Long family
The origins of Wreningham’s Long family can be traced back to Bernie Long, who was born in Mulbarton in the late 1700s. His son, William Long, who married Charlotte Mays, was farming at Toprow by the time of the 1851 census. Their son, Dennis William Long, was born in 1851.
Meanwhile, Jesse Thurston had married Sarah Forster at Carlton Rode in 1847 and by 1851, Jesse had become a farmer in Wreningham. They had three children: Sarah, Elizabeth and Martha. Jesse Thurston’s sister, also named Martha Thurston, went to work at Burton’s Farm and, in 1871, married John Bullimore.
Jesse Thurston’s daughter, Sarah, married, and she moved to Canada with her new husband. The two sisters, Elizabeth and Martha, went with them. About two years later, Jesse visited Canada and persuaded both his unmarried daughters (Elizabeth and Martha) to return home, and in December 1874, Elizabeth married Dennis William Long at Wreningham Church.
Tall photo: Elizabeth Long
Both photos were recently discovered by the Forncett History Group and are displayed with our thanks.
Dennis William Long and his wife Elizabeth had 6 children: Violet, Jesse, Mabel, Burton and Victor. (The last of these had the full name Victor Dennis Long.) Comparing data in the Highway Rate Books and the Census suggests Dennis had started farming under John Bullimore at Hill House Farm by about Michaelmas in 1881.
The family moved to Fir Grove in 1889 where Dennis William Long became the tenant farmer. In 1912, they were able to purchase the farm.
An old pocketbook from 1909, branded by Hadfield’s Fertilizers of Liverpool was found at Fir Grove. It contains (traditional?) hand-written recipes and potions for treating horses. The hand-writing is assumed to be a “Long” family member from the period (Dennis William Long?). The treatments are titled variously:
How to “clean horses out”
How “to make a horse follow you”
“Recipe for the mange”
… and so on …
Each recipe lists the component oils and other ingredients together with the instructions for their preparation and use. We have no idea about the modern-day advisability of applying any of these treatments, so we will refrain from providing any of the details!
Mabel Long (1879-1956) – organist
Mabel Long made a name for herself in Wreningham by playing the Organ in the church for 57 years – taking over the role from Emma Upcher after the latter left the village in 1896 when Emma’s father, the rector, had died.
In Robert Dennis Day’s ledger, there is a 26th December 1899 entry for Mabel buying 40 bills (fliers), 200 tickets and 150 programmes for a concert. The cost of the printing was 12s and, considering the date, we might presume the event was a special concert celebrating the 1900 New Year. There is also a note against the ticket printing, which states ‘3 sittings’. Perhaps this concert was taking place in the (still very compact) school building? Directly below R D Day’s ledger entry showing his printing costs was a further item: “repair of music stool”!
On the 9th of October 1901, Robert Dennis Day printed a further 50 bills plus 100 programmes for another Mabel Long concert. The lesser printing task only cost her (only) 6s, this time – and presumably held following the success of her previous concert. The good news is that the music stool didn’t need any further work; presumably, R D Day’s previous repair was still holding up!
In 1906, members of Wreningham church made a presentation to Mabel as a token of appreciation for her completion of 10 years as a ‘voluntary organist’. The accompanying document was signed by nearly four dozen church members, the list being headed by the signature of Canon Fardell.
Burton Bullimore Long (1882-1955)
Today, Burton Bullimore Long is best remembered as the man who, in the early 1950s, generously gifted an area of land at Mill Lane for the construction of our first Village Hall.
Thirty years later, the original hall was replaced by our current, much larger, building in exactly the same spot.
However, there was much more to the man than that.
Despite the implications of his name, he was neither a Burton nor a Bullimore. However, his parents had a close working relationship with John William Bullimore (JWB). Father, Dennis William Long, had been JWB’s farming employee, and JWB appears to have nominated Dennis William Long as village surveyor in the mid-1880s.
Mother, Elizabeth Long (nee Thurston), appears to have been a favourite niece of JWB’s first wife, Martha. Both JWB and Martha’s good fortunes could also be traced back to the original generosity of the Burton family. Maybe his ‘Burton’ first name was due to this? (Also underlining Martha’s closeness to her niece, Martha’s mid 1890s will bequeathed Church Farm to Elizabeth.)
