Elm Tree / George’s Farm

Brief Overview of Ownership
A George’s Farm plan – illustrated on our version of the c1838 tithe map – broadly corresponds to Elm Tree Farm of the late 1900s.

At the time of the Tithe map, the farm was owned by William Ottey Burton. On his death, in 1856, it passed to his sister, Maria. In turn, she bequeathed it to John Bullimore in 1871 (along with the nearby Hill House Farm).

John Bullimore’s (much younger) second wife, Anne, inherited the farm in 1906. In 1946, she passed it to her stepdaughter, Violet Bullimore – who married James Peel in 1950.

The farm was sold, at auction, in 2010 following Violet’s death.

In 1921, Samuel Stimpson, the tenant farmer, stated the farm comprised 39 acres; the 2010 auction paperwork described it as totalling just over 41 acres.

In terms of the farm’s landholding, little appeared to have changed in the intervening 89 years.

These two maps (1838 and 1958) both show the broad absence of housing in the immediate area which is very different from the present day.

The following information is based on extensive surviving documentation accumulated between John Bullimore (from the mid-1800s) and his successors, up to the present day. 

The 1800s – who was George?

There may be a clue in John Bullimore’s 1861 diary where we can see a ‘George Minns’ being amongst Maria Burton’s close acquaintances invited to her 1861 Christmas Dinner at Burton’s Farm [The Poplars]. Maria’s late brother, William Ottey Burton, would have owned George’s Farm before 1838, otherwise, he would not have been listed in the related tithe table. Does this mean there was a George Minns and George’s Farm connection? The Bullimore 1861 diary makes no further reference to any George Minns.

NB This George Minns is much earlier than the George Minns we know as the farm tenant during the mid-1900s – see below.

The 1800s – John Bullimore, Landlord

John Bullimore became landlord after being bequeathed George’s Farm (and Hill House Farm, too) in 1870, following Maria Burton’s death. He operated both George’s and Hill House farms as if the two were a single unit, with a combined team of farm workers.  Bullimore and his first wife, Martha, lived at Hill House which provided the larger residence. 

In the mid-1800s John Bullimore recorded the individual crop planting and their acreages in a notebook. These details covered three village farms: Burton’s, George’s and Hill House Farms. After 1870, the same notebook continued with similar details – but now confined to the crops at George’s and Hill House farms. His 1861 diary also provides some of the wheat and barley prices (including grain from George’s Farm) he achieved with the merchants in Norwich.

In addition, he wrote up an 80 page farm journal covering the years between 1878 and 1886 which also still survives, today. It has provided a lot of information. We know the monthly sales figures for his many types of farm produce, his crop expenditures and his maintenance costs. The journal even includes his regular weather reports.

The journal shows his farm workers being paid twice each month.  Every set of wages is listed in the journal, naming each member of the team, their individual pay and their length of work over that period. 

Comparing farmhand names with Wreningham census records shows us approximately where each had lived in the village. 

The wage lists also include references to the occasional visits of steam-threshing ‘machine men’ – included at the very top of the illustrated example.

Later journal pages include payment figures for the threshing machine visits made to its owner, William Bunn, who was based at Fairland Street in Wymondham.

There is further information about John Bullimore’s earlier steam threshing activities (in 1861) when he was managing George’s, Hill House and Burton’s farms, on behalf of Maria Burton, here.

Eventually, John Bullimore retired from front-line farming and appointed two tenant farmers – one for each of the two farms. He appears to have made the transition in two stages. The first (at George’s Farm?) probably took place in 1887, when Bullimore was 60. In that year, on Friday 7th October, there was a farm auction for his equipment and livestock. The front cover of the catalogue is shown here.

Although it’s not stated in the catalogue, this sale appears to have been at George’s Farm – and it realised £564 14s 6d. 

The organisational changes may also have split John Bullimore’s team of farmhands between his two farms – with the bigger group probably staying with him at Hill House Farm, the larger of the two establishments.

The first tenant at George’s farm, who would have got underway immediately, has not been identified.

[Hill House Farm may not have been tenanted until 1897, when Bullimore held a further equipment and livestock auction. Further details about this and the tenancies at Hill House Farm will be added to that page in due course.]

After John Bullimore’s death in 1906, everything was left to his second wife, Anne; she then became the landlord of the two farms.

Late 1800s & early 1900s tenant farmers

By 1901, we know the tenant at George’s Farm was William Harmer, so would have been appointed by John Bullimore.  However, Harmer was removed by Anne Bullimore in 1911 – see here – and was immediately replaced by Samuel Stimpson.

On Saturday 11th June 1921, under Anne’s instruction, her solicitor (Walter Joseph of Norwich) wrote to Samuel Stimpson inviting him to buy George’s Farm from her, for a price ‘in the neighbourhood of £1,300’.  Two weeks later, Stimpson visited the solicitor’s office to say he was not interested in purchasing the farm but was obliged to have been given the opportunity.  He also observed that the farm’s buildings were in a poor state of repair!

Interestingly, today, numerous builders’ invoices remain. These all show Anne Bullimore providing regular maintenance to all the properties in her ownership – including both farms. In later years, records suggest her stepdaughter, Violet, appears to show less interest in undertaking regular maintenance.

