HOUSES AND PEOPLE

CANAL HOUSE (ASHWELLTHORPE GRANGE) AND ITS OWNERS

[reproduced by permission of Norfolk Museums Service (Norwich Castle Museum) granted 1994] Canal House c. 1814-1819 by John Thirtle pencil and watercolour on cream wove paper – one of group of 5 watercolour studies of Norfolk country houses painted about the same time

The Listed Buildings Register maintained by English Heritage states that The Grange is a Grade II building first listed on 26 June 1981 and describes it as follows:

"18th Century house. Painted brick. Fertile roof with gabled and hipped

ends. Paired modillions at eaves. Two storeys and attic. South front 5 bays,

asymmetrical, sashes with glazing bars, left hand blocked, 4 centred

arch stair window off centre with intersecting glazing bars, right hand

segmental bow window with gothic intersecting glazing bars, pilasters

and entablature, central pilastered doorway with entablature and

gothic panelled door, modern garden door on left, 4 modern flat roof

dormers. Internal brick chimney stack at each end. North elevation has

similar bow window, 4 first floor sashes and modern Georgian style

glazed porch

18th/19th Century rear wing on north-east, painted brick, blacked glazed

pantile roof, sashes and casements, 2 storeys"

1) GIL(L) BAD(D)ELEY

One of the early owners of Canal House was GIL(L) BAD(D)ELEY, one of several children born to merchant Samuel and Sarah Badeley on 27 August 1745 and named at the Walpole Independent Chapel, Suffolk, on 13 September 1745. 

From Walpole Independent Chapel Original Register on www.findmypast.com 

Photographs by David Stuckey with permission of Simon Weeks, Friends of Walpole Old Chapel

By May 1759, Gil was apprenticed to Nathaniel Buck, a surgeon of Ipswich - and fellow member of the Walpole Independent Chapel - and after completing his apprenticeship, he practised as a surgeon in Ipswich. On 13 December 1764, Gil married MARY MAY the daughter of gentleman landowner GEORGE MAY, holder of the Creping Hall Manor, Stutton, Suffolk, who had died in February 1764. The marriage took place at St Mary le Tower church, Ipswich - a fact the Ipswich Journal of the day reported with the additional information that Miss May is "an accomplish'd young Lady with a very handsome Fortune".

Gil and Mary Badeley had two daughters named at the Presbyterian Old Meeting House, St Nicholas Street, Ipswich – Mary May in 1766 and Sophia in 1767 – before moving to Norwich, St Martin at Palace Plain and St Giles. Several other children were born in Norwich and Ashwellthorpe and all baptised (and buried) at the Old Meeting House Independent at Colegate, Norwich.

Sarah born 24 October 1769, baptised 30 October 1769, buried 9 November 1769; Gill born 4 October 1770, baptised 14 October 1770, buried 24 October 1770; Henry Bacon born 3 October 1771, baptised 26 October 1771, buried 7 November 1771;  Rebekah born 27 May 1773, baptised 26 June 1773; Jemima baptised 28 October1775, buried 19 January 1776; Gill born 13 July 1777, baptised 25 July 1777, buried 3 April 1779

Gil Badeley and his wife Mary owned Canal House between 1770 and 1778 but there is very little recorded history of his involvement in the parish. He was appointed an Overseer of the Poor for Ashwellthorpe for the year 1772 to administer relief (e.g. money, food, clothing) to those of the parish in need under the Poor Relief Acts in law at the time; he would also collect the poor rate, a local tax paid by householders and some tenants. He also attended the meetings to appoint Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor in 1776.

He sold the Canal House Estate to Mr Joseph Kiddle in 1778 for £2,400 - the lowest calculation of worth in today's money is £238,000 rising to several millions taking different factors into account!

It seems Gil and Mary Badeley remained in Norfolk, probably Norwich, until about 1791 during which time he played a full life in the Norwich city establishment. On Guild Day in June 1787 when a new Mayor of Norwich was sworn in, the Norfolk Chronicle reported that to the Mayor Elect, Aldermen and Common Council at Norwich Cathedral Mr Badeley "saluted the body in an elegant Latin oration as they passed by the Free School on their return to the Guildhall, where, after being sworn into his office with the usual ceremonies, the Mayor addressed the Court".

