Photograph taken December 2023 Great Ellingham is fortunate to have a wealth of historical houses. Many of these may have narrowly escaped the fate of demolition, as happened to so many of the village’s old cottages. Glenfield House and Glenfield Cottage comprise the characterful thatched house standing along the Attleborough Road, near to the junction…
Category: Houchin
The History of Glenfield House & Cottage – Part III
Photograph taken December 2023 In Parts I and II of the ‘History of Glenfield House & Cottage”, we looked at the owners and occupiers of this delightful thatched and tiled house from around 1762 until 1865. Here in Part III, we continue the story. ‘Glenfield’ It is only in relatively recent times that the thatched…
The History of The Crown Public House – Part II
In the past, there were at least five pubs in Great Ellingham. Today, The Crown is the only pub remaining. The Crown Public House, the venue for the Heritage Open Days’ events in 2023 & 2024 There has been an inn or public house on either the exact same spot, or very near to, the…
Auction of Three ‘Capital Detached’ Cottages in Long Street
Royal Hotel Attleborough On the 14th June, 1906, an auction of property in Attleborough, Besthorpe, Bunwell, Deopham and Great and Little Ellingham took place at the Royal Hotel, Attleborough. Owned by the late Mr W Dawes, the properties were sold in 12 Lots. Great Ellingham Cottages The properties described in Lots 9, 10 and 11…
Ellis Clarke’s Successful Emigration from Rocklands to Tasmania
Ellis Clarke’s Railway Coffee Palace in Ulverstone, Tasmania. Ellis’s son Stephen and his wife Louisa are in the ‘buggy’. Courtesy of Kim O’Brien Death some 10,500 miles from his native home of Rocklands Ellis Clarke died in August 1903 at his home at the Railway Coffee Palace in Ulverstone, Tasmania. He was born in Rockland…
Charles & Jane Clarke – Sponsored Passage from Rocklands to Tasmania
By the time that Charles and Jane Clarke secured sponsorship for their emigration to Tasmania in 1855, they likely knew what to expect ‘on the other side of the world’. Charles’s eldest brother Robert and his wife and family had emigrated to South Australia the previous year. Although this was a time before the telephone…
From Rocklands to South Australia – the Clarke & Barham Families
Passenger Ship Bound for Australia The emigrant passenger ship the Joseph Rowan left Liverpool on the 21st March, 1854, with around 376 ‘government passengers’ bound for South Australia. The passage for these emigrants may well have been covered by one of the assisted-government schemes. The Australian colonial governments particularly wanted skilled labourers and single women….
James & Ann Clarke of Great Ellingham & Rocklands
I am always thrilled to hear from descendants of people who once lived in Great Ellingham. I am also grateful for additional information – particularly photographs of past villagers who once walked along the very same streets as we do today. This is the story of James and Ann Clarke who began their life together…
Edward Howchen, Primitive Methodist Preacher
Church Street. Methodist Church. Postcard courtesy of Carol Ewin At the age of 75, Edward Howchen was laid to rest in the cemetery in Wymondham in the August of 1892. The 1891 census captures Edward Howchen with his wife Maria living in Middleton Street, Wymondham. The census tells us that Edward was a Primitive Methodist…
Disorderly Behaviour at the Prince of Wales
Illustration by Christine Fuller Court Case Edward Houchin, a blacksmith, of Great Ellingham was summoned to appear before the Magistrates at the East Harling Petty Sessions by the landlord of the Prince of Wales Public House, Benjamin Lane. Houchin was charged with being drunk and disorderly and failing to quit the Prince of Wales when…