Hoe and Worthing Archive: Spring Farm

 

Spring Farm in the 1950s. Cyril Norton was the farmer. On the 1811 Enclosure map, Spring Farm is just below No. 42, marked Hickleton (tinted red). Abraham Hickleton owned it, but not the adjacent land, No. 43, probably still part of the wider common but awarded to Sir John Lombe, of Great Melton, in the Enclosure. If Hickleton had been using that ground for his sustenance, he would have had to have rented it from then on. He died, aged ninety, in 1822 in the 'House of Industry' – Gressenhall Workhouse. Local farmer Richard Mitchell seems to have acquired it on Hickleton's death and by the 1840s, the farm belonged to Lombe. [Courtesy of Norfolk Record Office C/Sca/2/243]     James Fellows rented the farm from the Lombe estate     in the 1840s. The 1851 census lists James and his wife     Mary, as well as their four children, Christopher, 21,     Dorcas, 19, Leonard, 16, and Alfred, 12.     In 1917 when the whole Bylaugh estate was sold,     Cyril Norton, then the tenant, bought Spring Farm with     eleven acres for £210. James Fellows had to pay the Rector 1s 6d in tithes in 1848. [Courtesy of Norfolk Record Office BR 276/1/119] Threshing at Spring Farm. The engine is a Fowler, owned by W. H. Riches of Field House, Swanton Morley, contractor. The engine driver is Dan Barnard. Samuel Norton leased the farm in 1900, by 1911 it appears in his son Cyril's name. The same engine in about 1895. Theophilus (Dick) Barker, the uncle of Margaret Butterfield, on the left. James Blazy was the tenant farmer at the time of the 1871 census. Lucy Norton's album,1920s/30s Lucy Norton (née Barker) married Fred Butterfield (see 8 & 9 Hoe page) and when widowed, married Cyril Norton of Spring Farm. Her daughter Mabel Butterfield passed the photograph album on to her own daughter, Mary Hubbard. Lucy Norton and her daughter Mabel Butterfield.    Cyril and Lucy Norton with their turkeys.       According to Dr Eric Puddy, in his    history of Gressenhall Mill, The    Watermill of the Chappell of St Nicholas    of Rougholme in Gressenhall,    otherwise known as Chapel Mill,    published some time after Cyril    Norton's death in 1960, aged 88,    Norton went to work at the mill aged 14,    later serving his apprenticeship at Hovis    in London before returning to work at       Chapel Mill. He bought Spring Farm in    1917 having been its tenant in     succession to his father Samuel. Mabel feeding the hens and ducks by the barn. Stackyard in the background. Mabel Norton Reaper binder – a new-fangled contraption?     Harvest. Lucy Norton doing the 'howgee' boy's job. Feeding the turkeys.     Lucy Norton had a pet pig. Tea in the back yard. The wedding of Mabel Butterfield, 1938. Cyril and Lucy Norton are at the back, right. Spring Farm was built about 1800, probably on common land. The Helwys estate map dated 1775 (on the Village page) shows common land extending as far south as the east-west road through the village, now Hall Road, including the area where Spring Farm stands. Originally, it was likely to have been one-up, one-down with a lean-to on the back. The front door was where the left-hand ground floor window is now, and opened straight into the main downstairs room, which had a range in the fireplace. Later extensions included the laundry (behind the 1960s conservatory), its chimney is visible in the 1950s photo beginning this page, and a dairy on the north side. A first floor extension required alterations to the roof which are still visible inside. It may have acquired its dramatic chimneys in the 1870s when it belonged to the Bylaugh estate. The Norfolk architect Thomas Jeckyll was employed to remodel farms on the estate. The chimneys and window frames are typical of the designs Jeckyll specified for the larger farmhouses like Manor Farm, Hoe and Field House, Swanton Morley. Estate agent's photograph, 1977. Sue and Dick Malt bought the house from Margaret (Peggy) Butterfield. Spring Farm Barn Spring Farm barn before conversion, 1977. The corrugated iron fence enclosed a cattle yard and sheds. Opposite was a four-bay cart shed. The barn isn't marked on the enclosure map; it was perhaps built when Spring Farm was acquired by the Lombe estate, probably in the 1840s.    The Stroulger family moving into the Barn, 1984.    Harry Malt helping Leila unload essential items.    Philip Stroulger checking his bees, 1991.