage
James Harrison paid £370 for ‘all that messuage or farmhouse in Great Ellingham known as Penhill Lane Farm with the barn, stable and other buildings and several pieces of land’. This amounted to thirteen acres, one rood and nineteen perches (13a 1r 19p).
However, he borrowed £250 of the purchase price from Attleborough grocer & draper, John Bellars Butler. This is still a period of time when there were many private lenders.
The £250 is secured against Penhill Lane Farm with interest set at 5% per annum.
The Harrison Family
Census returns are consistent to record that James Harrison was born in Roydon, near Diss, c.1855. James’s father, Jonathan Harrison, was also a farmer.
On the 13th December, 1889, whilst living in Foulden, 35 year old James Harrison marries local girl 31 year old Ellen Gertrude Upton.
The couple have two children. Geoffrey(Jeffery) Jonathan born in 1890 and Ernest James in 1892.
Around four years before coming to Great Ellingham, the 1911 census captures 56 year old farmer James Harrison and his 52 year old wife Ellen with sons Geoffrey 20 and Ernest aged 19 in Stow Bedon. Both Jeffery and Ernest are working with their father on the family’s farm.
I assume that both Geoffrey and Ernest moved with their parents to Great Ellingham in 1915.
The 1921 census undertaken on the 19th June, finds 66 year old James Harrison with his 62 year old wife Ellen and 30 year old son Geoffrey still living in ‘Penhill Lane’.
However just four months’ later, James Harrison sells the farm to Levi Henry Ibbett. Having sold the property, James and Ellen Harrison remained living in Great Ellingham. James Harrison died in 1934 and Ellen Harrison in 1935.
New Owner Levi Ibbett
Great Ellingham carrier, Levi Henry Ibbett, completed his purchase of Homelea Farm on the 11th October, 1921. We continue the story of the owners and occupiers of the property in Part III.
Sources:
Norfolk Pubs website
Private Deeds Collection. J & A Hughes
Charles Corston Baptism. 5th June 1837. England & Wales. Non-Conformist & Non-Parochial Registers. 1567-1936. New Buckenham Wesleyan Circuit. The National Archives (United Kingdom); Kew, Surrey, England; Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857; Class Number: Rg 4; Piece Number: 1959Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1936 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
1841 census HO107/767/28, HO107/781/9
1851 census HO107/1817/304, HO107/1794/719, HO107/1823/91
1861 census RG9/267/42, RG9/1146/65
1871 census RG10/511/15
1881 census RG11/1974/82-83, RG11/706/73
1891 census RG12/1549/71, RG12/496/140
1901 census RG13/1867/68, RG13/524/61
1911 census RG14/11486/28, RG14/11470/146, RG14/11472/32
1921 census RG15/9790 ED5 Sch.132, RG15/9795 ED1 Sch.37
11th September 1915 Norfolk News; 7th August 1915 Norfolk News; 9th April 1926 Wiltshire News; 26th July 1884 Norwich Mercury; 2nd December 1893 Norfolk Chronicle; 26 July 1884 Thetford & Watton Times
England, Norfolk, Register of Electors, 1832-1915, FamilySearch website
GRO Index. Also via FreeBMD website
1859 Apr 22. Marriage Charles Corston & Susan Barnard. Saint Botolph Bishopsgate, City of London. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England, UK; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P69/BOT4/A/01/MS 4520/18. Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1941 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
1893 Mar 4. Marriage. Henry Edgar Purkiss & Mary Elizabeth Partridge. Saint Mark Deptford: Edward Street, Lewisham. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England, UK; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P75/MRK/004 Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1941 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
1867 Nov 24. Marriage Henry E Purkiss & Emma Mary Goody. St James, Croydon, Surrey. Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: 2809/1/13. Ancestry.com. Surrey, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
1890 Feb 6. Burial Emma Mary Purkiss. Lewisham. Ancestry.com. Web: UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2024 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.Original data: The central database for UK burials and cremations. Deceased Online. https://www.deceasedonline.com/: accessed 18 July 2016.
1889 Dec 13. Marriage. Foulden Parish Church. James Harrison & Ellen Gertrude Upton. Norfolk Record Office; Norwich, Norfolk, England; Norfolk Church of England Registers. Ancestry.com. Norfolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Church of England Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office, Norwich, Norfolk, England.
Great Ellingham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office PD 609. Also available to view at www.familysearch.org