Aprilia Lodge, Saxlingham Lane

Enter your text here...

The barn which has been converted to residential use as Aprilia Lodge must be at least 250 years old as it is clearly marked on a map of the Rainthorpe estate prepared in 1772 although it wasn't at the time part of the estate. From 1805 onwards the buildings were part of Rookery Farm until they were sold in 1971 with about five acres of land to Timothy Finch of Hapton Hall on the retirement of the last farmer, Ray Page. The sale included all ownership rights which Mr Page may have had in one half of the width of the adjoining river Tas. The property was later acquired by Geraldine (Gerry) Coxhead of Tas Cottage as stabling and grazing for her horses prior to her marriage to Donald (Don) Proudfoot. Gerry died in 2023 but Aprilia Lodge remained Don's home. The name of the barn was taken from the pre-war Lancia Aprilia, a marque of which Don was a knowledgeable enthusiast and restorer.

The deeds of Rookery Farm show that in 1805 the executors of Robert Browne agreed to sell to John Gay, the owner of Rainthorpe Hall, "all that freehold messuage or tenement (ie. house) with the adjoining barns, stables, yard, orchard and swampland (ie. marshes) together containing by estimation one and a half acres and also two pieces of arable land and one piece of meadow land containing by estimation three acres …… and a further one acre of meadow or pasture part of a furlong called Halls Yard …… copyhold of the Manor of Tasburgh Uphall with Boyland and Hunts." John Gay immediately sub-sold the barns and land to the owner of Rookery Farm, Mr Somers Clarke, with the transfer from Robert Browne's executors being completed on 6th April 1805.

The house referred to can't have been what is now Rookery Cottage which Robert Browne had already sold during his lifetime and was owned in 1805 by Mr John North of Norwich. The house was probably therefore the demolished cottage which originally stood on the site of the present semi-detached houses, Pundletree and Sedgefield, and seems to have been retained by John Gay as part of the Rainthorpe estate as he was shown as the owner of the cottage on the 1818 Enclosure Award map.

After the death of Mr Somers Clarke Rookery Farm was offered for sale by auction in 1811 and the barn was described as follows : -

Lot 3. A Barn (easily converted into a cottage) with sheds and outhouses, a very capital orchard well planted with fruit trees, now in full bearing, with a crop of not less than 40 sacks of apples, and 3A. 1R. 18P. of capital Meadow Land.

In those days of course there was no requirement for planning permission to convert to residential use but the property didn't sell and the barn remained part of the farm for another 160 years.

In the absence of any earlier title deeds it isn't possible to be certain of the identity of owners of the barns before Robert Browne who died in 1803 and was described as a farmer and maltster of Tasburgh. However, unlike freehold property, transfers of copyhold land had to be registered with the Lord of the Manor, and the Manorial court records for Tasburgh are held in the Norfolk Record Office. It is known that the acre of copyhold meadow or pasture land lay between the site of Pundletree/Sedgefield and the river, land which historically may well have formed part of the same holding as the barns. The Manorial court records show it had been inherited by Robert Browne in 1789 on the death of his father, also Robert Browne a farmer in Tasburgh, along with a larger block of land to the south of Church Hill.

The records show that the same acre of land had been acquired by Robert Browne senior in 1759 and that before that it had been owned by Elizabeth Turrell who as a spinster of Tasburgh had been admitted to ownership in 1742 on the death of her mother, also Elizabeth Turrell. The three of them might well therefore have also been owners of the freehold barns and adjoining land before Robert Browne junior. Being described as a farmer and maltster, it is possible that Robert Browne junior and may be also his father were tenants of Malthouse Farm, now Tasburgh Grange, which would fit with his father having purchased nearby land to the south of Church Hill subsequently inherited by his son.