The Firs, Low Road

In 1818, at the time of the Tasburgh Enclosure Award, the site of The Firs formed part of Nethergate Green, an area of common land which stretched along Low Road from Flordon Road to Saxlingham Lane and down to the river. The Enclosure Award map indicates that it was part of an orchard and was granted to William Quantrill, whose executors sold it in 1838 to Henry Buck. Henry Buck also owned a double cottage, now White Horse Cottage, on Saxlingham Lane having been given it in 1834 by his father, also Henry, who appears in the 1841 census return for Flordon as a 75 year old man of independent means living not far from Flordon Mill. However, Henry Buck senior must have lived in Tasburgh for part of his life because his son is recorded as having been born in the village. When Henry Buck senior died in 1844 he was buried in Tasburgh churchyard, his headstone and that of his wife Rhoda being first on the right of the path.

There is no mention of son Henry in the 1851 census returns for either Flordon or Tasburgh, but the electoral roll records a Henry Buck living in Tasburgh in 1858 and the 1861 census records Henry Buck, aged 62, living with his wife Caroline in Lower Street, as Low Road was then called. By reference to other known properties and their occupants it is clear that Henry and Caroline were living in what is now The Firs, built on the land which he had bought back in 1838. He was described as a house and land proprietor ie. living on the rental income from  Limes Farm and Cottage Farm which he had bought in 1853 and 1859 respectively, and from the White Horse cottages and nine acres, also let as a small farm. It therefore seems safe to say that The Firs was built by Henry Buck junior between 1851 and 1858, possibly by 1853, but he must have lived in Tasburgh at some point before then because his own son, referred to below, was born in the village in about 1817.

Henry junior died in 1867 and his much larger tomb and that of his wife and his sister stands next to his father's headstone. He was succeeded by his son, a third Henry, who is recorded in the 1871 census as aged 54 and unmarried. Under his father's Will he had been given only a protected life interest in the house and an annual annuity of £50 rather than outright ownership, so it seems likely he was handicapped in some way. He was still there in 1881 when he was described as a retired servant, so almost certainly the same Henry Buck born in Tasburgh who is recorded in 1851 as butler to Richard Gurney, banker, of Thickthorn Hall, Hethersett, even though his ages/dates of birth don't quite match.

Following his death in 1886, it seems from the 1891 census that the house had been bought by an auctioneer and estate agent called Frederick Hunter, aged 41, who was living there with his wife Ellen and their three children, plus a lady's help. At some point the brick extension on the side was added which is thought to have started life as a coach house and stable. By 1901, the property had changed hands again, and the occupants were a 35 year old widow, Ellen Betts, living on her own means, and her 13 year old niece Agnes Betts. As Agnes was still living there with her aunt in 1911, it seems she may have been an orphan.

During WW2, the house was owned by a retired couple, William and Mabel Heley who took in evacuees and she was a prominent figure in the Mothers' Union, holding garden parties to raise money for the war effort. Later the property was acquired by a Miss Helen Rope and following her death in 1990 aged 90, it was sold in 1993 to Malcolm Bradbury and his wife as a second home and two years later they were able to buy the former orchard land from Miss Coe's next of kin which had been excluded from the previous sale. He was the professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia and founder of its creative writing course, being himself a respected author. He died in 2000, the same year as he was knighted for services to literature, and is buried in Tasburgh churchyard. The Firs is now owned by one of his sons, Dominic Bradbury.