Rookery House - Saxlingham Lane.

(Formerly Rookery Farm)

The early years.

Although old, this would not have been the first house built on the site. Excavated pottery, in concentrations suggesting more than field scatter, provides evidence of continuous occupation back to Anglo Saxon times. Indeed, the location just above the flood plain facing on to Nethergate Green or Common near the junction of what became Grove Lane and Saxlingham Lane , would have had obvious attractions as the site for a house. At the end of the 18th century, the house and eastern part of the garden were owned freehold together with a three and a half acre copyhold field immediately to the east, known as Hill Close. It seems reasonable to suppose that a house of this standing would always have had further land with it, and that land would almost have to have included Hill Close as the house was bounded on all other sides by roads and common land. As the word suggests, freehold land was held free from the all manorial rights and control, whereas transfers of copyhold land had to be registered with the Lord of the Manor, whose steward would provide the owner with a copy of the registration, rather like an early form of the Land Registry.

From the Tasburgh Manorial Court records it is possible to trace ownership of Hill Close, as part of a larger parcel of 27 acres, back to Robert Wright in 1771 and his father Richard Wright in 1746, both of whom were Norwich weavers and cloth merchants, and owners of Rainthorpe Hall. A map of the Rainthorpe estate prepared in 1772 held at the Norfolk Record Office (Ref. WLP 10/32) includes both Hill Close and the house, confirming a link between the two at that stage. Richard Wright had bought the land from John Howes, who in turn had acquired it in 1736. From there the line becomes less clear, not least because the entries are less detailed and written in Latin, but marginal notes suggest that the land was then known as Toppishill, which in 1706 was owned by Thomas Bokenham and James Harvey, and before them Jeremiah Wynn in 1684, Edward Blomfield in 1661 and John Blomfield in 1643. The earliest recorded owners of Toppishill seem to have been Thomas Stobbyn in 1631, Maria and Paul Stobbyn in 1626 and William Stobbyn in 1624.

It can't be proved that any of them owned the house, yet alone built it, but the nineteen years of the Stobbyn family's ownership of the adjoining land would seem to coincide with the age of the most southern end of the building which has beam mouldings typical of the period of their ownership. However, although the Listed Buildings Register describes the property as being 17th/18th century, a detailed report by the Norfolk Historic Buildings Group in 2023 revealed a more complex picture, with the majority of the section between the two chimney stacks dating from the mid to late 16th century, based on the style of the roof construction and the substantial timber work. On that basis it would seem that the moulded beams were part of a later reworking of the southern end, something borne out by photographic evidence and differences in the rafters showing that the gable wall and chimney stack were not part of the original construction.

The initial absence of a fireplace at the southern end suggests a layout which would have involved rooms on either side of the central chimney stack with unheated storage and services to the south but it is clear that the present northern end of the house is much later in date than the central section, almost certainly built at the same time as the house was being "Georgianised" with the addition of the pedimented front door and the introduction of sash windows in place of the old mullioned ones, which in the central section are still in place under the present rendering. The implication is that whatever was originally at the northern end was demolished, perhaps because of a fire although there is no evidence of that in the rest of the timbers in the roof which would originally have been thatched. A more likely explanation seems to be that the northern section was even older than mid-16th century and didn't lend itself to being part of a Georgian façade because it was an older building orientated at right angles, something hinted at on the 1772 map which may have been based on an earlier plan as 1772 seems a bit late for the style of the work, though date wise it certainly fits with Rainthorpe ownership and possible occupation by Robert Wright's son Richard – see below.

The 19th Century

It is only from the end of the eighteenth century that there is documentary evidence of ownership with a complete set of title deeds from 1795, mostly handwritten on parchment. In 1782 the owners Richard and Robert Wright and his son Richard were declared bankrupt and the Rainthorpe estate, including this property was sold to John Freshfield, another Norwich merchant. Thirteen years later, it was to his tenant Thomas Kett of Norwich that he agreed to sell "the house, garden and various parcels of land in Tasburgh now in the occupation of Thomas Kett and Ralph Nixon totalling approximately 14 acres together with the barn, stable, outhouses and buildings thereto belonging" for £630 with completion of the sale on or before 8th November 1795.

Thomas Kett then agreed to sell the house, garden and three and a half acres of land with vacant possession for £330 to Mr Somers Clarke of Baconsthorpe, who had been in the service of the East India Company. To complete the deal, on 7th August that year Mr Freshfield at the direction of Thomas Kett transferred the house "lately occupied by Richard Wright", and the garden and three and a half acres (Hill Close) with common rights of pasture and turbary to Mr Somers Clarke, with the remaining ten and a half acres and the barn being transferred to Thomas Kett and/or other sub-purchasers.

