Cottage Farm - Low Road

With a central doorway and no central chimney stack, it is thought that this 17th century timber framed property could have been a late example of a house with a screens passage, separating the single parlour or living room with its fireplace and chimney to the left from the service and storage rooms to the right, which was then extended and reorganised in the 19th century.

The 1818 Enclosure Award shows that when it was being prepared, Cottage Farm had been owned by George Hart but according to the Manorial Court records, he had in fact sold the farm in 1816 to Hubert Howlett. The Norfolk Record Office hold a packet of deeds under reference MS 2026 - 2075, 126X1, which have an old note saying that they relate to an estate in Tasburgh belonging to Hubert Howlett that were no longer necessary for proving title, so almost certainly of Cottage Farm. Those show that the property had been bought by George Hart in 1799 and before that the farm had been held as an investment by Joseph Muskett in 1786 who  later purchased Intwood Hall. In 1783 the farm, subject to a morgage to Charles Hart of Hapton Hall, had been bought by John Nickless of Tasburgh Mill. However the purchaser George Hart wasn't the same one as named in the 1818 Enclosure Award because he had died in 1804 and left instructions that his properties in Tasburgh should be sold. It seems the purchaser of Cottage Farm must have been his brother, John, and when he died in 1810, the property was inherited by his son, the second George Hart .

Hubert died the following year and the records show that in 1818 his son, also Hubert, was admitted to ownership under the care of his mother Mary, as he was then only 12 years old. The 1840 Tithe Apportionment Award and early census returns show that Hubert Howlett was an owner occupier, and it seems that it was probably he who built the tiled extension to the house. The farmland stretched up to the hill fort embankment in a block of four fields, totalling about 18 acres, and the holding also included Parsons Meere and Poppy Cottages to the east and the site of Pilgrims Cottage to the west, which was then an orchard.

As well as being a farmer, Mr Howlett was also described in the 1841 census return as a butcher, with another butcher, no doubt an employee, living in the cottage next door, but they would have had plenty of competition as the census that year records a further eight butchers living in the village! The 1851 census shows Hubert and his wife Ann had five children whose names all began with the letter H, but that same year he sold the farm to Mr Springfield who bought it as an investment to let and it was then sold again in 1859 for £520 to Henry Buck who built and lived at The Firs opposite. He had also bought the adjoining farm, now The Limes, and its 10 acres, and the 1861 census reveals that the land was being farmed together with the adjoining farm, a situation that continued until at least 1884. In the meantime the house and cottages were occupied by a succession of agricultural labourers, gardeners and other tradesman. In 1865 Henry Buck agreed to sell the farm for £400 to Sir William Kemp of Bracon Ash Hall but perhaps because of Henry Buck's death in 1867, the transfer of the farm wasn't registered in the Manorial records until 1869.

By 1871 the tenant was Thomas Garrood whose parents farmed at Hill Farm, and in the same year Sir William Kemp sold the farm for £560 to the Hon. Frederick Walpole of Rainthorpe Hall and the whole Rainthorpe Estate was then bought by Sir Charles Harvey in 1878. By 1881 the house was home to Robert Gill, described in the census that year as a farm bailiff, perhaps employed by Sir Charles to look after his extensive land holdings in Tasburgh, Flordon, and Newton Flotman. Ten years later the occupant was William Lucking, shown as farming on his own account, so he must have taken a tenancy of the land as well, and he was still at Cottage Farm 1911.

The farm and its cottages remained part of the Rainthorpe Estate until 1929 when, following the death of Sir Charles Harvey, the Estate was broken up and the farm was bought by the other major landowner in the village, Captain Alexander Berney-Ficklin of Tasburgh Grange. The tenant was named in the auction particulars as J A Harrison, possibly the same person as the Albert John Harrison who in 1911 was the tenant of Rookery Farm, another Rainthorpe property. In 1939 and into the 1950s, the tenant was Leonard Crowe who was said to be able to down a pint quicker than any man around. He used to drink at The Horse Shoes and supplemented his drinking money by taking bets from unwary American servicemen, visiting the pub from their base at Hethel, that they couldn't beat him. However in the autumn of 1953 he must have been given a year's notice to quit, because in 1954 Captain Berney Ficklin sold The Grange and all his land, including that relating to Cottage Farm, with vacant possession at Michaelmas, 11th October. As neither the farmhouse, nor the two adjoining cottages, were mentioned in the sale particulars, it seems they were sold separately.