Drawings of Annual Guild Day Norwich 1705 on Library of Congress website – no known restrictions on publication

Gil and Mary Badeley left Norfolk by 1791 although keeping some contact with East Anglia as he had inherited, via his wife Mary, the Lordship of the Manor of Creping Hall, Stutton, Suffolk, from her father, and had to purchase a certificate each year to enable the shooting of game. So, with their children Mary May, Sophia and Rebekah, they took up residence in Bath and by November of that year Gill Badeley had become the Chairman of a meeting of the subscribers – a position he held for several years - to the Bath New Assembly Rooms to "take into consideration some Regulations relative to the admission of Company to the Dress Balls and other Amusements of these Rooms….." reported the Bath Chronicle. He and his wife played a prominent part in the social and institutional life of Bath for the next two decades.

Daughter Rebekah who had been born in Ashwellthorpe, married a Peter O'Malley Esq. of Prospect, County Galway, on 22 January 1801 at St Swithin, Walcot, Bath – this marriage was reported in the Ipswich Journal. Their eldest daughter, Mary May, married John Marke Esq. of Liskeard, Cornwall at St Michael Archangel, Lyme Regis, Dorset on 27 September 1804.

Gil Baddeley died at his home 7 Oxford Row, Bath on 26 November 1815 aged 70 and was buried at All Saints' Church, Woolley, Bath; he had the most glowing obituary in the Bath Journal:

"On Sunday, died at his house in Oxford Row, Gill Badeley Esq. after a long and very painful illness, which he endured with the most patient resignation. Mr Badeley was a truly valuable member of society; of uncorrupt integrity himself, he abhorred every kind of imposition of fraud, public or private; and was highly serviceable to many persons, by enabling them to resist practices of such nature. He was particularly skilled in the management of trusts and executorships, which he discharged with the utmost disinterested and honourable fidelity. The loss of such a character may be considered as a public misfortune, and will not be easily supplied.

His wife Mary died on 30 August 1821aged 83, leaving a "most desirable and substantial-built dwelling house being No. 7 in that eligible and airy situation of Oxford Row and within one minute's walk of the Upper Assembly Rooms" , stated the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. Gil and Mary Badeley's unmarried daughter Sophia was the sole Executrix of her mother's Will signed on 4 July that year. There followed auctions of both the Badeley property at 7 Oxford Row, including shares in the Old Bath Fire Office (a "well-established and profitable" insurance company) on the 21 November 1821 and "All the extremely neat and useful household furniture, pier and chimney glasses, eight-day bracket clock, china, glass, plate, plated ware, a few books, linen, a few fine prints and other effect" on the following day.

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SOME HUGGIN CLOCK-WATCHMAKER FAMILY HISTORY

These are family history notes about various Huggin generations which might be of help to family historians. They have been gleaned from original parish registers, overseers' and churchwardens' accounts, Wills. Other secondary sources are named.

The first time the surname HUGGIN or variant appears in Ashwellthorpe parish registers was 16 August 1684 when Susanna Huggen married John Rudland; Susan(na) was the daughter of Thomas Huggin, a cordwainer (shoemaker) of Ashwellthorpe, as stated in Thomas' Will dated 30 April 1690. Thomas Huggin mentioned his wife Joanna, oldest son George ("wearing apparell"), second son John ("wearing lynnen"), youngest son Thomas ("ten shillings") and daughter Susan Rudland ("ten shillings").

