Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown in Great EllinghamCourtesy Shirley Caston Deeds contain fascinating and interesting information. For example, details of the land, premises, owners, occupiers and even lenders. Maps or plans drawn on early Indentures are ‘few and far between’. Accordingly, these early documents describe the position…
Category: Negus
The Marriage Settlement of Harriet Barnard and Richard Clarke
Historically it was common for aristocratic families, the gentry and those families owning land, to want to control the descent of their property. This could be done by incorporating a trust within a purchase deed or in a Will. However it was also common to do this by Marriage Settlements. Arranged Marriages For centuries, arranged…
Henry Norton’s Messuages along the main road to Rocklands
Rookery Farm is a substantial property approached by a short drive from the Watton Road, near to the border with Rocklands. Indeed a very small portion of the land belonging to the farm once crossed the parish boundary into Rocklands. Perhaps this is still the case today. Extract from 1906 Ordnance Survey Map. Second Edition….
Town Green at the beginning of the 18th Century
Extract from 1802 Map of Great Ellingham. Russell James Colman Plans. Norfolk Record Office Cat. Ref. C/Ca 1/84. All rights reserved Norfolk Record Office. With kind permission of NRONorth is to the top of the map The ‘triangle’ of Town Green will be familiar to those living in the village today as it was to…
1865 Auction Sale of Barnaby Barnard’s Properties in Bow Street
During the early to mid-nineteenth century, Wymondham born Barnaby Ezekiel Barnard (also known as Barnabas Ezekiel Barnard), a yeoman, of Rockland St Peter, owned several properties in Great Ellingham. In his last will and testament, he appointed the Reverend William Bird (also of Rockland St Peter), and Ellis Turner, a farmer of Caston, as his…
Sale of Reversion or Remainder in fee expectant on the decease of Widow
1818 Auction of Freehold Property On the 28th February, 1818, the Norfolk Chronicle published the notice of a forthcoming auction of premises in Great Ellingham. The auction would take place at four o’clock on the 12th March, 1818, at the Crown Public House in Great Ellingham. The premises appeared in two lots: Whereabouts was the…
Poplar Farmhouse – an Ancient Timber Framed Building
Poplar Farm, Long Street. Courtesy of Susan Fay In the informative booklet, A Little History of Great Ellingham, the authors describe ‘Poplar Farm’ as “an ancient timber framed building purporting to be made from reclaimed ship’s timber”. “This house has a long corridor down one side’”. The booklet also mentions that there is a spring…
Sixth Footpath called ‘Church Path’ discontinued in the early c18th
The Inclosures Map for Great Ellingham of 1802 shows four connecting footways weaving their way through various inclosures of land between Long Street and the road leading to the town of Attleborough. However, these four footpaths (together with ten others), were ‘put by and discontinued ‘ by the Inclosure (Great Ellingham) Act of 1799. Extract…
Robert Barnard of Great Ellingham Hall
Around the time of the Act of Parliament for the dividing, allotting and inclosing the commons and waste grounds in Great Ellingham c.1800, Robert Barnard owned several properties as well as some 35 acres of land in the village. However save for 30 acres of land, the properties owned by Robert Barnard were let to…
Fourteen Footways Discontinued by the Commissioners
Before the Great Ellingham Inclosure Act of 1799, there were several paths threading their way through the village. No doubt many of these footways were in constant use by the villagers to get from one part of the village to another, or to travel to the adjacent villages or towns. Some of these ancient paths…