Auction The Norfolk News of 17th September, 1864, announced a forthcoming Auction taking place in Great Ellingham on September 26th, 1864. The Auction would include the live and dead farming stock, household furniture and other effects belonging to the late Robert Le Grice. Amongst these items were two tumbrils, a road waggon, ploughs, harrows, luggage…
Category: Places and Buildings
April Fool’s Prank by George Anderson?
Illustration by Christine Fuller The Norwich Mercury of April 12th, 1905 reported on the case of the theft of a hen heard recently at the East Harling Petty Sessions. George Anderson of Great Ellingham was charged with stealing a hen belonging to farmer Josiah Carter at Great Ellingham on the 1st April. Given the date…
WANTED: Respectable Housekeeper
Advertisement for Housekeeper An advertisement for a ‘housekeeper to a working man’ appeared in the ‘Wanted’ section of the Norwich Mercury of 25th February, 1905. It was stated that the housekeeper should be around the age of 30, respectable and preference would be given to applicant’s with small dairy experience. I wonder how many applications…
Choir Stalls Painted Dark Green
Great Ellingham Parish Church of St James St James is fundamentally a mid-14th century church. Kelly’s Directory of 1904, describes the church as “a spacious building of flint, with stone dressings, in an Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north porch and an embattled western tower with spire, containing 5…
Anthony Beales sells his Windmill to John Browne in 1685
Since the 1600s, Great Ellingham has had at least three windmills at various times. The earliest evidence of a mill in the village which I have so far discovered, is a Conveyance Deed of 1685. On the “Twelfth day of October in the first yeare of the Reigne of our most gracious Soveraigne Lord King…
The Erection of the British School in 1855
Before the nineteenth century, there was no national system for education. Opportunities for formal education were generally only available to those who could afford to pay. The schools that did exist relied on the generosity of local benefactors or people trying to make a living. Very few children received any schooling. The former British School…
John Bartram Bound Over to Keep the Peace for Six Months
Court Case The Norfolk News of 1st April 1876, reported on a case heard at the East Harling Petty Sessions on the previous Tuesday. John Bartram described as a farmer of Great Ellingham was charged with using threatening language to William Myhill. Myhill was also a farmer of Great Ellingham. Bartram was bound over in…
Payment of Legacies to be made in the Porch of St James
Porch at the Church of St James Great Ellingham Isaac Eke buried in 1784 In his will dated December 13th, 1779, yeoman Isaac Eke of Great Ellingham nominated the porch of the Parish Church of Great Ellingham as the place where his executors will hand over the legacies which Isaac sets out in his will….
‘Copings’ on the Church Wall made at the Brick Kiln, Hingham Road
Part of the church wall at Great Ellingham showing the coping stones According to the author of ‘A Little History of Great Ellingham‘ the coping stones to the northern end of the front wall of the Church of St James, Great Ellingham came from bricks made at Brick Kiln Farm around 1850. It is also…
‘A Miller’s Account’
The Norwich Mercury of 26th November, 1902 reported on the case of Underwood -v- Wilkin which was heard at the County Court at Attleborough on the previous Saturday. The newspaper report’s heading was ‘A Miller’s Account‘. The parties in the action were the Plaintiff, James William Underwood, and J. Wilkin junior, the Defendant. James Underwood…