The First Generation - Thomas Huggin the Cordwainer's Will was written and signed on 30 April 1690 and there is a date added of 4 May 1690 (in Latin), but there is no burial for him in the Ashwellthorpe registers. It seems  that Thomas was a Quaker. According to the original register  'England and Wales Society of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841' on www.findmypast.com , Thomas Huggins of Ashwellthorpe/Ashfieldthorpe attended Norwich Monthly Meetings and died in 1690 at Thetford and was buried there "in the burying ground of Henry Kitl" [see below]. The transcript index for this entry states the burial date to be 7 March 1690, and the

original entry does state the 7 day of the 3 month which you might think must be 7 March - before his Will was written and signed on 30 April 1690! Quakers did not use names of days of the week or months because they derived from pagan gods. What solves the puzzle of the date is that in 1690, the New Year started on 25 March which  remained in place until 1752. Therefore the 3 (third) month of the year was May and his burial date 7 May 1690.

Henry Kittle had been a Mayor of Thetford in 1640 and 1655 and was a staunch Parliamentarian. He was buried on his own ground in Thetford in 1709 as were many others over time. It seems that Thomas Kittle's ground was definitely a non- conformist burial place and that he could well have been a Quaker as well.

There is no burial for Thomas Huggin's wife Joanna in Ashwellthorpe, but there is a Quaker burial for a Johannah Hugings of the Norwich Monthly Meeting, who died 9th of the 7th month 1718 (9 September 1718) aged 91, in the original register of the'Society of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841' on www.findmypast.com, but whether she was the wife of the above Thomas Huggin is unknown.

The Second Generation – in Ashwellthorpe, there was a John Huggin who was married to Anne and he was probably the middle son of Thomas and Joanna Huggin above.

It was probably this John Huggin who was appointed as a Churchwarden in Ashwellthorpe for the year 1694 and as an overseer of the poor in 1707. These selections were made by the Vestry meeting, made up of all rate-paying occupiers of land in the parish.

The children John and Anne baptised in Ashwellthorpe were: John born 23 October and baptised 3 November 1692; Anne and Mary baptised on 23 September 1694 who both died within days and were buried on 1 October and 23 September 1694 respectively; Anne bap. 1 November 1696; George bap 19 June 1698; and Benjamin bap 29 April 1711.

The Second Generation – It is probable that Thomas Huggin Jnr was the youngest of Thomas and Joanna Huggin's children and was probably the Thomas who married Deborah somewhere unknown. There was a Thomas and Deborah Huggin(s) who baptised a son Thomas on 7 April 1688 at St John Timberhill, Norwich. Whether this is the same Thomas and Deborah who had a son John baptised in Ashwellthorpe on 27 March 1692 is not known for certain but Thomas and Deborah Huggin had three other children baptised in Ashwellthorpe – Samuel(l) 15 June 1693, Henry 29 June 1694 and Anne 20 October 1695 – before Deborah died and was buried on 22 May 1703. Nothing further is known about Thomas.

The Third Generation – John Huggin the first clock-watchmaker in Ashwellthorpe – which of the above John Huggin's both born in Ashwellthorpe in 1692 was the first of the Huggin family of clock-watchmakers? I do not know. That will be for Huggin family researchers to discover.

But John Huggin, the first Huggin clock-watchmaker of Ashwellthorpe, was married to Elizabeth ? some time before 1721 and had eight children baptised in All Saints' church (five of whom died in infancy), with three sons -John, William and Barnard, becoming clock-watchmakers.

It was probably this third generation John Huggin who was chosen by the Vestry meeting of the Parish to be an Overseer of the Poor in 1749, 1755 and 1760 – overseers were usually selected every Easter from all rate-paying occupiers of land (the better-off male population of the parish) to administer poor relief (money, food, clothing, apprenticeships) under the supervision of JPs.

John was buried at All Saints' Church in the village on 23 December 1775; his wife Elizabeth probably died in 1779 and was buried on 26 December. They had sons Barnard, John and William who all became clock-watchmakers and they were mentioned in John's Will which he signed on 4 January 1775. "Messuages, houses, lands, tenements" left to wife Elizabeth and after her death to son Barnard; and £30 each to sons John and William. He also mentioned his grandchildren - John son of John; Elizabeth and Mary, daughters of William.

