Glaven Historian 14 (2014)

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Supplying the Beer: life on the road in late 18th century Norfolk

Margaret Bird

Synopsis: Life in the rural hinterland in the 18th century was by no means as isolated as it is often portrayed. Itinerancy was not confined to Nonconformist preachers, and large sections of the population were on the move.

Brewers’ draymen covered huge distances carting beer to the public houses; some journeyed as much as 550 miles a month on top of their other duties. Through their diaries the brewer’s wife Mary Hardy and her nephew Henry Raven, the apprentice, enable us to chart the daily tasks of a workforce who nurtured the product all the way from ploughing and sowing to malting, brewing and distribution around north Norfolk.

The Social Geography of the Town of Cley in 1841

Richard Dunn

Synopsis: the geographical patterns of employment and land use in Cley in 1841 are explored using the Tithe Map and the 1841 Census; the main results are presented in a series of maps for the village and its sub areas, and it is suggested that five distinctive social subdivisions or neighbourhoods existed at this time.

Capt Frederick Marryat — Langham Farmer 1843-1848

Michael Medlar

Synopsis: Captain Marryat farmed his estate in Langham from 1843 until his death in 1848. It is generally held that he was a failure as a farmer, losing considerable sums of money. The Norfolk Record Office holds partial farm accounts for the period 23 October 1845 to 20 April 1846 for Marryat’s estate. Using these accounts, the 1852 sale particulars of the estate and other documents at NRO, Marryat’s will and modern biographies, the author explores how successful or otherwise Marryat was as a farmer.

The Collier Brig

Sara Dobson

Synopsis: Whilst researching the voyages of the Lively , a 19th century collier brig registered in Cley,1 the following article was found.2 Written in the 1850s, it gives a descriptive account of the voyage of a collier brig taking coal from Newcastle to London.

James Hackman, Murderer, Rector of Wiveton

William Savage

Synopsis: an account of the murder by Hackmann of a young actress, a mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, with whom he was infatuated.

History of the Cley Hall Estate (part 2)

John Ebdon

Synopsis: The continuation of this history of the Cley Hall Estate will deal with William Hardy Cozens-Hardy’s continued development and expansion of the combined Letheringsett and Cley Estates from when he inherited in 1842 until his death in 1895, his numerous children coupled with the growing influence they had in the local area, through Norfolk, to London and national politics.

However, the next 50 years to 1945 were to prove far more tumultuous for the estates, as like many other country estates, this prosperity did not continue through the twentieth century with the death of the heir Raven in 1917 fighting in the First World War and the gradual break up and dispersal of almost all of the property by the end of the twentieth century.

A Partial History of the World in One Object

Eric Hotblack

Synopsis: An unexpectedly wide ranging investigation of the identification of a bead.

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