Manor Farm Cottage

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Until about 150 years ago Manor Farm had belonged to the Lord of the Manor of Tasburgh but Manor Farm Cottage didn't. A plan prepared in 1772 clearly showed that what is now Manor Farm Cottage was part of the Rainthorpe estate, as it was at the time of the Enclosure Award in 1818 and the Tithe Apportionment Award of 1840 when it was a single house, let to a farmer, David Alexander. The 1851 census return records that Mr Alexander was farming 16 acres, and from the 1852 Auction particulars for the Rainthorpe estate it is clear that with the house, he was also renting the adjoining buildings, now Thornley Barn, the land behind down to the river and a further twelve acres fronting onto the eastern side of the Flordon Road either side of the river, now the site of The Willows and the Tas Lakes fishery. Those auction particulars also reveal that part of the house was being used as a general shop, perhaps being run by Mr Alexander's wife, Elizabeth, and that his rent was £15 a year.

Manor Farm Cottage along with two adjoining cottages formed Lot 2 which was purchased by a Mr Murton for £100, but was subsequently repurchased by the next owner of Rainthorpe, the Hon. Horace Walpole, possibly as early as 1861 because the census return that year shows that the property had been split into two cottages and that one half was occupied by William Clarke, a gentleman's servant who probably therefore was working for Horace Walpole at Rainthorpe Hall. The other half was home to Henry Allen, a widower, who was farming 26 acres, presumably in succession to Mr Alexander, and was employing one man and a boy. Ten years later, the left hand half had been let to George Rix, a bricklayer and possibly a son of John Rix, the tenant of Manor Farm, whilst the right hand half was occupied by an agricultural worker, William Risby and his family. William, who had arrived in Tasburgh from Stowmarket more than ten years earlier, had married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Richard Quantrill who lived in part of Orchard Cottage. Neither William nor Elizabeth could write as in 1865 they had "signed" the marriage register by putting a cross against their names, and although she was described as a spinster or unmarried, she already had a young son, John. However it seems that William wasn't the father because in the 1871 census John, aged 7, was recorded as "John Quantrill, wife's son", whereas their two other children were Risbys.

Following Horace Walpole's death in 1876, the Rainthorpe estate, including this double cottage, was again put up for sale by auction and was bought by Sir Charles Harvey but the change in ownership didn't result in a change of tenants, and William and Elizabeth had three more children there before she died in 1883. He continued living in the cottage along with three of his children, one of whom acted as housekeeper, until his death in 1907 aged 70, although there had by then been new occupants next door. The 1891 census names them as Thomas Watling, a 34 year old agricultural worker and his wife Ellen, a dressmaker but it seems they never had any children, and they were still living in their half when the 1939 Registration was taken on the outbreak of WW2, with the other half occupied by a carpenter, Mr Matthews and his wife Elsie. By then Sir Charles Harvey had died and although the cottages had been listed as a separate Lot in the subsequent sale of the Rainthorpe estate, they didn't find a buyer at the auction, and were later bought by the Hastings family along with the Hall and both Manor Farm and White Horse Farm.

Thomas Watling died in 1944 followed by his wife two year