Thrown out!
A newspaper article from autumn 1911 describes how Robert Bell, 72, and his wife Martha, 70, made a very unexpected departure from Wreningham. Robert was an egg and fruit dealer and they both lived at Ivy Cottage (still the same name, today) in Ashwellthorpe Road complete with its four-acre plot. They were tenants of Anne Bullimore, who had just terminated their tenancy agreement.
The Bells had been actively engaged with the Chapel on the main road for the previous 50 years; Robert had become the local preacher. They had lived at Ivy Cottage as ‘Bullimore’ tenants for 46 years.
The chapel members had been as shocked as the Bells by the news. There had been no difficulty in raising a collection – to be presented as parting gifts. In early October, these were handed over at a special chapel gathering called to publicly say goodbye.
The adjacent photograph of Robert Bell was included in a 1908 article reproduced on a ‘Wymondham circuit’ page on the ‘My Primitive Methodist Chapel’ website – first published in the ‘Christian Messenger’ – a monthly periodical produced by the Primitive Methodist Church.
The principal gift to the Bells was a ‘handsomely framed’ and illuminated address which read:
To Mr Robert Bell from all his friends on the Wymondham Primitive Methodist Circuit
Dear Brother
It is with a sense of real regret that we learn of your immediate removal from this circuit on which you have lived and served so long. For more than half a century you have been a consistent and highly respected member of our Wreningham Society, Church steward, Sunday School worker, class leader and local preacher. You have had the respect and goodwill of all your friends. They have appreciated your Christian character, your upright life, and the devoted service you have rendered to the circuit. Nor can we forget that the preachers have always found a welcome in your home. We can hardly realise what our church and circuit gatherings will be without your genial presence, but since Providence leads you elsewhere. Our friendship and good wishes will go with you, and we pray that you and Mrs Bell will yet have many years of health and happiness, and that at eventide there will be light.
Signed on behalf of the Wymondham Circuit
H G Stone, W Thurston, Circuit Stewards
A Morse, Society Steward
A T Wardle, T Oliver, Circuit Ministers
September 1911
This above ‘address’ had been framed by Messrs Colman & Co of Norwich.
Martha Bell was gifted a ‘gold-mounted cane-handled umbrella’ together with a ‘handsome crocodile leather handbag’ – accepted, in her absence, by their daughter Anna Green.
A speech by Arthur Morse
The newspaper article quoted from Arthur Morse’s speech in which he described how the Bells were not only losing their home but their livelihood, too. As fruit growers and egg dealers, they depended on the four acres behind their home. Arthur Morse said about Robert Bell: ‘had he been left undisturbed in his premises he would have ended his days in Wreningham’.
Morse went on to describe how he, as Anne Bullimore’s tenant farmer at Hill House Farm, had also been given notice to quit. However, under the terms of his farming agreement, Morse had a whole year’s notice and would not be leaving until Michaelmas 1912. Not only that but Ann Bullimore’s other farm tenant William Harmer – at George’s / Elmtree Farm – had similarly been given notice to quit. Like Arthur Morse, he also had to leave at Michaelmas 1912.
During his speech, Arthur Morse did not set out the precise cause of the multiple removals but told the gathering it was ‘all for the same reason’. [So, we might conclude, it was not related to anyone’s age.]
The Bells would be relocating to live with their daughter Anna Green in St Ives, Cambridgeshire but had little time to make their arrangements. A local advertisement listed a sale on Friday 6th October 1911 for the disposal of the Bell’s ‘household furniture and outdoor effects’.
Ivy Cottage
How had this come about?
Robert and Martha Bell, the Morse family and the Harmer family were all deeply committed to the Primitive Methodist Chapel. Arthur Morse was, essentially, the local man in charge – and had been the leading fund-raiser for the replacement chapel building. Robert Bell was a local preacher whilst the Harmers had occasionally played musical instruments at chapel services. Only two years previously, Robert Bell had dressed up as Father Christmas at a chapel event and handed presents to the children.