The Fourth Generation – John Huggin Jnr. the second clock-watchmaker - the oldest son of John and Elizabeth Huggin, was born on 5 April 1723 and buried in Ashwellthorpe on 21 December 1788. Nothing more is known about him – apart from the legacy of his clocks.

The Fourth Generation – William Huggin Snr, the third clock-watchmaker - the middle son of John and Elizabeth Huggin, was born on 29 September 1727 in Ashwellthorpe and he married Hannah Oakley by Banns in the village on 11 February 1766.

It is probable that it was this William Huggin who was elected to be an overseer of the poor for Ashwellthorpe in 1775, 1781 and 1782.

He died on 20 July 1802 and was buried at All Saints' church, Ashwellthorpe. In his Will written on 25 May 1802, he mentioned his wife Hannah, son William and daughters Elizabeth Austen and Mary Juby to whom he left £80 each. Daughter Elizabeth had married Izaac Austen (Isaac Austin) of Bunwell by Banns on 12 October 1789 at All Saints, Ashwellthorpe – he was a farmer in Bunwell. Mary Huggin had married William Juby of Hempnall (Hemenhall) by Licence on 4 November 1800 at All Saints, Ashwellthorpe.

The Fourth Generation – Barnard Huggin, the fourth clock-watchmaker – the youngest son of John and Elizabeth Huggin was born in Ashwellthorpe on 26 January 1733/34 and baptised at All Saints' church on 4 March that year. Barnard Huggin's first marriage was to Sarah Mayes, a spinster also of Ashwellthorpe, on 14 October 1760 at All Saints and they had two children: Elizabeth baptised All Saints on 29 July 1767 who was buried on 2 September that year; Susanna, baptised on 29 April 1770 who I believe was buried on 26 December 1779 – both events at All Saints, Ashwellthorpe. Sarah, aged 71, was buried in Ashwellthorpe on 25 July 1802. Barnard married – as a widower - Ann Smith of Wymondham, by Licence on 14 January 1803 at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe.

Barnard Huggin was also elected an overseer of the poor for Ashwellthorpe in 1761, 1766, 1771 and 1779. In 1815, Barnard Huggin's property value was assessed at £6.00 which, at the poor rate of 1s. 6d. (7.5p) in the £ led to a payment by him of 9 shillings (45p).

His nephew, William Huggin, the fifth clock-watchmaker, was the sole Executor of Barnard Huggin's Will written on 1 July 1810 and as well as various bequests to his wife Ann, and nephew John and nieces Elizabeth Austen and Mary Juby, Barnard bequeathed his "working tools and dials in the Clock Shop" to William. Barnard was aged 85 when he died and was buried on 20 May 1819 at All Saints' church. His widow Ann was buried at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe on 2 April 1830 aged 75.

The Fifth Generation – William Huggin Jnr, the fifth clock-watchmaker -was baptised on 9 October 1768, the only son of the above William and Hannah Huggin nee Oakley. He married Sarah Juby of Hempnall by Licence on 19 October 1802 at St Margaret's Church, Hempnall and they had a daughter Sarah, baptised on 12 January 1806 at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe.

In 1815, William paid into the poor rate for Ashwellthorpe with the valuation of his property being £18.10s. 0d. (£18.50) which, at the rate of 1s. 6d. (7.5p) in the pound, led to his payment of £1. 7s. 9d. (£1.38).

He wrote his Will on 4 October 1827 with the Executors being his wife Sarah, and his nephews William Juby the Younger, Farmer of Attlebridge, and Edmund Juby the Younger, Farmer of Taverham. William died aged 61 in November 1829 and was buried at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe on 19 November.

Widow Sarah Huggin wrote her Will on 26 April 1839 and her Executors were nephews William Juby, by then farming at Meyton Hall Frettenham, and Edmund Juby, farming at Old Hall, Weston Longville. At the 1841 Census, Sarah Huggin was aged 71, still living in Ashwellthorpe and described as a farmer – the 1842 Tithe Apportionment states that she farmed just over 15 acres - and she died aged 79 being buried at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe on 29 November 1849.

