Out of the Long Ago

by Maud Milgate

Palgrave

I found by staying in Palgrave I could get into Norwich which was 20 miles away, by the local country bus. It stopped quite close to Orme Villa and if I caught the 8.30, I was in Norwich before 10 a.m. and I got a taxi to take me across the city to the Records Office and Library so was able to continue my searches which I enjoyed. The index file covered every village in Norfolk and after looking through the Bishops Transcripts for a number of villages, I looked up various books of wills and a very old land map to see if I could find any belonging to my forebears. There was a land agreement signed by a John Cornwallis and his wife Grace in 1696 at New Buckenham where they lived. My grandmother was born a mile away at Old Buckenham in I 831, which shows the people I sought all lived thereabouts and people moved very little in those days. It does not prove anything but they are all straws in the wind and ancestry search is just that faint indications here and there, often leading to a false trail. Anyway I loved searching, it was quiet and with the sun streaming through the windows on a nice day, time was mine to do as I liked. In the lunch hour on this particular occasion I went to find "Chapel in the Fields". According to my map it was near and now called Chapel Field Gardens. I soon found these public gardens and ate the lunch Mrs. Murton had packed for me. There were beautiful flower beds and shrubs with avenues of lime trees and all surrounded by tall forest trees. There was bandstand and as the gardens were in the heart of the city people came here at lunch time. In one corner was a refreshment pavilion run by the city authority. I had a cup of tea sitting at one of the little tables outside, and took in the scene. My interest in this place was in what it had been long ago. It had belonged to the great medieval chantry St. Mary. the original "Chapel in the Fields’’. At the Reformation the Priors house had stood here. In I 571 the Priors nephew William Yaxlev sold it to Sir Thomas Cornwallis for £400 for a town house. In those days country gentry had houses in nearby towns and stayed in them during the winter months otherwise they were marooned on their country estates by impassable roads I took some photographs and tried to visualize what it had looked like ages ago, but could not. At the lime I was there there was talk in the local papers of pulling down the fences and using some part of it as a car park. This would mean cutting down the trees and the last of the old monastery gardens would disappear under the tarmac.

I went back to the Records for further study, then caught my country bus back to Palgrave. I was often tired after my search but this leisurely journey home through a number of villages and lovely rural country was very peaceful. The bus dropped me just opposite my door and Mrs. Murton bad a hot meal waiting.

Now Orme Villa was next door to a very old house called "Holly House’’. Before I knew anything of its history, I was out with Mrs. Coleman (1 was staying in Diss at the time) when Mrs. Coleman’s car broke down outside it and she went and fetched her husband. That was the first time I met Mr. Coleman and we had a chat about Palgrave. He said how much he missed trees when they were cut down and mentioned a very old cedar that had stood in the churchyard which was on the other side of the road and which had blown down in a gale one winter. "You know he said "the churchyard has never looked the same since. I miss that old tree". Turning to Holly House he asked me if I knew what the curious ornamentations on the front of the house were? I said I did not. unless they were ornamental brace ends. The house was obviously very old and surrounded by a high clipped holly edge with some topiary design on top. The path from the gate sloped down to the front door so that it had a rather sunken effect. It was a lovely old house and intrigued me very much so I was delighted when cousin Florence Baldwin said she was born there. It had belonged to her Grandparents, Sarah and William Harper and they were buried under the old tree that had blown down in the churchyard opposite. Now that I was actually staying next to Holly House I could see a great deal more of it. When I looked out of the bathroom window I had a good view of its beautifully kept back gardens. A young school teacher was staving at Orme Villa on this holiday and like me she was very curious to know what Holly House was like inside, but my interest was more personal than hers and went back a long way. My Grandmother (she was Adelaide) had a next older sister Sarah and she had married a William Harper of Stuston and they lived at Holly House. they had one daughter Harriet Adelaide who married Robert Baldwin and later lived with him at Diss Court. Their daughter’s sixth? child Florence was born at Holly House. How this came about I do not know but probably the Baldwins lived at Holly House after the death of the mother Sarah Harper. Mrs. Coleman knew the owner of Holly House and through her I got an invitation to see inside it. I have forgotten the lady’s name but she very kindly showed me round her very charming house. It was very old, rather dark. but in a wonderful state of preservation and furnished with period furniture I could have spent all day looking at the pictures. There was a collection of miniature paintings in one large frame of the ladies her family over several generations. Sitting talking to me afterwards, incidentally she was a solicitor, she said she k new something of my family, and she recalled that a nephew of cousin Florence, when in England on a visit, had dined with her at Holly House in order to see the house where his forebears bad lived.

Talking to Katie a few days later about my visit to Holly House she said she remembered it when it had red linen blind s and red lace curtains at all the windows and a conservatory opened out of the dining room and it was hers (Katie's) job to see that it always looked attractive to look at while they dined. In her day it was called Holly Farm although as far as she knew it had never been a farm. I wondered what its history was.

Opposite Holly House is the church of St. Peter and the churchyard wall runs opposite the house and in full view of its windows under the old cedar tree which blew down lie buried Sarah Harper and her husband William. She died 28 March 1894 aged 64 years I think for the stone is very worn. Beside them is the headstone of their only child. In loving memory of Harriet Adelaide, the beloved wife of Robert Baldwin who died 27 April 1901 aged 49 years. Also of Robert Baldwin (of Diss) died 17 June 1910, aged 61. This was the Robert Baldwin, the dandy in the Attleborough photographs who lived at Diss Court. His wife Harriet was Katie’s "beloved aunt" and my grandmother’s niece.

Each time I stayed in Palgrave I went to church. It was old and a plaque at the back read "Palgrave church is in the gift of Earl Cornwallis who appointed in 1755 Humphrey Christian and later in 1799 Robert Rose received it from the patron", Marquis Cornwallis. Here some of my forebears lie buried. Here cousin Florence was christened and married to Reginald Chase. Here also Mrs. Coleman said she was married. I felt I belonged.

I took photographs of its square tower and surroundings and of the graves to send out. to Australia. The church stood on a large village green as did also the school, and behind this was a pond which cousin Florence said in her day was used for horses to refresh themselves. It is now dried up. Many beautiful forest trees grew on the green. but also even some of these have gone. There was an old orchard behind a very old forge. The forge had only just been pulled down and a modern post office built on the site when I first started my visits. Since then the orchard has also vanished and a close of modern houses stand there instead.

Over the years the Vicar got to recognize me and we always had a chat. On my last visit there I told him about Florence how she had been married in that church and was now ill in Australia and would never come back to England again, and how I intended to write her all about my visit Taking up a Parish

Magazine he said send her that too with our love. I went and had another look at the graves. It was drizzling with rain. every thing was very wet, but I felt I was making a last pilgrimage for Florence. She could not do it, so I must. Coming out into the road my ankle turned over in a large puddle and I fell flat on my face. It was Sunday lunch time there was not a soul about, except a dog which ran round me in circles barking its head off.