Wayside and Jasmine Cottages, Low Road

Until 1818, the land on which these two cottages stand was part of the village common land stretching from Commerce House to the ford. Under the Enclosure Award that year the land from Commerce House  down to Grange Meadow but excluding the marshes was granted to Charles Dye who died just two years later. He left the land to his son Samuel and as Samuel Dye was still named as the owner in the Tithe Apportionment Award of 1840, it seems safe to say that the cottages must have been built by him. Although both cottages have been extended more than once, their original two up, two down extent can be judged from the flint cobble panel work, the only example in the village. It was during one such extension to Jasmine Cottage at the beginning of the 21st century that the date plaque on the chimney was inserted, as it wasn't shown in photos of the property taken before then. Although the date of 1829 seems possible, the initials don't have any known connection to the property.

The Tithe Apportionment Award names Robert Dann as a tenant in 1840, and the census return of the following year shows him as an agricultural labourer, living in what is now Jasmine Cottage with his wife Mary and their four children. Ten years later he was described as a maltster's servant, no doubt working for Isaac Webster at Malthouse Farm (now Tasburgh Grange). His four children were still at home but his wife must have died because his daughter Hannah is referred to as housekeeper.

The earliest named tenants of Wayside Cottage in 1841 were a shoemaker, Robert Burgess and his wife Mary, followed ten years later by John Todd, a farm bailiff, and his wife Maria with five children. By 1861 Wayside Cottage had become Tasburgh's first post office with Ann Cann acting as sub-post mistress (the main post office being in Long Stratton). Her husband was described as a rural messenger, no doubt delivering any letters, and by the time of the 1881 census he was officially recognised as the postman. The first large scale OS map of the area published in 1882 clearly has the letters PO against the property confirming it as the post office, but by 1891 Mr and Mrs Cann had departed, and the post office then moved to what is now Old Post Office Cottage. The occupants of Wayside Cottage were James Harborne, his wife Louisa and their seven children, which for the original size of the cottage must have been a bit of a squeeze! He was described as a domestic gardener and his eldest daughter as a laundress, almost certainly both working at Tasburgh Hall for Mr Philip Berney Ficklin, whose arms are on the brick lozenge inserted into the front of the cottages to denote his ownership, as with the nearby pair of cottages and Forge Cottage.

Mr Berney Ficklin had purchased the Tasburgh Hall estate from the executors and trustees of Commander Gwyn in 1888/9 and this included the two cottages and the land along to The Old Horseshoes on which he built the pair of dwellings known as Bramble Cottage and Greenmore. The original owner, Samuel Dye, had died in 1866 and it is thought that it would have been around that time that Commander William Gwyn would have bought them. In the interim period Jasmine Cottage had been home to a carpenter in 1861, a master tailor in 1871, another tailor in 1881 whose wife worked as a laundress, probably for Commander Gwyn at the Hall, and in 1891 it was home to Francis Sales, a police constable and his wife Clara. Their eldest daughter was also a laundress, one son a carpenter and their youngest, a carpenter's apprentice, perhaps working for his older brother. By 1901 the police constable and his family had moved on, and Jasmine Cottage was rented by George Littleboy, a bootmaker. His wife Alice had been taken on as a laundress and they had a young daughter, Mildred. Also lodging with them was Edward Muskett, employed at the Hall as a domestic gardener alongside James Harborne from next door. The Littleboys and the Harbornes were still living next to each other in 1911, but Edward Muskett was by then living in Wayside Cottage, having married the eldest Harborne daughter, Frances! By 1939 Alice Littleboy had moved into Wayside along with her married daughter Mabel Bright, whilst Jasmine Cottage was let to Katherine Goose who was also taking in laundry.

Philip Berney Ficklin died in 1917 but although the Hall was sold, the rest of the estate was inherited by his son Alexander who took up residence at Tasburgh Grange where local inhabitants continued to be employed on the staff. In the 1930's one such was Mabel Bright, who worked as the laundry lady, but at some point the two cottages were sold to The Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited, a company more associated with the building of London suburban properties served by the Metropolitan line. Quite why they would have bought property in Tasburgh is a mystery but in 1958, perhaps as a result of the security granted by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, they decided to offer the cottages to the tenants, and Mabel Bright's son, Harry, bought Wayside Cottage. After discharge from the army in 1945 he had trained as a motor mechanic at Willis Garage in Long Stratton, now the site of the Co-op stores, and then worked at Brighton's garage in Newton Flotman. In 1962 he started his own garage business in conjunction with his son Peter and later help from his elder son Ronnie Bright, taking over the garden of the cottage with its road frontage for his workshop and petrol pumps, operating under the name of Wayside Garage. Peter Bright was a leading powerboat racer, becoming British champion on a number of occasions, in which he also competed in the world championships, whilst his son Lee later raced motorbikes.

Jasmine Cottage had also been bought in 1958 by its tenant, Eric Donald (Donnie) Hardingham, and he and his wife, Gert, had two sons, Ted who moved to 2 Grove Lane, and Ralph who married Shiela Osbourne from Colwyn cottage and moved to Long Stratton. Donnie was a keen gardener and used to work for the rose grower, Peter Beales, before the business moved from Swardeston to its current premises south of Attleborough, and together with Ted and Ralph he ran a small market garden operation from the property. Following his death in 1998, the cottage was sold at auction the following year to Paul Culyer who started on a do-it-yourself restoration and extension, but progress was very slow and by 2008 he had run out of money and given up. His uncle, Rodney Grady who was a builder, took over the project for him, and the following year the property was bought by Vicki Charles. Later she and her husband, Andrew Patrick, further extended the property and built up a terrace at the back of the house to take advantage of the uninterrupted views down to the river, across the water meadow and marshes which they subsequently purchased from Tasburgh United Charities in 2022.

Following the death of his parents, Peter Bright and his son continued with the garage business for a while, but supermarkets selling petrol had already forced the closure of that side of the business and in due course, the servicing and repair side also closed and Wayside Cottage was sold in 2003 to a Mr and Mrs Ellis, and was sold again in 2009 to its current owners. The garage site had been sold in 2001 and after a while was let and used briefly again for the preparation and sale of used cars but following a fire which badly damaged the workshop roof, the building stood empty for several years before being demolished and the site cleared. In 2022 work finally started on developing the site for residential properties.