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.
In Part I, we established that the farmhouse was probably built between 1843 and 1861. We took the history forward to 1879, when the property was occupied by Samuel Dixon.
Part II covered the tenure of Charles Surrage from 1879. We continued the story of the owners and occupiers of the farmhouse through to 1921, when James Harrison sells the property to Levi Ibbett.
Part III takes the history from 1921 to Edwin Robert Houchen’s sale to Frederick Albert Roberts in 1938.
Homelea Farm in the distance centre of the photograph
June 2026
Here, we continue the story.
Houchen to Roberts
On the 13th January 1938, Edwin Robert Houchen sells Homelea Farm to Frederick Albert Roberts of Great Cressingham. Houchen had only owned the property for around three months, and had never lived at the property. It had ‘lately’ been occupied by W.R. Clarke.
Frederick Albert Roberts
Roberts paid £340 for Homelea Farm with the barn and other outbuildings, and just over 16 acres of land. However, £150 of the purchase price is ‘loaned’ to Frederick Roberts by Houchen on a mortgage.
Accordingly, the following day, Frederick Roberts signs a mortgage deed in favour of Houchen to secure the loan of £150 plus interest. The deed includes the usual covenants on Roberts for repairs to the property and insurance. In the event, the mortgage is fully repaid by the 13th October, 1941.
Frederick Roberts had married his wife Julia some years earlier. The marriage between 25 year old poultry farmer Frederick Albert Roberts and 23 year old spinster Julia Mary Collison had taken place on the 29th July, 1933 in the Parish Church at Swaffham. Frederick was then living in Cockley Cley.
Five years later, and on completing the purchase of Homelea Farm, the couple came to Great Ellingham. By then Frederick and Julia had a son, who was born in 1935.
Evacuee Alfred J Pratt
The 1939 England & Wales Register lists Frederick (then aged 31) with Julia 29 at Homelea Farm, Great Ellingham.
There are four other persons in the household, including 9 year old Alfred J Pratt.
I have no doubt that Alfred is one of the evacuees who came to the village from the London Fields School in Hackney. Details of the other three individuals have been redacted from the online Register to protect their privacy, as they may still be living – or, at least living at the time the Register was released in the public domain.
Two of these individuals are likely to be Frederick and Julia’s sons. The eldest born in 1935, and the youngest son born in 1939 in Great Ellingham. The other individual may well be another evacuee.
1942 Invasion Committee Records
The Roberts family are still living at Homelea Farm when local man, William Robert Lebbell, compiled the 1942 Invasion Committee Records. As part of the war effort, Frederick Roberts is a member of the home guard and Julia has been assigned general utility duties. They have two children with them. Again, these are likely to be their sons. Evacuee Alfred Pratt has either returned home to Hackney, or is now lodging with another family.
The Roberts Family move to Beccles
Between 1942 and 1944, Frederick Roberts moved his family to King’s Farm, Sotherton, Beccles. However, he still owns Homelea Farm. The farm is let to Stanley Savory.
Stanley James Savory
Before coming to Great Ellingham, Stanley Savory and his wife Violet lived at White House Farm, Badley Moor, near East Dereham.
On the 31st October, 1944, 58 year old Stanley Savory purchased the farm from Frederick Roberts. The purchase price was £1,100. The farm comprise the same farmhouse, buildings and land which Roberts had purchased from Edwin Robert Houchen in 1938.
Move to Garvestone
Before the farm was sold in 1959, Stanley and Violet Savory moved to Reymerstone Road, Garvestone, a village no more than 7 miles from Great Ellingham. I do not know exactly when the Savorys moved out, or whether the farm is then occupied by a tenant.
New Owner Eric Samuel Sizeland
However on the 9th May, 1959, Stanley Savory sells the farm to Eric Samuel Sizeland of Mill Farm, Deopham.
Eric is the son of Rocklands born Samuel Sizeland and his wife Rebecca nèe Dixon. They once lived at Southview in Long Street.
By 1959, both of Eric’s parents were deceased. However, as a child around 1878, Rebecca had lived at the farm with her parents, Samuel and Jane Dixon. I wonder whether Eric Sizeland was aware of this when he purchased the farm.
On the 13th October, 1967, Eric Sizeland sold Homelea Farm to his son. The farm remained in the same family’s ownership until 1973.
Sources:
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills & Administrations) 1858-1995. Stanley James Savoury Death date 10 Apr 1965. Principal Probate Registry; London, England; Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Private Deeds Collection. J & A Hughes
29 Jul 1933 Marriage Frederick Albert Roberts & Julia Mary Collison. Swaffham. Norfolk, Church of England Marriages & Banns 1754-1938. 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.
GRO Index, also viewed via FreeBMD website
1939 England & Wales Register. The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/6590H. Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register [database on-line]. Draper, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.
1942 Great Ellingham Invasion Committee Records. Sue Fay