The Sixth Generation – Sarah Huggin, daughter and only child, of William Jnr and Sarah Huggin nee Juby, was baptised at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe on 12 January 1806 and Received into the Church there on 16 February that year. She was mentioned in her father's 1827 Will, but she pre-deceased her mother and was buried at All Saints' Ashwellthorpe, aged 33 on 9 May 1838.

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ASHWELLTHORPE HALL AFTER LADY BERNERS – Part One

1917 – 1921

There will be more stories of Lady Berners, the 12th Baroness Berners, appearing on this website from time to time. But this item covers her death at the age of 81 on 18 August 1917, as the last member of the Berners family to live at The Hall, and the sale of the Ashwellthorpe Hall Estate in 1918.

Emma Harriet Wilson married the 3rd baronet Sir Henry Thomas Tyrwhitt at St Michaels's Church, Pimlico by Licence, on 3 November 1853, when she was 17 and they had twelve children, many born in Ashwellthorpe. Emma Harriet Tyrwhitt nee Wilson inherited the Berners Barony in her own right, on the death of her twice-married but childless uncle, Henry William the 11th Baron Berners, when he died in 1871 and his Will stipulated that Ashwellthorpe Hall be entailed so that any inheritor would be a tenant for life. Whilst her husband Sir Henry was alive, they spent time at his home Stanley Hall, Astley Abbots, Shropshire but after his death in 1894, she lived permanently at Ashwellthorpe Hall, where she had been brought up. Her oldest living son, Raymond Robert Tyrwhitt-Wilson had already inherited the 4th Tyrwhitt baronetcy from his father in 1894.

Lady Berners' immediate successor to the Berners' Barony and the Estate was the above Raymond Robert who had been baptised at All Saints Church, Ashwellthorpe, on 18 October 1855, and who became the 13th Baron Berners immediately upon her death. He did not marry and he lived at Stanley Hall where he was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1910, but also lived at 4 Down Street, Mayfair, London where he died on 5 September 1918 without children. Probate was granted to two of his brothers - the Honourable Rupert Tyrwhitt Major in the Royal Artillery and the Honourable Reverend Leonard Francis Tyrwhitt – his estate amounting to over £23,000.

Therefore, on 5 September 1918, the Berners Barony passed to the next heir Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt Wilson born 18 September 1883, to the Honourable Hugh Tyrwhitt and his wife Julia nee Foster. Hugh had been a Commodore in the Royal Navy and an Equerry to King Edward VII, but he had died in 1907 and, until his death, had been next in line to the Barony.

Gerald Hugh was educated at Eton and studied in France and Germany, before acting as an Honorary Attaché in Constantinople and Rome from 1909. In his lifetime, he became a composer, artist and author having already written songs, orchestral and piano pieces before he inherited the title.

Much more can be found out about him in any biographical dictionary and also from his four autobiographical books, particularly First Childhood, published in 1934, in which he writes in somewhat veiled terms about his austere grandmother Lady Berners (called Lady Bourchier) and Ashwellthorpe Hall (Stackwell Hall). He describes Stackwell Hall as a gloomy, unattractive home, deformed by later additions out of all recognition, surrounded by a moat which was generally half-dry and always rather smelly and shut in on all sides by tall fir trees, and looking as grim as an ogre's castle. He adds "I was always thankful that I never had to stay there often, and never for any length of time".

The Hall and Estate were already being advertised for sale in newspapers before Gerald inherited on 5 September 1918, but perhaps the continuation of the sale process by him gives an indication why he asked the Trustees of the 11th Baron Berners' 1871 Will for the entail on Ashwellthorpe Hall to be lifted within days of becoming 14th Baron so that the Hall and Estate could be sold!

*an entail meant limiting the inheritors to tenants for life of (property) over a number of generations so that ownership remained within a particular family or group

Entail Lifted

The Trustees gave consent for the sale of Ashwellthorpe Hall Estate on 28 September 1918 pursuant to the Settled Land Act 1882 – 1890. The entail was broken The Hall and its c.1118 Acre Estate was put on the market by Auction at the Royal Hotel, Norwich, on Saturday 28 September 1918 in 33 Lots, by Knight, Frank & Rutley of Hanover Square, London. It was advertised in many newspapers both local and further afield, e.g. The Scotsman.

