Extract from 1906 Ordnance Survey Map. Second Edition. Surveyed in 1881. Revised 1904. Courtesy Martin Jeffery
Holly Croft Farm is a delightful property in Bow Street.
Tenement ‘Newmans’
The origins of the present farmhouse may well have been a tenement called Newmans. This tenement is referred to in the historical deeds to the property at least as far back as 1731. However, there is also reference to an earlier nearby cottage. Accordingly, the beginnings of Holly Croft Farm may include an earlier cottage.
The property had nine owners between 1696 and 1900 – a period of some 200 years. However, seven people owned the property during the period 1908 to 1928 – a mere 20 years!
1908 Jeremiah Dunnett & Horace Pike
This includes Jeremiah Dunnett who, in effect, never owned the property. Whilst he entered into an agreement for sale with the owner (Whellum) to purchase the property, on completion of the transaction, Dunnett simultaneously sold the property on to a third party (Horace Pike).
1918 Pike sells to Browne
We pick up the history of Holly Croft Farm in 1918. The property had been in the ownership of Horace Greaves Pike since he purchased it in 1908. Horace Pike had already moved away from Great Ellingham to Halstead, Essex. He let the farm to Bedfordshire born man Levi Ibbett.
Extract from Indenture dated 12 September 1918. Pike to Browne. Courtesy Roger Banks
On the 12th September, 1918, Horace Pike sold the farm to Nigel Elrington Browne, a gentleman, of Wymondham. Browne paid £400 for the following described property:
ALL THAT Farm with the messuage or dwelling house barn stable outhouses garden orchard closes and pieces or panels of arable and pasture land situate next Bow Street in the Parish of Great Ellingham in the County of Norfolk containing altogether seven acres two roods and thirty three perches or thereabouts whereof two pieces lie on the north side of Bow Street aforesaid and the remaining pieces whereof together with the said messuage and buildings standing thereon lie on the south side of Bow Street aforesaid as the same were formerly in the occupation of the vendor and now of Levi Ibbell [Ibbett] and are bounded on or towards the north by hereditaments of [ ] on or towards the south by hereditaments of the Trustees of Charles Theophilus Cannell on or towards the east by hereditaments of the said Charles Theophilus Cannell and J Walker respectively and on or towards the west by hereditaments of the said Charles Theophilus Cannell J Walker and Edward Herbert Johnson respectively
This is the very same described property that the Reverend William Lobb purchased from George Cady in 1845.
Duty Paid
The ‘stamp’ endorsed on the Indenture of the 12th September, 1918, between Pike and Browne, shows that ‘Increment Value Duty‘ was paid in relation to this transaction. However, I do not know how much tax was paid.
1919 Mortgage
Browne probably moved into the property.
On the 21st March, 1919, Nigel Browne borrowed £150 from Lena Gooch, a married woman, of Wymondham. He uses the farm as security for the loan. The Mortgage Deed recites Browne’s address as ‘Great Ellingham’. In addition, Browne is stated to be the occupier of the property.
However just eighteen months after completing the mortgage with Lena Gooch, Nigel Browne sells the property.
1920 Purchase by Fellowes
On the 9th November, 1920, Algernon Godfrey Butler Fellowes of Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, completes his purchase of the small farm in Great Ellingham from Nigel Elrington Browne.
Although Browne had paid all the interest due on his mortgage to Lena Gooch, the principal sum of £150 was outstanding. Accordingly, Lena Gooch joined in the Conveyance Deed.
The purchase price was £500. Of this sum, Lena Gooch received £150 with the balance paid to Nigel Browne.
Description of the Property
This is the first Deed which includes a description and a schedule of the property. However, this is the very same property which Horace Pike had purchased in 1908.
Extract from the Conveyance 2nd November 1920. Gooch and Browne to Fellows. Courtesy Roger Banks
Extract from 1906 Ordnance Survey Map. Second Edition. Surveyed in 1881. Revised 1904. Courtesy Martin Jeffery
The numbers shown on the above extract from the 1906 Ordnance Survey Map correspond with the Schedule to the 1920 Conveyance Deed.
Algernon Godfrey Butler Fellowes
1911 Census
The 1911 Canadian census captures 47 year old farmer Algernon Fellowes in Oxford, Ontario, Canada. With him is his wife Emily aged 50 and two children, Edna and Stanley. The census tells us that Algernon was born in England and emigrated to Canada in 1885.
Return to England
Around two months after completing his purchase of the farm in Bow Street, Algernon with his wife Emily make their way back to England. They boarded the White Star ‘Canada‘ at Halifax Nova Scotia and arrived at the port of Liverpool on the 31st January, 1921.
Presumably, the couple immediately made their way to Great Ellingham.
Short Tenure
However, Algernon’s ownership of the property was short. Just four months after returning from Canada, he sells the property.
Death of Algernon Fellowes
Algernon Godfrey Butler Fellowes died in Great Ellingham at the age of 68. He was buried in the churchyard of St James on the 23rd August, 1934. However, I do not know whereabouts he lived following his sale of the Bow Street farm.