Stimpson continued as tenant until departing in March 1933. This was unusual, as tenancies normally ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas and March was mid-way between.  

The Minns family

Stimpson must have given good notice because there was extensive advertising for his successor during 1932. As a result, George Minns arrived in March 1933, directly following Samuel Stimpson’s departure. George took over the tenancy at a rent of £68 per year.  He had married Lily in 1913 and they had three children.  It is during this period we first see the farm being referred to as Elm Tree Farm.

In the 1939 registration, George Minns was also listed as a special constable – presumably just covering the war years.  At about this time, their son, Harry Minns, became a member of Wreningham’s Home Guard

In 1940, George Minns received an instruction under ‘The Cultivation of Lands Orders, 1939‘ act instructing him to put 3.079 acres of pasture land under the plough. 

These were wartime measures directed towards the production of additional food.  His specific instructions are shown in the adjacent document extract.

George died in July 1950 and his widow, Lily Minns, took his place as the tenant farmer.

In 1957, Lily was served with a notice by the local Ministry of Agriculture office requiring the farm’s milking parlour to be improved as it was in contravention of the latest regulations.  The tenant at Violet Peel’s other farm, Mr Bartrum, had received a similar notice – in addition to a previous notice issued to Bartram in 1951.  In each case, the issue related to old building materials not matching the latest standards for cowhouse/dairy cleanliness. 

Violet Peel (having succeeded her stepmother as the landlord in 1946) discovered the same government ministry provided grants under a national ‘Farm Improvement Scheme’. As a result, the deficiencies were quickly remedied by the state providing grants. 

At George’s Farm, the improvement grant paid £119 10s 6d for the cowhouse/dairy improvements and £27 5s to improve an adjacent loose box.  The grant also provided £29 10s to extend electrical power to the out-buildings and £27 11s to extend a water supply to the dairy.  Clearly, the visit from the ministry representatives had not been completely bad news.  Nevertheless, one could consider the process potentially stressful for all concerned. It’s not known if there was any connection, but Lily Minns submitted her notice to quit as the tenant farmer the following year and she relocated to High House Farm.

Final tenant – Peter Saul

In due course, after interviewing four applicants, 36-year-old Peter Saul became the last ever tenant of (George’s) Elm Tree Farm – commencing on the 11th of October 1958 – at a rent of £250 per year.  

As usual, there was the comprehensive tenancy agreement to be signed – see adjacent photograph. In this case, it comprised closely typed text over four foolscap pages and included a map. It spelt out the many detailed rights and obligations, including a schedule of the farm’s fields, their acreages and ‘pasture’ / ‘arable’ designations. 

Saul’s tenancy agreement might be considered a modern-day equivalent of the 1805 Charles Harrison – Willam Burton tenancy agreement at Burton’s Farm.

The Peel – Saul agreement of 1958 still included the landlord’s right to fell and take away timber but, unlike the Harrison – Burton agreement of 1805, made no mention of maintaining drainage ditches.

The relationship between tenant and landlord appears to have become strained, relatively early.

On 5th October 1959, Violet Peel replied to a letter from Peter Saul.  In her retained copy of the letter, she advised that before giving him consent to plough up any further pasture land [in contravention of his tenancy agreement], he must first return previously ploughed meadow land to grass in accordance with an instruction she had given him the year before!

About 45 years later, his tenancy came to an end. Peter Saul died ‘in harness’, in his 80s, and his immediate family took over until the conclusion of the tenancy, the following year. The farmhouse was then abandoned and eventually became uninhabitable; meanwhile, the land was farmed by third parties.

Present Times

In 2010, a couple of years after the death of Violet Peel, the entire farm was auctioned in multiple lots. 

The fields were split between several parties. The new farmhouse owner carried out extensive renovation because the house first needed to be taken back to its oak frame. At about the same time, the new owner of the old wooden barn carried out its comprehensive conversion into modern accommodation.

Meanwhile, public donations enabled Wreningham church to buy a strip of land forming one side of an Elm Tree Farm field, to provide a much-needed car park.

From much earlier times …..!

A pair of adjoining fields forming the southwest corner of Elm Tree Farm were once called ‘Ash Yard’ and ‘Blacksmiths’. Following the 2010 auction, the southern edge of both fields, fronting Church Road, saw a new housing development for ten properties. Prior to their construction, an archaeological dig was required.

The archaeological investigation turned up traces of a 1,000-year-old settlement and ancient pottery kilns. These kilns were buried alongside many kilograms of pottery from the same period. The archaeologists were unable to find precise design matches with other local pottery finds so they labelled their discoveries ‘Wreningham Ware’!

The associated report is archived at the University of York and can be found here. Photographs from the dig can be found here

Future

The central areas of the old Ash Yard and Blacksmiths fields have recently been earmarked for the creation of community land. This is intended to become a publicly accessible, four-acre biodiverse zone with trees, wildflowers and ponds – although that still remains for the future.

Epilogue

In summary: part of the land forming George’s / Elm Tree Farm once produced clay pots, whilst the entire farm has had a history supporting the production of food. In the future, elements may become a haven for nature and wildlife. It may not have been a large place but this old farm just keeps on giving …..

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