Norfolk Chronicle 20 September 1918

Norfolk Record Office BRA 139/2

The whole Estate was sold for £38,500 – by some calculations, this is equivalent to £2.5 million today – to a Lawrence Bernard Lister, Auctioneer, of Stowmarket, Suffolk who, immediately afterwards at the same sale, instructed that the individual Lots should be offered for sale. No offer was made for Lot 1, Ashwellthorpe Hall its stabling, gardens, vinery, greenhouse and kitchen garden, together with a double cottage, small farmery, three rich old pastures amounting to c. 25 Acres in all. A good description of the interior of the Hall itself can be seen from the Auction document below:

The large tenanted farms: Hall Farm, Home or Church Farm, Wood Farm and Black Hall Farm (with its land in the parishes of Ashwellthorpe, Fundenhall and Wymondham) were all sold, as were some of the other Lots. Lower Wood and Fundenhall Wood were sold to the Co-operative Wholesale Society who had a brush-making factory in Wymondhamm, but other Lots were withdrawn with only a certain amount offered or withdrawn completely. So, the Estate was well and truly broken up – but there was no sale of Ashwellthorpe Hall.

On 7 February 1919, the Hall and the two blacksmiths' establishments and three cottages (Lots 8, 17 and 24) were sold on to a Frederick William Wateridge of Troston Hall, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, for £2,750. He was formerly an Auctioneer but became a gentleman farmer when he resided at Troston Hall, now a Grade II* listed building. It is not known whether Frederick Wateridge lived in Ashwellthorpe Hall – his name does not appear on any of the Electoral Registers for Ashwellthorpe, but he was known in the village as he was approached by its War Memorial Committee in April 1919 for a possible donation to the Memorial Funds.

Much use has been made of conveyances, indentures, abstract of title covering the sale of the Hall, which are in a personal private collection. From these, it can be seen that Ashwellthorpe Hall was sold ny Frederick Wateridge to Captain/Major Leslie Fletcher of Stanfield Hall, Wymondham, for the sum of £3,450 in September 1921. Major Fletcher and his wife Elsa remained at Ashwellthorpe Hall for over thirty years and more can be read about the Fletcher's residence at the Hall in the future Part Two.

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LADY BERNERS, THE 16TH BARONESS

The Bourchier family were the first of the Barons Berners created in the mid-15th Century, followed by descent through Knyvett and Wilson families. The ancestral home of the Berners Barony was Ashwellthorpe, encompassing the later Ashwellthorpe Hall. Ashwellthorpe stayed in the family until the death in 1917 of the 12th Baroness Berners, Lady Emma Harriet Tyrwhitt nee Wilson. She was the last of this landed family to own and live in Ashwellthorpe Hall and there will be many articles on this history of Ashwellthorpe website which will feature her and her activities in the village. After her death in 1917 the title and estate passed, within a year, to her oldest living son and then his nephew. The Ashwellthorpe Hall Estate was sold; the Berners' title remained in the family.

But, although no direct family members have lived in Ashwellthorpe for over 100 years, the family name of Knyvett is kept alive by Knyvett Green in Ashwellthorpe.

Sadly, the 16th Baroness Berners - Lady Pamela Vivien Kirkham nee Williams - died on 23 January 2023 at the age of 93. She inherited the title after her mother's death and took up her seat in the House of Lords in 1995, particularly speaking on health and nursing matters. She  visited Ashwellthorpe back in 2000, to launch the publication of the 5th Impression of Ashwellthorpe Hall and Its History by Michael Lawrence on behalf of the Ashwellthorpe Hall Association which ran the Hall as a holiday hotel for disabled motorists.

A Memorial Service was held at St Mary's Church in Frome, Somerset on Saturday 18 February 2023 and the Order of Service is reproduced below. The title 17th Baron Berners has passed to her oldest son Rupert Kirkham.