The White Horse

Today, White Horse Cottage stands on the site of what was the White Horse. A document held at the Norfolk Record Office under reference ETN 1/4/38 shows that Henry Buck had bought the property in 1798 from William Stanford and his wife Lydia, the only child and heir of John Ellis, son and heir of Thomas Ellis, farmer, showing that the property had been used as a farm from as far back as the mid-18th century. Henry Buck was still the owner at the time of the 1840 Tithe Apportionment Award, when the property was let to Charles Green, named as a farmer in the 1841 census. Following his death in 1844, the property passed to his son, also Henry, and was then held in trust for his grandson, a third Henry, until his death in 1886 when the line of ownership becomes unclear.

Hunt's 1850 East Norfolk Directory mentions that John Jefferies was a beer retailer and blacksmith in Tasburgh, and as the 1851 census records the Jefferies family as blacksmiths living in what became knon as the White Horse, it seems safe to assume that the property was being usd for the sale of beer by that date. It is possible that they were followed by the recorded beer seller Richard Curtis, but the earliest reference to the White Horse by name was in the 1861 census, when Robert Cowell was the tenant.

As with the Cherry Tree, it was quite common for beer sellers to have a second, or even primary, other occupation, so we see Robert Cowell described as a cordwainer or shoemaker, his successor Henry Rix was also a carpenter, while his son Robert, who succeeded him, was a farmer and builder. John Want at The White Horse in 1891 was a carpenter followed by Francis James who, in 1901 and 1911, was also described as a carpenter. Early in that century there seems to have been a tie up with Bullards brewery, since the Norfolk Pubs website records that Bullards decided not to renew their lease of the premises when it expired in October 1914. By then, of course, WW1 had started and the brewing of beer as well as opening hours were being restricted under the Defence of the Realm Act passed that year.

The last licensee was Arthur Hurry. Kelly's Directory records him as being at The White Horse in 1916, and he was still referred to in their 1925/6 edition, but by 1929 there was no further mention of The White Horse. In William Moore's memories of life in Tasburgh from when he arrived in 1937, he records that The White Horse had been a separate wooden building, which had been burned out and never restored, so that must have been sometime between 1925 and 1929. He suggests that Mr Hurry, who was also a builder and chimney sweep, had fallen asleep after consuming too much of his own cider, and it was his pipe that had set fire to the property. Whatever the reason for the fire, that was the end of The White Horse but it gave its name to the current building, and to White Horse Farm opposite. Thereafter Mr Hurry frequented the West End, now the Duke of Delhi Indian restaurant, and it was said that his horse knew the route so well that it would carry him home in his cart unaided when he had over indulged!

The 1939 Registration records Mr Hurry as still being in residence with his wife Cecilia, and their son Kitchener Hurry, a 24 year old bricklayer. The remains of the stables for Mr Hurry's horse can still be seen in the wood behind the house, and in 1960s the property was bought by Alan King, a builder from Newton Flotman who wanted to build a house there, but Planning Permission was refused and he sold the property to Mrs Hastings, the owner of Rainthorpe Hall. By the early 1970s the house had become so dilapidated that it was almost entirely demolished and rebuilt, becoming a home for her daughter Virginia Bedini. In due course White Horse Cottage was inherited by her son, George Hastings as part of the Rainthorpe estate, and when his sister moved to Home Farm on Flordon Road, the cottage was the subject of a series of lettings until, following George Hastings death in 1993, the property was sold to a builder in Hempnall, who modernised and extended the house to its current form before selling it on.