Howard and Colwyn Cottages, Low Road 

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An entry in the Manorial Court records of various land transfers for 1746 refers to "the Church way called Parsons Meer" which presumably the parson used as the most direct route between the church and the old rectory, now the site of Glebe Cottage. However, it is clear from the reference that the track or path ran up between The Limes and the adjoining pair of cottages, as later marked on a plan of the Rainthorpe estate prepared in 1772, so the name of Parsons Meere Cottage is slightly misleading because the track which it adjoins didn't have that name. Historically the two cottages belonged to Cottage Farm which at the time of the Enclosure Award in 1818, was owed by George Hart, the grandson of an earlier George Hart who died in 1759.

It can be shown through the Manorial Court records held at the Norfolk Record Office that at the time of his death George Hart senior been the owner of Cottage Farm, as well as other properties, so the likelihood is that he would also have been the owner of the two cottages, or at least the land on which they stood, if built after 1759. George Hart junior had inherited the farm in 1810, and sold it to Hubert Howlett, an owner/occupier farmer, who was shown in the Tithe Apportionment Award of 1840 as also owning the cottages. The census return of the following year names the occupier of what is now Parsons Meere Cottage as William Smith, a 28 year old butcher and his wife Elizabeth, but as Mr Howlett was described as a farmer and butcher, he may well have been employing Mr Smith in the business and providing him with accommodation. The other property, Poppy Cottage, was occupied by James Tuck, his wife Martha plus their daughter Harriet and son Robert, aged 16. James and Robert were both agricultural labourers, so again possibly working for Mr Howlett.

By the time of the next ten yearly census in 1851 the occupants had changed, with a pig dealer, John Seaman, living in Parsons Meere with his wife and three young children. Their sons John and Henry aged 6 and 4 were both referred to as scholars, so clearly they were attending the new village school which had opened in 1843, and another farm labourer Robert Sutton and his young family were in Poppy Cottage. That same year Hubert Howlett sold the farm and cottages to Mr Springfield who bought it as an investment to let, and he then sold it again in 1859 to Henry Buck, again as an investment. Henry Buck lived opposite at The Firs which he had built for himself, but following his death the new owner in 1867 was Sir William Kemp of Bracon Ash Hall. He in turn sold the farm and cottages in 1871 to the owner of Rainthorpe Hall and they remained part of the Rainthorpe estate until 1929.

From successive census returns it is possible to trace some of the changes in occupants of each cottage. Although Poppy Cottage was vacant in 1861, Parsons Meere was home to the village policeman William Brunson and his wife and family. By 1871 he had moved on and the new tenant was a carpenter, James Chatten, with his wife Elizabeth. They had four children living with them; Henry aged 14 who was a groom, Samuel, 12 who was a farm labourer plus Elenor 3 and Jane who was just six months old. Given the gap between Samuel and Elenor it seems likely that there could have been other children who may have died. Although his wife died in 1910, James Chatten continued living in the property until his own death in 1915. They were both strong supporters of the Primitive Methodist Chapel on Church Hill, with Elizabeth being listed in the 1881 census as a Methodist preacher, and James referred to in a history of the local Primitive Methodist circuit as "a dear and saintly soul, disabled by accident and dependent on the Parish, yet a pillar of our Tasburgh Society".

Meanwhile Poppy Cottage had its own settled occupants from 1891 but before that, the tenant in 1871 was Philemon Rackham, an agricultural labourer, the names of whose four children all began with the letter R, son Ross and daughters Redelpha, Ruth and Richarda. With such a biblical name and living next door to the Chattens, it seems likely that he too was a member of the Primitive Methodist Chapel. By 1881 he had moved next door to what is now Colwyn, and in his place was George Warnes, an 84 year old retired shoemaker who was described as a Waterloo Pensioner, so as an 18 year old he may well have taken part in the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. Then in 1891 Poppy Cottage became home to Thomas Davey, his wife Clarrissa and their four children. He was described as a retired grocer and was also a baking powder manufacturer, a business he was still carrying on in 1911, although his wife had died the previous year.

When the Rainthorpe estate was put up for sale by auction in 1929 following the death of Sir Charles Harvey, the two cottages were lotted together and from the auction particulars it is known that Poppy Cottage had been included in the letting of Old Hall Farm to William Curson who was subletting it to a Mr Cushion, presumably an employee. Similarly Parsons Meere had been let to Mr Harrison as part of Cottage Farm and sublet to Mr Sharpe, and the rent for each cottage was just £4 a year. The purchaser isn't known but may have been Aleaxander Berney Ficklin of Tasburgh Grange who bought the separately lotted Cottage Farm. What is known from the 1939 Registration is that at the beginning of the last War, Poppy Cottage was the home of William John Stewart aged 63, a millwright, and his wife Emma, whilst Parsons Meere was occupied by a 74 year old retired farmer, George Russell and his wife Sally. However Emma Stewart and George Russell must have died not long after because William Moore in his memories of growing up in Tasburgh during the War refers to Mr Steward (sic) a widower, and to Mrs Russell's cottage.

If Mr Berney Ficklin had been the purchaser in 1929, it seems that by 1948 he had either already sold the two cottages by the time he sold Tasburgh Grange and his farmland, including the Cottage Farm land, or they were sold separately later. Either way, it seems the purchaser of Parson's Meere may have been Agnes Fincham from Dairy Farm, Flordon. Certainly Agnes was the owner of the property, then known as Holme, before her daughter Wyn Osbourne and her husband bought Colwyn in the 1950s, but she never lived there, letting it instead to a friend, Elsie Bunting until she died. When Agnes died in 1969, the property passed to her daughter who continued letting out the cottage until it was sold in 1997 to its current owner who renamed it Parson's Meere.

Again, assuming Mr Berney Ficklin had bought both cottages in 1929, the purchaser from him of Poppy Cottage may have been the owners of Tasburgh Mill, and Charlotte Gurney. Certainly she was the owner in 1960 when the cottage was sold to Christopher Curtis who in turn sold it in 1966 to Philip Barnes of Valley Farm, Tharston who was already the owner of the fields behind the cottages. He let Poppy Cottage for several years to a Mrs Micklejohn and it was Mr Barnes who in 1977 sold the rear portion of the garden to George and Wyn Osborne next door in Colwyn. In 1996 the cottage was bought by Stan and Sonia Mitchell and it was they who gave the property its current name. However it seems he was a bit of a do-it-yourself enthusiast because when the property was bought by Janet Few in 2004 she had to have much of his work undone and made good. After eighteen years living there she sold the cottage in 2022 and moved to Diss but her son continued living in Upper Tasburgh.