At the time Somers Clarke bought the house he was living at Baconsthorpe where he married Anne Dorothy Elwin a few months later when it seems the house became their home. Gradually he added to the land which went with it; in December 1804 he bought from Simon Rayson for £144 a further 2.63 acres of the copyhold land previously belonging to Thomas Kett, and in April 1805 he purchased from the executors of Robert Browne dec. the freehold barns, stables, yard, orchard and approximately 1.5 acres of land on the other side of Saxlingham Lane (now Aprilia Lodge) and also three further pieces of arable and pasture land of about 3 acres and 1 acre of copyhold meadow between the barns and the river Tas for £350. It seems probable that the barn etc. was the same as that referred to in the contract between John Freshfield and Thomas Kett who had then sold it on to Robert Browne

Later in November that year he bought from John North the adjoining cottage to the West of the barns (Rookery Cottage) occupied by Richard Howes and a further 1 acre belonging with it adjoining Nethergate Green "together with all trees, wood and commons of pasture and turbary" for £100 plus an annuity of £2.00 a year payable to John North for his life, quite a common arrangement in the 19th century.

From an agreement dated 22 March 1808 settling a dispute between Somers Clark and Simon Rayson we learn that Grove Lane used to run between the front of the house and the common land to the West and that it joined Saxlingham Lane approximately opposite Rookery Cottage. This is supported by the 1772 Rainthorpe map referred to earlier and the curve of the former line of the roadside bank can still be identified within the garden, and probably explains why the the gable wall of the outbuildings is out of line with the house and current drive. However in March 1807 Mr Somers Clarke had bought nearly half an acre of land from Simon Rayson on the southern edge of the common on which he laid out a new public road on the present alignment of Grove Lane and stopped up the old route. At the same time Simon Rayson who lived in what is now Grove Cottage built a new house ( now Holly Tree Cottage) on his land fronting onto the new road with a sawpit and shed in the front garden and created an entrance to it by cutting though the bank and ditch which Somers Clarke had created along the side of the road.

Somers Clarke maintained that Simon Rayson had no right to break through the bank of which Mr Clarke claimed ownership and objected to the sawpit as creating a nuisance and being visible from his house, whereas Simon Rayson said the bank had been created in the wrong place and was in fact on his land. The dispute was settled on terms that ceded ownership of the bank and ditch to Simon Rayson on condition he maintained them and planted trees along it. He also agreed to move the sawpit and shed to the back of the cottage, albeit at Somers Clarke's expense, and not to do anything else which would interrupt the view or otherwise annoy Somers Clarke. However in December that year Mr Somers Clarke died and was buried in Tasburgh churchyard. By his Will dated 30th November 1804 he left all his estates to his widow, who subsequently married Philip Meadows Martineau, a well respected surgeon, a governor of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, member of the Royal Society and also a Land Tax Commissioner. Mr Martineau was born in 1752 so would have been in his late 50's at the time of the marriage.

Before the Married Women's Property Act of 1882 anything owned by a lady passed on marriage to her husband but it seems Mr Martineau didn't marry Mrs Clarke just for her property because on 30th June 1812 all the property in Tasburgh previously owned by Mr Somers Clarke was transferred to trustees of a settlement for the benefit of Mr and Mrs Martineau for their lifetimes. On the death of the survivor of them the property was to pass to such of their children as the survivor might by deed or Will appoint or in default of appointment to their eldest surviving son or if there were no sons, then to their eldest surviving daughter. Mrs Martineau must therefore have been young enough for them to anticipate having children and indeed they had a daughter, Fanny Ann Martineau, to whom Mrs Martineau left the property under her Will and who inherited it on her mother's death on 14th March 1851.

The final addition to the estate was the allotment under the 1818 Enclosure Award of the triangle of common land in front of the house formed by the re-alignment of Grove Lane and its juncture with Saxlingham Lane and three further pieces of the Nethergate Green to the north of Saxlingham Lane totalling just over one acre. In that document the residence was described as a mansion house but Mr and Mrs Martineau didn't occupy the house and land in Tasburgh but just took the rents from it. He had bought Bracondale Lodge on the southern outskirts of Norwich which must have been quite a grand house as the grounds had been landscaped by Humphrey Repton. Bracondale Lodge was demolished in about 1960 but its grounds are now the site of County Hall and his name lives on in the form of the adjoining Martineau Lane.

In June 1853 Fanny Ann Martineau decided to dispose of the property and the farm was offered for sale by auction at the Royal Hotel in Norwich in three lots; this provides us with the first plan of the farm. Lots 1 and 2 comprising the main house and buildings, the cottage and barns plus 12 acres of land were bought by James Smith of Eaton, Norwich for £865. The transfer records that after the death of Mr Somers Clarke the farm had been let first to Henry and Mary Dunt and then to William Smith and that the cottage had been occupied by Ralph Nixon, perhaps the same Ralph Nixon as mentioned in the contract between John Freshfield in 1795 referred to above, although he must have died or moved at least twelve years before the sale as he was no longer shown as the occupier at the time of the 1841 census. Lot 3 was a nine acre field known as Grove Close opposite the current playing field and village hall and which presumably gave its name to Grove Lane.

