Malthouse Farm - Low Road

Until the beginning of the 20th century Tasburgh Grange was known as Malthouse Farm and the house shows three distinct stages of construction. The first, dating from the 1600s if not earlier, was a timber framed farmhouse being the back part furthest from the road with the gable end on to it. Like many other farmhouses in South Norfolk, the chimney stack split the building into two thirds/one third, and although now tiled, the roof would originally have been thatched. It is believed that the northern end furthest from the road once housed the farm dairy.

The second stage was the construction of a wing across the southern gable end parallel to the road to produce an L shaped building. In a plaster panel of the eastern gable of this wing there is a date of 1715. A Conservation Officer from the local authority who carried out an inspection at the time of a major restoration and internal reorganisation in 2011 suggested that the wing might have been a barn but on the 1818 Enclosure Award map both parts are shown coloured red, denoting residential use, as opposed to grey for other buildings. In addition that map shows a long building or barn to the west of the house as well as a roadside building, where the separate dwelling called The Malthouse now stands, and a small cottage in what is now the front garden, although that no longer appeared on the 1840 Tithe Apportionment map. In 1818 a strip of Common land between that cottage and road was awarded to the owner of the farm creating the current southern and eastern boundaries. The third stage concerned the conversion of the farm to a private residence is dealt with as part of the history of Tasburgh Grange under the section on houses.

The Enclosure Award for Tasburgh names Mary Muskett as the owner in 1818 but she only had a life interest under the terms of her husband's Will. After her death the farm and malting were offered for sale by his executors, with the Bury and Norwich Post carrying an announcement in following terms : -

"FARM and MALTING at TASBURGH, near Long Stratton, Norfolk to be sold by auction by T.Calver in two lots with possession at Michaelmas next on Tuesday, July 23rd, 1822 at Four o'clock in the afternoon, at the Swan Inn, Stratton.

Lot 1 Two pieces of MEADOW LAND, lying by the side of the river, and adjoining land in the occupation of Mrs Dye, containing 4A. 1R. 3P

This and the following lot are now in the occupation of Mr Sheppard Bell.

Lot 2. All that MESSUAGE or DWELLING – HOUSE consisting of a parlour, keeping-room, study, kitchen, and several good sleeping-rooms, with suitable domestic offices; Yards, Gardens, and Orchard, Malting Office with a 24 coomb steep, Barn, Stable, Cow-house, and other Outbuildings, with several Inclosures of good Arable and Pasture Land. Also a COTTAGE and GARDEN, containing altogether 27A. 2R. 2P. more or less.

N.B. There is an excellent Retail Trade to the above Malting, being about 1200 coombs annually, which, with the farm, offers an advantageous opportunity for the investment of capital. The above Property is nearly all Freehold, and further particulars may be had by applying to Mr Daniel Calver, solicitor, Long Stratton."

Because a small part of the property was copyhold (as opposed to freehold) it is possible to trace ownership of that, and hence the presumed ownership of the farm, back through the Manorial Court records held at the Norfolk Record Office. These reveal that the farm had been bought  by John Muskett of Thelveton after the death of his aunt, Elizabeth Bousell, formerly Elizabeth Hart, nee Muskett in 1798. In 1737 she had married William Hart of Rainthorpe, the son of George Hart who under the terms of his Will had left William all his properties in Tasburgh which included The Limes farm as well as Malthouse Farm, the last of which Elizabeth had taken as part of her half share following William's intestacy. John Muskett's wife, Mary Hart, was a daughter of William's younger brother Charles of Hapton Hall, so perhaps John wanted to keep the farm in the family. When he made his Will in 1807 he named the tenant as Henry Dunt who also owned a small farm in Upper Tasburgh where The Pheasantries now stands. It seems the house, cottage and buildings weren't in particularly good order, because John Muskett specifically authorised his executors to spend £30 on carrying out repairs.

The Manorial Court records show that after Mary Muskett's death, the farm was bought in 1822 by another John Muskett, of Thornham (Fornham). John and Mary Muskett had 11 children, and the family tree reveals that their third son John, born in 1777, became Agent to the Duke of Norfolk, and lived on his estate at Fornham St Genevieve, near Bury St Edmunds, so he must have been the purchaser and the John Muskett recorded in 1840 Tithe Appotionment Award as the owner of the farm let to Isaac Webster. The following year, the first national census confirms the occupiers as Isaac Webster, a 40 year-old maltster, his brother William, also a maltster, their mother, Sarah, and a servant or housemaid called Mary Browne. The family were still in residence at the time of the 1851 census, but ten years later the occupants were Samuel Westgate, a corn merchant, his brother Davie and their sister Kate Westgate. In 1860 John Muskett sold the farm as an investment property to John Butcher, a Norwich timber merchant, and he mortgaged it in 1879 to Stephen Leeds of Whirtwell. Following Mr Butcher's death in 1888, the mortgage payments fell into arrears and Stephen Leeds took over the property

By 1871 Malthouse Farm was occupied by Charles Green, aged 78, a retired farmer apparently living on his own, and who almost certainly was the same Charles Green recorded in the 1841 census as a farmer living at White Horse Cottage with his wife, Mary. The census return for 1881 records the property as Malt Office Farm but the first large scale OS map issued in 1882 confirms the name of the property as being Malthouse Farm. The last active farmer appears to have been Robert Smith who was recorded in the 1891 census as living there with his mother, brother and two grandchildren, and he was still living there in 1901 at the time of the next census.

In 1903 however, Malthouse Farm together with 30 acres was offered for sale by auction on 25th July at the Royal Hotel in Norwich on behalf of the tenants for life under the Will of the late Stephen Leeds, and thereafter the house was extended to become a private residence. The remainder of its history as Tasburgh Grange is dealt with under the section on houses