Extract from a map attached to Auction Particulars for Hawhill Farm Great Ellingham dated September 1920
Original document held at Wymondham Town Archive
Hawhill Farm is shown to the centre-right on the above map. The farm was demolished during WWII to make way for Deopham Green Airfield. However, this was not the only building to be demolished.
At least four other dwellings were pulled down. The green arrow on the above map points to the position of these cottages. They are also shown on the plan below. But when were the cottages built?
Extract from 1906 Ordnance Survey Map. Second Edition. Surveyed in 1881. Revised 1904. Courtesy Martin Jeffery
Inclosure Map
We know from the Great Ellingham Inclosure Map of 1802, that the cottages did not exist at the turn of the 19th century. The green arrow on the extract from the Inclosure Map (below) shows a parcel of land, known as “Baldings Pightle”.
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 NRO
Richard Dey
Richard Dey (Dye) owned ‘Balding’s Pightle’. He also owned a small adjoining piece of land. Dey lived and farmed at Hawhill Farm, which he leased from Lord Walsingham.
By 1819, the two pieces of land became one, and measured 1 acre, 1 rood and 37 perches (1a 1r 37p). Richard Dey continued to own ‘Balding’s Pightle’ until at least the 1830s.
The Great Ellingham Tithe Map of 1843, reveals the owner of the piece of land (formerly known as ‘Balding’s Pightle’) as ‘Goddard’.
Cottage & Gardens
Now divided again into two separate pieces, Robert Legatt and Ben. Long occupied the parcel of land referred to in the Tithe Map schedule as ‘Gardens’ measuring 2 roods and 22 perches, with William Beales ‘& Others’ occupying the ‘Cottage & Gardens’ which covered an area of 3 roods and 15 perches. Together, these measure 1a 1r 37p.
Accordingly one cottage existed by 1843. Nevertheless, it probably comprised two tenements.
Owner George Goddard
I believe the owner of the cottage and gardens to be Little Ellingham farmer George Goddard.
Little Ellingham Parish Church. Photograph taken May 2020
George was the son of Edmund and Hannah Goddard. His parents took him for baptism at St Peter’s Church, Little Ellingham on the 4th November, 1805.
On the 24th December, 1834, George Goddard married Sophia Ann King Barnes in the same church.
Great Ellingham Connection
Sophia was the daughter of William and Sophia Barnes (nèe King). Sophia King’s parents were Thomas King and his second wife, Sarah Laiten. They lived at the farmhouse in Church Street, Great Ellingham, which later became known as Mill Farmhouse. Sadly, Sophia’s mother, Sophia Barnes (née King) died just a year after her daughter married George King.
Children
Within two years of her marriage to George Goddard, Sophia gave birth to their first son, James Barnes Goddard. On the 1st April, 1836, George and Sophia took their young son for baptism at the Parish Church in Little Ellingham.
A year later, Sophia gave birth to a daughter, Anna Maria Goddard. The infant was baptised on the 28th August, 1837. William Barnes Goddard arrived in 1839, and baptised 4th December.
1841
The census of 1841 finds George and Sophia Goddard and their three young children living with George’s parents, Edmund and Hannah Goddard, at Anchor Corner, Little Ellingham. Like his son George, Edmund Goddard is also a farmer.
Death of George Goddard
Tragically George Goddard died at the age of 38 on the 11th April, 1842. A few days’ later, Sophia buried her husband in the churchyard at Little Ellingham.
However just days (or weeks) before George’s death, Sophia gave birth to their daughter Ruth Rebecca.
The inscription on George’s memorial in the churchyard at Little Ellingham, refers to the fact that George had left behind ‘four dear babes‘.
On the 10th July, 1842, widow Sophia Goddard took her infant daughter Ruth Rebecca for baptism in St Peter’s Church.
I have no doubt that George Goddard owned the cottage and gardens at ‘Stalland Common’ at the time of his death.
Sophia Goddard remarries
The following year, on the 13th April, 1843, widow Sophia Goddard married another local farmer, Robert Starke.
