In 1800, there were three farms along Penhill Road.
William Cockell owns the farm furthest west. It is occupied by William Stebbings. Much later, this farm became known as Penhill Farm West.
Joseph Flodman Clover owns a nearby farm. This farm is ‘split’ between two occupiers. Robert Pain occupies the cottage with a barn and yard. Thomas Steward is farming the 26 acres or so belonging to Clover. This farm is Home Cottage Farm.
The third farm is the farm nearest to the village. This is owned and occupied by John and Elizabeth Turner. It later became known as Penhill Farm.
Extract from 1802 Map of Great Ellingham. Russell James Colman Plans. All rights reserved Norfolk Record Office Cat. Ref. C/Ca 1/84.
It is only in more recent times that the names of farms or buildings have become established. Confusingly at one time, ‘Penhill Farm’ and ‘Penhill Farm West’ are both referred to as ‘Penhill Farm’!
Penhill Farm
Penhill Farm on the far left of this photograph taken June 2026
In Part I, we looked at the ownership of the property which is today known as Penhill Farm. However, the present farmhouse of Penhill Farm was built around 1926. The original farmhouse was likely demolished to make way for the new farmhouse.
For ease of reference, I refer to the farm as ‘Penhill Farm’ whether or not it is known as Penhill Farm at that particular time.
We found that the origins of Penhill Farm date back to at least the 18th century.
At the turn of the 19th centry, the farm is owned and occupied by John and Elizabeth Turner. Their land and property also include a dilapidated mill. This is not the mill which once stood in Mill Lane (nor the brick mill in Church Street), but it may be the mill which, in 1685, Anthony Beales sells to John Browne.
Tenant Occupiers
The Turner family owned the farm for most (if not all) of the 19th century. However, apart from John and Elizabeth Turner and their children, no subsequent members of the Turner family occupied the farm. It was let to tenants.
Here we look at the occupiers of the farm following the deaths of Elizabeth Turner in 1808 and John Turner in 1814.
Robert Simmons
Farmer Robert Simmons may be first tenant occupier of Penhill Farm after John and Elizabeth Turner.
The surname ‘Simmons’ is also found as ‘Semmence’, ‘Summons’ and other variations. However (again for ease of reference), I refer to the family name as Simmons whether or not it is recorded as such in the documentation.
An Estate & Occupations Survey of Great Ellingham c.1830s shows that Turner’s farm is occupied by Simmons.
1841 census
The 1841 census captures 45 year old farmer Robert Simmons with his children Robert 20, Elizabeth 20 and Caroline 15 at the farm. Robert’s wife Sarah is not at the family home on census night.
It is worth noting that the ages given for members of the family on this census are not necessarily accurate as the enumerators were told to ’round down’ the ages of those persons in the household older than 15 to a multiple of 5.
1851 census
Ten years later, the 1851 census finds 59 year old Robert Simmons and his 57 year old wife Sarah still living at the farm in Penhill Road. The household also includes 15 year old Mary Ann Fox. She is the family’s general servant. 25 year old farm labourer Thomas Saundress (Saunders) is also part of the household.
Death of Robert Simmons
Robert Simmons died in Great Ellingham on the 13th January, 1859, the very day on which he put his mark ‘X ‘to his last will and testament.
In his will, Robert Simmons appointed Benjamin Barnard (of nearby Great Ellingham Hall) as his executor.
He left all his moneys, crop and stock, household furniture and effects to his wife Sarah, subject to the payment of his funeral expenses and just debts for ‘her natural life’. However, he did not make further provision as to his assets after Sarah had died!
The witnesses to Robert Simmons’ mark to his will were also local men – Robert Le Grice Jnr and William Brighton. William Brighton is then living at Penhill Farm West.
1861 census
The national headcount of 1861 finds 66 year old widow Sarah Simmons farming the 60 acre farm. She employs three men. Living with Sarah is her 15 year old Middlesex born granddaughter, Sarah Saunders, 13 year old house servant Sarah Houchen and 20 year old farm servant Thomas Richardson.
Death of Sarah Simmons
Widow Sarah Simmons was buried in the churchyard of St James, Great Ellingham on the 6th November, 1869, aged 75 years. However, I believe that Sarah Simmons ceased farming at Penhill Farm a few years before her death.
John Bartram
By 1867, Penhill Farm is occupied by John Bartram.
The name ‘Bartram’ is found in different variations, for example Barttrum, Barttram, Bartrum. However again for ease of reference, I will refer to the name as Bartram.
1871 census
The 1871 census finds 52 year old farmer John Bartram with his 53 year old wife Jane at the 60 acre farm in Penhill Road. I have no doubt that they were at Penhill Farm. With them are their two daughters Maria 18 and Sarah Ann 13.