Four years later the property was sold again to another Norwich resident, Henry Blake Miller of Town Close in return for an annuity of £90 a year payable to James Smith and his wife Maria for their joint lives and £50 a year for the survivor of them. Maria Smith died in 1881 but her husband survived until 1892 by which time Henry Blake Miller had predeceased him and the property was held by Mr Miller's executors.

The 20th Century

Although there is no continuous record of lettings, we know that in 1906 the farm was let for three years to John Harrison at a rent of £26 a year and then in 1909 following the death of Mr Miller's widow his executors sold the farm to Sir Charles Harvey of Rainthorpe Hall when the property was for the first time recorded as Rookery Farm. By 1921 the rent had risen to £55 a year under a lease to Thomas Cobb.

On the death of Sir Charles Harvey in 1928, the farm was inherited by his son Oliver Charles Harvey as part of the Rainthorpe Estate. The following year in 1929 Rookery Farm and other land on the Estate was sold to Fred Fisher, a builder from Newton Flotman. The tenant Thomas Cobb gave notice to quit his tenancy from 11th October 1930 and in April 1930 the farm then totalling 14.9 acres was bought by Charles Henry Page, a master printer of 4 Station Road, Drayton for £765 with the help of a mortgage of £275 from the Norwich District Provident Permanent Benefit Building Society from which he borrowed a further £100 in 1931. The price was therefore £100 less than that paid by James Smith in 1852 but the late 1920's and early 30's was not a good time for farming and land was cheap.

Mr Page died in March 1939 and the farm passed to his widow Ada Louise Page who continued to live in the house until her death in September 1951 with the farm being run by her son Harry Raymond (Ray) Page. Under the terms of her Will, he was given an option to buy the farm which he did at a valuation of £1125 and the farm was transferred into his name on 28th August 1953.

Mr Page continued to eke out a living from the small farm but on 1st September 1970 Rookery Cottage was sold to its tenant Derek Morris, a sculptor and lecturer at the Norwich School of Art and the following year the remainder of the farm was sold in three parcels. The barns (now Aprilia Lodge) and the land between Saxlingham Lane and the river Tas was bought by Timothy  Finch of Hapton Hall, the remaining 7.8 acres of farmland was bought by Peter Read from Long Stratton who built Pinewood Lodge on Grove Lane and used the land as a market garden. The Farmhouse, outbuildings and garden totalling 1.84 acres was bought by David Langridge and his wife on 27th October 1971. Mr Page and his wife Elizabeth moved to Thatched Cottage, Low Road, Tasburgh.

David Langridge was a surveyor who worked for the estate agents Savills in Norwich and bought up and renovated a number of local properties including Grange Meadow onLow Road and the Tharston Mill complex. The old farmhouse certainly needed modernising as it had no bathroom or inside lavatory and no heating other than open fires and a coal burning cooking range. His alterations and improvements included dividing the northern bedroom to create a bathroom with a further shower room downstairs and installing central heating. He also removed the old cooking range and bread oven from the northern chimney and re-worked the fireplaces; he moved the backdoor from its position on the north end to the back of the house leading into a new kitchen; he filled in the cellar under the stairs and the pumped well which stood by the old backdoor and he made the two downstair rooms in the original part of the house into a single large room by removing the internal divisions and then inserting a new window where the door on the east side opposite the front door led into a dairy which was demolished. Unfortunately he also removed and sold a carved overmantle which was said to have come from Rainthorpe Hall.

On completion of the alterations, the property was bought by John Cave, an assistant manager at the Midland Bank in Norwich who lived in the house with his wife and two young sons until 1974 when he was transferred to the Bank's head office in London and moved down to Essex. The house stood empty for nearly a year until on 27th June 1975 it was bought by Ben Goodfellow, a Norwich solicitor, his wife Rosalind Mary and her mother Judy Muskett. Shortly after they moved in an electrical fire caused internal damage to the southern end of the main downstairs room, evidence of which can still be seen in the charred cross beam and wall plate, as well as the replacement front sash window and ceiling. The new owners further altered the property by building a "granny flat" or annexe onto the back of the house in 1976, having had a previous application to convert the outbuildings to residential use turned down, and as the property was no longer a farm, they changed the name to Rookery House. In 1982 with a growing family of six children they installed a new staircase to the attics which were converted into additional bedrooms and a second bathroom. The inaccessible rotten rear dormer windows were replaced at the same time with Velux windows and later they put a new sash window into the back of the southern bedroom.

The 21st Century

In November 2014 Mrs Muskett died aged 95 but the granny flat continued to be occupied by her friend Ruth Walker who having left All Hallows Convent, Ditchingham in 1977, came to stay for a few months whilst she looked for alternative accommodation but ended up staying permanently as an honorary great aunt to the family.