Originally, all three families had been appointed to their village tenancies by landlord, John Bullimore. In the case of Ivy Cottage, John Bullimore had bought the property at an auction at the Bird in Hand in December 1860. At the time, he was pleased the existing tenants had chosen to stay on. Robert Bell would have been amongst John Bullimore’s next tenants at the same property, commencing his own tenancy in the mid-1860s.
John Bullimore’s (second) wife Anne became landlord following his death in 1906. Almost immediately, she left Wreningham to live in Wymondham – so was no longer resident in the village. From what we have learnt about John Bullimore, it seems unlikely he would have removed these three sets of tenants without exceptional justification.
In his October 1911 chapel speech, Arthur Morse said he initially believed he was the only tenant being told to go. It was only later he learnt about the Bells and Harmers.
In an earlier newspaper article – dated mid-September 1911 – Morse had announced to a Wymondham circuit congregation he had been told to quit his Wreningham farm; as a result, he would need to move from the area. At this meeting, he had described the cause of his tenancy termination as due to being ‘true to his nonconformist principles’. At that point, he did not know the same fate awaited the others.
Michaelmas was the time when tenants who were moving, packed up and went. As part of this time-honoured tradition, Anne Bullimore, on the 24th of August, had already signed up Simeon Howlett (for £15 per year) to replace the Bells at Ivy Cottage. The Bells would be gone by the 11th of October. We know this because the details are set out in a duplicate of Simeon’s agreement with Anne Bullimore which still survives – shown here.
Of course, if Robert Bell had been told about Simeon Howlett’s new agreement before mid-September, Arthur Morse would have included the news in his mid-September announcement in Wymondham. Robert Bell and Arthur Morse (as well as the Harmers) only lived a 15-minute walk from each other – so the news would have spread in an instant!
Thus, we might assume Simeon was told not to reveal the existence of his new agreement until the Bells were given their (minimal) notice to quit, just over two weeks later.
Anne Bullimore does not appear to have had much connection with Wreningham’s Methodist chapel – and, by 1911, had been living in Wymondham for five years. It is assumed she belonged to the Baptist Church, like her late husband, John Bullimore and his family.
In the preceding years, Arthur Morse had used Hill House Farm for multiple fund-raising events for Wreningham’s replacement Primitive Methodist Chapel. Had this caused Anne Bullimore some kind of inner conflict? Did she regard her three sets of tenants – all very closely connected with the chapel – as presenting a collective challenge? It may not make any sense to us, but – whatever her reasoning – she had clearly chosen and implemented her plan.
The final word …
This must go to Robert Bell. In 1911, he stood up – to ‘much applause’ – at the farewell presentation to make his own speech; he described how he had ‘been touched by the outburst of appreciation’. The newspaper article continues: ‘in a voice quivering with emotion’ Robert Bell told how he had experienced many painful experiences in life – but nothing like that evening. He said it was more than he could bear and was grateful to the many friends who had contributed to the gifts. He was glad he would be missed but not glad to go.
Epilogue
In the 1921 Census, Simeon was still recorded as a ‘smallholder and dealer’ at Ivy Cottage – living there with his wife, May, and their three children. A few years later, Simeon Howlett moved on to become the new landlord at the Bird in Hand – with May Howlett eventually surviving him in that post until 1983.
Michaelmas 1912 had seen Arthur Morse and his family departing from Hill House Farm and moving to north Norfolk. The new Hill House tenant farmer was John Rowe. It’s not clear whether Arthur Morse made a complete break with Wreningham. The large Toprow Auction in 1918 saw a Mr Morse making a successful bid for Lot 9: a double cottage – for £70 – presumably as a landlord. Was it him?
At George’s / Elmtree Farm, in 1912, the new tenant farmer was Samuel Stimpson; the Harmer family having moved to another local village. Samuel Stimpson remained one of Anne Bullimore’s two tenant farmers until the mid-1920s.
Before then, at Michaelmas 1920, when John Rowe retired from farming, Anne Bullimore left Wymondham and returned to live at Hill House Farm, Wreningham. We don’t know how kindly she was received.