Jane, daughter of John Warren
John Bartram was born in nearby Morley c.1818. Jane Bartram was born in Great Ellingham c.1817. She is a daughter of farmer, John Warren. John and Jane married in St James’s Church, Great Ellingham on the 22nd September, 1840.
Town Green
However, before moving into Penhill Farm, the Bartrams were in Town Green.
The 1851 census captures John and Jane Bartram at Town Green. 33 year old John Bartram is farming some 40 acres and employs two men. The couple have children Elizabeth 9, Mary 6, Jane 4 and six month old Emma. J
17 year old Ann Jessup is employed as the Bartram family’s general servant and 36 year old unmarried Robert Spencer as a farm labourer.
The Bartram family is still in Town Green at the time of the 1861 census. Now both aged 43, John and Jane Bartram are with their daughters Elizabeth 20, Mary 15, Jane 13, Maria 8 and 3 year old Sarah Ann.
Death & Remarriage
John Bartram buries his wife Jane in the churchyard of St James, Great Ellingham on the 10th January, 1872. Jane Bartram was 54.
In 1878, widower John Bartram marries Miranda Bunn. They probably occupied Penhill Farm until around 1880, when they move to Church Street.
Once again the Turner family have new tenants at Penhill Farm.
William Self
The next tenant is probably William Leonard Self.
Jane Self, daughter of John Bartram
William Leonard Self married Jane Bartram in the Wayland District in 1870. Jane is the daughter of the previous occupiers, John and Jane Bartram. It may be the case that William and Jane Self moved into the farm when Jane’s father and step-mother moved out.
1881 census
The 1881 census fiinds 32 year old Harling born William Leonard Self with his 32 year old wife Jane farming 57 acres in Penhill Road. William Self is employing two men.
The couple have five children who were all born in Great Ellingham. They are Leonard William aged 9, Frederick Robert 7, Arthur John 5, Mary Jane 3 and one year old Walter. The Selfs also employ 16 year old Eliza Banham as a servant.
Death of Jane Self in Wymondham
The Self family were at the farm until they moved to Wymondham before March 1890.
Sadly, 42 year old Jane Self (nèe Bartram) died in Wymondham on the 7th March, 1890 from phthisis. This disease is better known as tuberculosis or consumption. Jane had been living with the illness for at least two years.
During the Victorian era around 1 in 6 people died of the disease. Accordingly, it is not surprising that I have found the illness to affect so many families in the village.
Frederick Brighton
Following the Bartram’s departure, the next tenant is Frederick Brighton.
1891 census
The 1891 census finds 27 year old farmer Frederick Brighton, his 31 year old wife Helen and their daughter Aldyth at Penhill Farm. Helen is the daughter of Great Ellingham Baptist Minister James Toll and his wife Mary. The Brightons employ 18 year old local girl Alice Sizeland as their general servant.
At this time, Frederick’s brother Walter Brighton is farming Penhill Farm West.
Emigration
Frederick and Helen Brighton were at the farm until around 1896. They left Great Ellingham and emigrated to South Africa.
George Sizeland
The next tenant is George Sizeland, who was born in Little Ellingham c.1862.
The 1881 census finds 18 year old George with his parents, 49 year old cattle dealer Samuel Sizeland and 45 year old Mary Ann Sizeland, living in Town Green. George is the eldest of 6 children and is working as a groom.
Samuel and Mary Sizeland were both born in nearby Rockland All Saints. They had moved from Rocklands to Great Ellingham in time for the birth of their son James in 1874.
George moves to Yorkshire
At some point between 1881 and 1891, George Sizeland and his sister Anna move to Rawdon, West Yorkshire. Their parents remain living in Great Ellingham. However, Samuel and Mary Ann Sizeland had moved from Town Green to the Mill House in Mill Lane (since demolished).
The 1891 census captures 28 year old George with his 24 year old sister Anna living in a four-roomed dwelling in Rawdon.
Date & Place unknown. Photographer E R Stewart Stirling. Author’s Collection
George is working as a coachman/domestic groom. Likely he is employed by 72 year old widow Elizabeth Dewhurst and her two unmarried adult sons who are living nearby. Stanley and Frank Dewhurst are merchants and manufacturers of worsted cloth. The Dewhurst household also includes a lady companion, cook, waiting maid and housemaid.
George meets Rachel Drury
Living some 3 miles or so away at The Vicarage, Calverley is 19 year old Rachel Elizabeth Drury. She is one of two housemaids working for 45 year old James W Hatton, the Vicar of Calverley. Although the census gives her place of birth incorrectly as Northampton, I am confident that this is the Rachel Elizabeth Drury who later married George Sizeland.