Further Fellowes link to Great Ellingham
Nevertheless, there is another Fellowes family link to Great Ellingham.
The 1939 Register captures Algernon’s married daughter, Edna B Easlea, with her farmer husband, William J F Eastlea, living in Hingham Road, Great Ellingham.
Algernon’s widow, Emily Fellowes, is living with her daughter and son in law. Given that the William and Edna Eastlea were living in Hingham Road from at least 1920, I wonder whether Algernon and his wife lived with their daughter.
1921 Woodcock Buys the Property
Turning back to Algernon Fellowes’ sale of the Bow Street property. Gamekeeper Arthur Edward Woodcock of Vine Cottage, Tittleshall completed his purchase of the farm on the 9th May, 1921.
Woodcock paid £575 for the exact property which Fellowes had purchased just six months earlier from Nigel Browne.
Woodcock’s tenure was also relatively short. Within 18 months of moving into the Bow Street farm, Woodcock sells the property.
1922 Purchaser Harry Corley
Farmer Harry Smith Corley of Stow Bedon purchased the Bow Street farm from Woodcock on the 17th October, 1922. The purchase price was £625.
1911 Census
The 1911 census captures 30 year old Harry Corley with his 30 year old wife Alice in Mattishall. Harry was born in Stow Bedon and his wife in Attleborough.
Although they had been married for some six years, the couple had no children at this time.
1923
The Electoral Register of 1923 lists Harry and Alice Corley at ‘The Croft’ in Bow Street. This is the first reference I have found for the name of the farm.
1928 Mortgage
On the 28th January, 1928, George Jessup Norman, a railway station master, of Burston advances Harry Corley the sum of £200. The loan was secured by his Bow Street farm.
However, the loan was short term. Corley repaid the mortgage debt in full on the 31st May, 1928.
A week later, Corley sells the property.
1928 Goddard Purchases the Property
On the 6th June, 1928, Cecil Walter Goddard, a farmer of Ashill, Norfolk, completed his purchase of the Bow Street farm from Harry Corley.
Goddard paid £580 for the entire property comprising the seven acres two roods and thirty three perches. The price was some £45 less than the amount of £625 which Corley had paid for the property in 1922. Was this linked to the struggling British economy at this time?
Goddard’s insurance document with the Norwich Union dated 21st September, 1928, gives us a detailed description of the Bow Street farm as it was at this time:
Extract from Norwich Union Fire Insurance Policy dated 21st September 1928. Cecil Walter Goddard. Courtesy Roger Banks
Cecil’s Early Life
Cecil Goddard was born in Watton on the 2nd January, 1905. The 1911 census captures 6 year old Cecil with his parents, James and Rosa Goddard, and siblings at Neaton Farm, Watton. James Goddard was a self employed farmer and dealer.
Marriage
In 1934, Cecil married Constance Rivett, the daughter of Great Ellingham poultry dealer and farmer, Frederick Rivett and his wife Violet.
Although Cecil and Constance Goddard may have lived at the Bow Street farm after their marriage, they moved from Great Ellingham by 1939.
1939
The 1939 Register captures Cecil and Constance Goddard at 454 Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, Essex. Cecil’s occupation is described as ‘Market Garden and Smallholder Farm Produce Merchant at Ellingham, Norfolk’. Constance is a manager of a grocery shop which also sold other items.
Was this a permanent move? I think it was.
Alfred and Beatrice Filby and their two children may have been living at Goddard’s farm at the time the 1939 Register was compiled. However, I cannot be certain.
In any event, I believe Cecil Goddard sold his Bow Street farm, by then known as ‘The Croft’, in 1941. Later it became Holly Croft Farm.
Sources:
Year: 1911; Census Place: 26 – Oxford West, Oxford South, Ontario; Page: 10; Family No: 119. Ancestry.com. 1911 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 689; Item: 60. Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
Great Ellingham Parish Registers Norfolk Record Office PD 609. Also available at www.familysearch.org
The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: Rg101/6590h. Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.
The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: Rg 101/1121j. Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.
The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: Rg 101/6590h. Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.
1920, Spring Register. Southern Parliament Division of the County of Norfolk. Polling District of Great Ellingham. Parish of Great Ellingham.
1923, Autumn Register. Southern Parliament Division of the County of Norfolk. Polling District of Great Ellingham. Parish of Great Ellingham.
England, Norfolk Register of Electors, 1832-1915.” Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 18 July 2022. Citing Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace. Record Office, Central Library, Norwich
1911 census RG14/11505/38; RG14/11492/173; RG14/11473/103
1934 Marriages Sep Qtr Rivett, Constance M. Goddard, Cecil W. Wayland 4b 625. GRO Index. FreeBMD website. https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=lUd%2FiLaG4upGZyMEUR8c7w&scan=1
Private Deeds Collection. Property in Bow Street, Great Ellingham. Thanks to Roger & Sue Banks