The Limes - Low Road

The Historic England index of Listed Buildings is very general in its description of The Limes as being a 17th century timber framed house with a hipped pantile roof, but the steepness of the roof indicates that it would originally have been thatched. From a 1746 description of the property to the West, where the two semi-detached cottages now stand, it is known that a track or path, "the Church way called Parsons Meer", ran up the western boundary of The Limes which no doubt was the historic route from the original rectory, now Glebe Cottage, up to the church. The track is shown on a 1772 map of the Rainthorpe estate but by the time of the Enclosure Award map in 1818 it had disappeared. The name Parsons Meer is now given to a cottage further along Low Road, but the track between it and Cottage Farm must at some point in the past have been incorrectly identified as the way up to the church.

The recorded history of the house dates from 1725 when the Manorial Court records show that George Hart, a farmer from Hapton, was admitted to ownership on the surrender of the previous owner Robert Day, and the house was then called Ryselyes. George Hart died in 1757 and was succeeded by his son William, tenant of Rainthorpe Hall and then on William's death four years later, ownership passed to his older brother, George Hart of Tharston. Following his death, his son John bought the property in 1804 from his father's executors, and after John died five years later the Manorial records show his brother, a third George Hart, as the next owner when the spelling of the house name was Riselyes. In the 1818 Enclosure Award he was granted ownership of the strip of Nethergate Green between the house and the road, which is now the gravelled entrance. He was still shown as the owner in 1840 at the time of the Tithe Apportionment Award, which also names John Timpson as the tenant. The census return of the following year and also in 1851 records John Stimpson, almost certainly the same man, as the occupier, farming 12 acres. Both returns show that living with him were his wife, Sarah, and a young niece, Sarah Youngs born in Framlingham, so perhaps an orphan, but they seem to have had no children of their own. From its location and acreage, it seems possible that the property could be the one for which a carpenter, John Lincolne, had to pay eleven pounds to the Crown in 1558 to regain a house beside Nethergategrene together with twelve acres of land that would had been his inheritance but had been forfeit for the treason of one of his relatives.

Following the death of George Hart, the farm was sold by his executors in 1853 and a plan of the property in the Norfolk Record Office shows that it was offered for sale in two lots totalling 10.3 acres, so Mr Stimpson must have been renting an extra bit of land, probably the field of 1.8 acres on the other side of Low Road which belonged to Rainthorpe Hall. The purchaser of both lots was Henry Buck who built and lived at The Firs, and who also bought Cottage Farm in 1859. After Mr Stimpson's death the tenancy was taken by Daniel Dye, who in 1861 was recorded as employing one man and two boys in farming 30 acres, which presumably included the 18 acres of Cottage Farm land, although he lived at The Limes with his wife Sarah and their five children. They had been born variously at Newton Flotman, Saxlingham and Bracon Ash, indicating that the family had moved around locally, and they didn't stay long in Tasburgh either. The landlord, Henry Buck, died in 1867 and the property was held under the terms of his Will for the benefit of his son, who was also called Henry and also lived at The Firs.

By 1871 the occupiers were William Welch and his wife Isabella, farming the same 30 acres, employing just a 12 year old boy on the farm and also a 14 year old girl in the house. William Welch was Tasburgh born and bred, and the previous census in 1861 records the couple living in Akela on Low Road, her as a shopkeeper and him as a coal merchant, no doubt collecting his coal from Flordon Station which had opened in 1850. In 1841 and '51 he had been an agricultural labourer so would have had plenty of experience in working on the land. In 1877 Isabella died childless aged 49, but William wasted little time in getting remarried to 24 year old Catherine Hopkins and within four years they had three children. A fourth child, John, was born in 1884 but died at one month old, and then just a month later William himself died aged 61. They are both commemorated jointly with his first wife on a tombstone which stands under the trees on the southern boundary of Tasburgh churchyard. This left Catherine a widow at 30 with three young children, having lost not only a baby and her husband but also her home, since William had only been a tenant farmer. However it seems her mother came to the rescue because the 1891 census records them all living on Low Road in a cottage beyond the Mill which has since been demolished, Catherine as a tailoress and mother as a lady of independent means, with the children all at the village school.

The following year Henry Buck (junior) died, and the farm was put up for sale with the auction being held on 21st June 1886 at The White Horse Inn on Saxlingham Lane. It was described in the particulars as : -

" A well situated brick, clay and tile dwelling house containing an entrance hall, 2 sitting and 4 sleeping rooms, attic, kitchen, scullery, pantry and dairy, with an attached brick and tile grocer's and draper's shop, as well as front and back gardens in which is a pump of good spring water."

With the same 10.3 acres as before came: -

"A clay stone and thatched warehouse, a brick and tile stable, gig house, hay house, sheds, yards and piggeries, a clay and tiled barn and tiled cow house, calves' cribs and shed, with yard, fowl and convenient outhouses."

The purchaser was James Snelling, a grocer from Heigham, who bought it as an investment and let the property to Joseph Kirby. The 1891 census describes him as a farmer and general dealer, his wife as running the shop and their son Herbert, continuing the coal merchant's business, as they were in 1901. By 1911 Herbert was married, and also recorded as living in the house were his wife and five children. By then he had evidently given up the coal business as he was described as a hawker, or door to door salesman. James Snelling died in 1907 and was succeeded by his son Arthur Snelling who seems to have owned the property until the 1930s.

In due course, most of the agricultural land was sold to Mr Berney Ficklin to add to Grange Farm, after he had already purchased Cottage Farm on the breakup of the Rainthorpe estate in 1929, but the house with about five acres was acquired by Harry Patrick who continued to run the shop, and grew black currants, an important source of vitamin C during WW2 when it was known as Lime Tree Farm. He died in 1941 and after the War his widow, Gladys who was remarried to Reginald Gowing, sold The Limes to Fred Fisher, a retired builder from Long Stratton, but his tenure didn't last long, and it was sold again to Mr and Mrs Ashby. They continued with the shop for a while but eventually it had to close. In the 1960's the rest of the land along Low Road/Grove Lane was sold for building as the site of Harvey Close and three bungalows, Nethergate plus Meadow View and Shiralee on Grove Lane. After the War the field had been used as their track by the Tasburgh Tigers cycle speedway club. David and Sue Jones bought the house in 1982 and have lived there for nearly 40 years, adding the open fronted garage which joins on to what was the shop extension on the western end of the original house.