Tasburgh Pubs

The oldest, and now only, pub in the village is The Countryman, originally The Bird in Hand, on the main road. The other fully licensed public house, able to sell beers, wines and spirits, was The Horse Shoes on Low Road, which closed in 1966, and is now a private residence, known as The Old Horse Shoes.

In the early 1900s there were also two beer houses licensed to sell just beer and cider. The Cherry Tree stood on Church Road but closed in 1907, when the Justices refused to renew its licence, and is now a private residence called Birch Grove, while The White Horse on Saxlingham Lane was a wooden building adjoining what is now White Horse Cottage and burned down in the 1920s

It is also known that, at various times in the 19th century, there had been at least one, and possibly two other licenced premises, because White's 1845 Norfolk Directory refers to James Cannell as a beer seller, and the 1841 census has him living in part of the Thatched Cottage on Low Road. The fact that he was described in the census as a farrier and in Kelly's 1846 Directory and the 1851 census as a veterinary surgeon doesn't create a conflict as, for most beer sellers at the time, selling beer would have been a secondary occupation. Indeed it might have been his wife who did the actual brewing. There is also a reference in White's 1854 and 1856 Directories to Richard Curtis being a beer seller in Tasburgh. As there is no record of him in either the 1851 or 1861 census, it isn't possible to say where he might have operated from. It could have been The White Horse, or it could have been elsewhere. He is, however, referred to in Kelly's 1863 Directory as a thatcher, and in the 1871 census, as living in the Bird in Hand yard, but he can hardly have been selling beer right next to the pub!

Since 1994 the Social Club has held a licence for premises in the Village Hall, moving into its current extension in 2002.