Of course we do not know how and when the couple first met. It may have been whilst George is waiting with the coach to collect his employers, and Rachel happens to be passing by on an errand for her employer, but this is little more than a guess.
Marriage
Nevertheless, the couple did indeed meet at some point and began a courtship (an out of date name for dating!). They married in the Brotton Parish Church near Saltburn-by-the-sea, on the 14th May, 1894. Following the marriage, the couple returned Rawdon.
Their first known child John was born on the 27th January, 1895 and baptised at the Parish Church of Rawdon on the 7th April, the same year. The baptism entry confirms that George is still working as a coachman and the couple are living at Cragg Royd Lodge, Rawdon.
George returns to Great Ellingham
George and Rachel return to Great Ellingham. They are living in the village – possibly at Penhill Farm, by the time their son George was born in 1897. George was followed by Derek in 1899 and Herbert in 1900.
The 1901 census finds George, Rachel and their four children at a farm in Penhill Road. I have no doubt that it is Penhill Farm. George Sizeland is now 39 and his wife 29.
1911 census
Ten years later, the 1911 census gives the Sizeland family’s place of abode as Penhill Farm, Penhill Road.
48 year old George Sizeland and his 39 year old wife, Rachel now have 8 children.
Emma Mary, Charles James Thomas, Eva Rachel and Doris May have all been born in Great Ellingham since the last census.
The census indicates that unfortunately two of the children have health issues. 11 year old Derek has been ‘lame’ since the age of 4, and 7 year old Charles is living with a curvature of the spine.
Charles may have scoliosis (or a similar condition) which also affected former Great Ellingham Baptist Minister’s daughter Sophia Sparham (c.1852-1897).
The census tells us that the farmhouse comprise of 9 rooms.
The Sizelands were at Penhill Farm until at least 1915.
William Hammond
However by 1916, Penhill Farm is occupied by William and Esther Hammond.
I think it is likely that William Hammond purchased the property from the Turner family. I also believe that it is during William Hammond’s ownership that the ‘new farmhouse’ was built.
It may also be that it was during ammond’s ownership that the ‘old farmhouse’, once the home of many families, was demolished. However, at least some of the ‘old farm buildings’ still remain today.
Sources:
Probate of the Will of Robert Simmons, farmer of Great Ellingham. Proved Norwich 25 February, 1859. Viewed via www.familysearch.org
Death Registration Image. Jane Self. 7th March 1890. Obtained from GRO
7th April 1895 Baptism John Sizeland. Rawdon St Peter, West Yorkshire. West Yorkshire Archive Service; Wakefield, Yorkshire, England; Yorkshire Parish Records; New Reference Number: WDP90/2/2. Ancestry.com. West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Yorkshire Parish Records. Leeds, England: West Yorkshire Archive Service.
14th May 1894. Marriage. Brotton Parish Church. George Sizeland & Rachel Elizabeth Drury. Teesside Archives; Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England; Parish Registers for the area covered by Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland; Reference: PR/BRP/14 Ancestry.com. Teesside, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1939 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2024. Original data: Parish Registers for the area covered by Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland. Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England: Teesside Archives.
Great Ellingham Parish Registers Norfolk Record Office Reference PD/609. Also available at FamilySearch.org https://www.familysearch.org/
England, Norfolk, Register of Electors, 1832-1915, FamilySearch website
England & Wales Electoral Registers 1832-1932. Great Ellingham. Southern Division. The British Library. Viewed via www.ancestry.co.uk
1799-1842 F W Horner, Records of the Surveyors to Commissioners for Inclosure in Parishes in Norfolk and Suffolk. Great Ellingham (Act 1799). Norfolk Record Office. Catalogue Ref: NRO, BR 90/2
Great Ellingham Tithe Map 1843. Tithe Apportionments, 1836-1929 [database online]. TheGenealogist.co.uk 2023. Original data: “IR29 Tithe Commission and successors: Tithe Apportionments” The National Archives
1841 census HO107/781/8
1851 census HO107/1823/112-113; HO107/1823/108
1861 census RG9/1237/81-82; RG9/1237/79
1871 census RG10/1841/77-78
1881 census RG11/1974/82-83; RG11/1974/81
1891 census RG12/1549/71; RG12/3525/53; RG12/3654/37A
1901 census RG13/1867/68
1911 census RG14/11473/57-62
GRO Index. Also viewed via FreeBMD website
18th June 1926 Diss Express viewed via The British Newspaper Archive
Willis, Simon. (2013) ‘Tuberculosis’ How Our Ancestors Died. Pen & Sword Books Ltd., Page numbers 169 to 175