Given that the couple obtained a ‘Marriage Licence’ (and thus avoiding the necessity for the reading of the Banns of Marriage), it would seem that Sophia and Robert were either in a hurry to marry, or did not want their intended marriage publicised.
1851
The 1851 census captures Robert and Sophia Starke (both aged 34) living in Anchor Lane, Little Ellingham. Robert Starke is a farmer of some 45 acres and he employs at least two men.
With them are their two young daughters – 3 year old Augusta Ann and one month old Lydia Martha. Three of Sophia’s children with her late husband George Goddard, are also with their mother and step-father – 13 year old Anna Maria , William Barnes aged 11 and eight year old Ruth Rebecca.
Stalling Common Occupiers
Living in Stalling (Stalland) Common at this time is 39 year old farm labourer Benjamin Long with his 38 year old wife Hannah and two children John 16 and three year old Mariah. Hannah’s widowed father, Henry Balls, is also with the Long household. The census describes 74 year old Henry Balls as a ‘pauper’.
Nearby is 49 year old widower and farm labourer William Beales. With him is his three children 17 year old William, Charles 14 and 8 year old Mary Ann. 24 year old single woman Sarah Barnard and her two children, Ellen 3 and six month old Elizabeth is also with the household. She is William Beales’s housekeeper.
Another nearby household is that of 69 year old pauper Robert Leggett. He is with his 70 year old wife Sarah and lodger, 55 year old gardener Thomas King.
We know from the Tithe Map and associated schedules that ‘Goddard’s’ cottage and gardens were occupied by Robert Leggatt, Ben. Long, William Beales and others.
It follows that the cottage occupied by Leggatt and Long was built between 1843 and 1851.
I have no doubt that the Goddard/Starke family owned the cottages.
Owners Goddard/Starke
In my view Sophia Starke (late Goddard) continued to own the properties at Stalland Common with her husband Robert Starke. However it is not until 1868/69 that I can find a very likely reference to the cottages in the Electoral Registers.
At that time, Robert Starke owned ‘freehold cottages and gardens at Strolling Common’. It is not unusual to find Stalland Common referred to as ‘Strolling or Stolling Common’.
Deaths of Robert & Sophia Starke
Sophia King Barnes Starke, a granddaughter of Great Ellingham born farmer Thomas King, died on the 11th November, 1884.
Her second husband, Robert Starke, died on the 9th June, 1886.
They are buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church, Little Ellingham.
Ownership & Occupiers of the Cottages
I have yet to discover who owned the cottages on Stalland Common following the death of both Robert and Sophia Starke. This can be difficult to establish without sight of old deeds and documents!
However, it can be equally difficult to establish who lived in the cottages. In particular, the early census returns only record the street or area in which a household is living. The boundaries or name of that area or street can change over time. Further, the order of the census schedules does not always correspond with the households as they are in the actual street!
Some electoral registers will provide the names of property owners and details of the property itself. However, the majority of adult males were ineligible to vote until the 1880s. Accordingly, they do not appear as occupiers of properties until after the 1880s. In addition, the right for women to cast a vote came in much later.
Accordingly, if you know of anyone who owned or occupied these cottages (or have any additional information), please contact me.
Sources:
1800 Inclosure Commissioner’s Particulars and Valuation. Great Ellingham. Norfolk Record Office MC2213/119
F.W. Horner, Records of the Surveyors to Commissioners for Inclosure in Parishes in Norfolk & Suffolk. 1799-1842. Great Ellingham (Act 1799). Norfolk Record Office. Catalogue Ref BR 90/2
1802 Map of Great Ellingham. Russell James Colman Plans. Norfolk Record Office. Catalogue Ref. C/Ca 1/84
Great Ellingham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office. PD 609. Also available via https://www.familysearch.org and www.ancestry.co.uk
Little Ellingham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office. PD 568 Transcription viewed via Norfolk Family History website.
Little Ellingham Memorial Inscription. Transcription Norfolk Family History Society.
1841 census H0107/785/18
1851 census HO107/1823/140
England, Norfolk Register of Electors, 1832-1915, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HYB-FM9 : Wed Feb 28 04:41:17 UTC 2024), Entry for Robert Starke, 1868-1869.