Many of us will be familiar with the large recreation ground we are fortunate to have in our village. But I wonder whether any of us have ever thought how long the village has actually had the recreation ground. Farm Meadows Before the creation of a designated recreation ground, several owners of the larger farms…
Category: Turner
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….
William J Norton brings his Great Grandfather’s Trust to an End
At the turn of the 19th century, Henry Norton was one of three significant landowners in Great Ellingham. Like the other notable proprietors, Norton did not live in the village. Henry Norton completes his Purchase from Turner On the 6th November, 1790, Henry Norton completed his purchase of two farms with a considerable amount of…
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…
Two Closely Connected Farms in Long Street
At the beginning of the 19th century, Francis Parke owned a farm (which included a farmhouse, barn, yard, garden, outbuildings and some 59 acres) in Long Street, Great Ellingham. Parke also owned an additional nearby barn. Extract from 1802 Map of Great Ellingham. All rights reserved Norfolk Record Office. Cat. Ref. C/Ca 1/84. With kind…
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…
Chelsea Pensioner’s Wife convicted of a Violent Assault
In the August of 1852, Rhoda Carter of Great Ellingham appeared before a special sitting of the Petty Sessions at Attleborough. She was charged with violently assaulting Elizabeth Fame of Hingham. However, the report in the Norfolk News of the 28th August, 1852, did not provide specific details of the offence. Was this just a…
Messuage built upon the tenement Greenhouse – Part I
Copyhold Tenure Until the abolishment of copyhold tenure in 1922, Great Ellingham (like many other towns and villages throughout the country), was a mixture of freehold and copyhold land. Copyhold land was subject to the customs of the manorial court. Any change of ownership had to go through the Lord (or Lady) of the Manor,…
Ellis Carter buys a Homestead at Town Green
In this blog, I follow a paper trail to uncover a succession of owners of a small farmhouse in Town Green, Great Ellingham. I begin with the auction of the property in 1884, and take the ownership back to at least 1800, and, perhaps, even further to the 1700s. 1884 Auction The Crown Public House…
A Link with the Past: The Poor’s Firing Land
In the informative booklet “A Little History of Great Ellingham“, the author, Mr William Robert Lebbell (1885-1965), mentions that (in the 1960s) the ‘Poor’s Firing Land’ was the only link from the time of the Great Ellingham Inclosures (c.1800) with modern Great Ellingham. Mr Lebbell describes the pieces of land as being untended and in…