At the beginning of the 1900s, when he was in his 20’s, Burton Bullimore Long became tenant at 100-acre High House Farm. He married Maud Horne in 1909 and they went on to have three children before Maud tragically died in 1916. He remarried, to Rachel Bush, in 1922, and more children followed.
In his village memoir, Alan Ford describes Burton Bullimore Long as a ‘short stocky man sometimes known [in the village] as Put Put or Burton Burton’! The Alan Ford memoir also describes B B Long as, at one point, farming at High House, Drings and High Common farms. An early user of tractors, B B Long also had the first combine in the village. He kept a lot of turkeys (‘not just for Christmas’) and ‘two herds of cows’. Milk was delivered to his village customers by motorcycle and sidecar. Sometimes these deliveries were made by B B Long himself, but were mostly undertaken by farmhand, Arthur Yaxley, who lived in Wymondham Road.
A newspaper article from 1934 describes an incident when B B Long was discovered by a Sergeant Wicks driving at Morely St Peter, but unable to show a valid driving licence. Long’s existing licence was 320 days out of date. Whilst he bought a new driving licence the next day, the court was unimpressed. The Chairman fined him 20 shillings plus an additional payment of 6 shillings in costs. Alan Ford’s memoir states that B B Long’s wife, Rachel, usually drove their car. Did this contribute to his 1930s driving licence oversight?
On 11th October (Michaelmas) 1942, B B Long became the wartime tenant farmer at Hill House Farm, where Anne Amelia Bullimore (second wife & widow of JWB) was the landlord. It seems likely that B B Long remained resident at High Common and simply added the land at Hill House Farm to his overall ‘farming estate’. This Hill House Farm tenancy would have commenced in about B B Long’s 60th year and the tenancy was due to conclude after four years, in October 1946. However, at about that later date, Anne Bullimore died. Subsequent documents (from 1948) show B B Long had raised legal challenges at the termination of the tenancy. A surviving solicitor’s letter referenced ‘Long’s notice of claim for disturbance’ and there being a (subsequent) ‘settlement of Long’s claim’. Might a key part of the tenancy termination process have been missed, perhaps due to Anne’s declining health? Although Hill House Farm was taken over by Anne’s step-daughter, Violet (later to marry, when she became known as Violet Peel), other documents suggest Violet had never actively engaged in her step-mother’s running of the farm. As a result, it’s easy to imagine how such a problem might have arisen.
In 1939, whilst far too old for wartime service (and also a farmer), B B Long does not appear to have joined the local Home Guard. Anyway, running multiple farms, he was probably too busy! The enthusiasm for constructing a village hall had also come from the village’s Home Guard members – many of whom were also engaged in farming. Was B B Long’s generosity in gifting the land to create the village hall his way of giving thanks to the village’s younger generation – including those in the Home Guard and those who were called up – for their own multiple contributions to the war effort?
Burton Bullimore Long appears to have continued to reside at High House Farm until he died in 1955. His second wife survived him, to die in 1980. High House Farm was auctioned in 1957.
Changing of the ‘Long’ guard at Fir Grove
Dennis William Long and his wife, Elizabeth, died in 1932 and 1933, respectively. At that point, son Victor and his wife, Marjorie, and family moved into Fir Grove. Simultaneously, Mabel and Minnie Long moved from Fir Grove to “The Bungalow” in Hethel Road; Mabel died in 1956 and Minnie in 1972.
Marjorie Long, who died in 1954, had been a key member of the WI, the church council and the local Red Cross. Victor Long followed her to the grave in 1956.
Victor’s son, Dennis Arthur Long, became the family’s new farming stalwart. Dennis’s contributions to Wreningham have been so numerous that they are provided through multiple links, set out below.
Amongst other things, he was secretary of the Home Guard Comrade Club, a Jubilee Committee member, play/pantomime director, a churchwarden and (after Mabel Long) a church organist for over 50 years.
Dennis had taken control of the family farm at Fir Grove. Not least, he was the mastermind in the 1990s creation of Long’s Wood; a legacy for both the people and the environment.
