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A changing village - Brundall from the 1880s
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Take a walk in the footsteps of the Victorians and Edwardians who moved into the village of Brundall more than 100 years ago.
A small community with only 50 homes was transformed by the sale of ancient manorial lands in 1881. Plots of land, many near Brundall Station, were advertised and sold, and impressive homes were built.
Prosperous Norwich families found that they could be close to their city businesses yet comfortable in the riverside surroundings of Brundall. By 1911 the population had increased to about 500 residents living in 116 houses. Servants were needed to maintain these new homes and their grounds, and so the population continued to grow.
Now, thanks to Brundall Local History Group, a map and illustrated guide has been created to tell the story of this transformation of a village – and it’s a trail which everyone can enjoy.
The free map and guide has been available from Brundall Library, St Laurence Church, Brundall Memorial Hall and Brundall Post Office, and more will be circulated in 2026.
A small community with only 50 homes was transformed by the sale of ancient manorial lands in 1881. Plots of land, many near Brundall Station, were advertised and sold, and impressive homes were built.
Prosperous Norwich families found that they could be close to their city businesses yet comfortable in the riverside surroundings of Brundall. By 1911 the population had increased to about 500 residents living in 116 houses. Servants were needed to maintain these new homes and their grounds, and so the population continued to grow.
Now, thanks to Brundall Local History Group, a map and illustrated guide has been created to tell the story of this transformation of a village – and it’s a trail which everyone can enjoy.
The free map and guide has been available from Brundall Library, St Laurence Church, Brundall Memorial Hall and Brundall Post Office, and more will be circulated in 2026.
Download a pdf here:
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The post office at No.1 Station Road. It was established in 1892 by
sub-postmaster Benjamin Winter Merrison. After his early death in 1906 his widow and son ran it for more than 50 years. |
An ideal country retreat...
The transformation of Brundall from the 1880s
By the boathouse on the Mere, Banks of the Yare, 1893. 'Mr Hotblack' (right) with his sister, Mrs Marion Beverley and her family. Photo: BLHG archive, courtesy of the Beverley family
The arrival of the railway in Brundall brought major changes to the village. Speed of travel meant businessmen could bring their families to live in relatively rural surroundings and still quickly reach their workplaces in the city.
But it was the sale of important land in Brundall which triggered a building boom which transformed the village.
Here Chloe Veale tells the story of this transformation.
It was the sale of the century. On 19th July 1881 the Strumpshaw Hall Estate was auctioned at the Royal Hotel, Norwich, by ‘Messrs Spelman’ on the instructions of its owner Cecil Thomas Clement Gilbert (1855-1907).
Comprising some 1270 acres for sale in 34 lots, the estate was spread across “the Parishes of Strumpshaw, Bradestone, Brundall, Great Plumstead and Witton”...” Together with the Manor of Brundall”.
A second auction took place on 13th August after it was decided to split lot 30 of the earlier sale into a further 17 lots. Described as The Brundall Estate, it comprised 292 acres lying between St Laurence Church and the far west end of the village commanding “beautiful views of the Valley of the Yare and adjacent Broads, and...almost unrivalled in this respect as Building Sites”. The two sales realised a total of £46,000, equivalent to about £3m today.
Cecil’s father, the Revd Clement Gilbert (1822-1876), rector of Hemsby had inherited the Hall and its vast estate from his sister Lydia Ann Tuck (1802-1864), widow of Thomas Gilbert Tuck (1799-1862), Lord of the Manor of Brundall, Deputy Lieutenant and magistrate of Norfolk. On Clement’s death in 1876, it passed to Cecil, then only 20 years old. Within five years, all of it had been broken up and sold off to enterprising estate agents, speculators and house builders seeking investment opportunities.
Inherited landownership and national self-sufficiency from food production on estate farms had been the source of Britain’s wealth and governing power for centuries. However, during the course of Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain became more reliant on cheaper foreign grain and other food imports to support its burgeoning population.
By the 1880s arable farm estates, such as Strumpshaw Hall, had become unsustainable while being forced to accept disastrous rent cuts as the agricultural depression took hold at home. Labourers deserted their traditional rural occupations and tithe cottages for better wages and security in Norwich’s booming industrial factories.
With the comprehensive disposal of Squire Tuck’s estate came the end of the ancient feudal administration and justice system of the district overseen by the Lord of the Manor. The two civic parishes of Brundall and Braydeston merged in 1883 and in 1894 Brundall elected its first parish council under the Local Government Act of that year which made it a legal requirement for rural parishes with more than 300 inhabitants.
But it was the sale of important land in Brundall which triggered a building boom which transformed the village.
Here Chloe Veale tells the story of this transformation.
It was the sale of the century. On 19th July 1881 the Strumpshaw Hall Estate was auctioned at the Royal Hotel, Norwich, by ‘Messrs Spelman’ on the instructions of its owner Cecil Thomas Clement Gilbert (1855-1907).
Comprising some 1270 acres for sale in 34 lots, the estate was spread across “the Parishes of Strumpshaw, Bradestone, Brundall, Great Plumstead and Witton”...” Together with the Manor of Brundall”.
A second auction took place on 13th August after it was decided to split lot 30 of the earlier sale into a further 17 lots. Described as The Brundall Estate, it comprised 292 acres lying between St Laurence Church and the far west end of the village commanding “beautiful views of the Valley of the Yare and adjacent Broads, and...almost unrivalled in this respect as Building Sites”. The two sales realised a total of £46,000, equivalent to about £3m today.
Cecil’s father, the Revd Clement Gilbert (1822-1876), rector of Hemsby had inherited the Hall and its vast estate from his sister Lydia Ann Tuck (1802-1864), widow of Thomas Gilbert Tuck (1799-1862), Lord of the Manor of Brundall, Deputy Lieutenant and magistrate of Norfolk. On Clement’s death in 1876, it passed to Cecil, then only 20 years old. Within five years, all of it had been broken up and sold off to enterprising estate agents, speculators and house builders seeking investment opportunities.
Inherited landownership and national self-sufficiency from food production on estate farms had been the source of Britain’s wealth and governing power for centuries. However, during the course of Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain became more reliant on cheaper foreign grain and other food imports to support its burgeoning population.
By the 1880s arable farm estates, such as Strumpshaw Hall, had become unsustainable while being forced to accept disastrous rent cuts as the agricultural depression took hold at home. Labourers deserted their traditional rural occupations and tithe cottages for better wages and security in Norwich’s booming industrial factories.
With the comprehensive disposal of Squire Tuck’s estate came the end of the ancient feudal administration and justice system of the district overseen by the Lord of the Manor. The two civic parishes of Brundall and Braydeston merged in 1883 and in 1894 Brundall elected its first parish council under the Local Government Act of that year which made it a legal requirement for rural parishes with more than 300 inhabitants.
Above: Braydeston Court, Braydeston Avenue, originally 'Shiels Court'.
Inset: Terracotta sunflower detail over the front entrance. Photos: Carla Hodgson, June 2024. |
Brundall became an estate agent’s dream as green fields were carved up in the building development frenzy and property was bought, sold and re-sold by short term investors and new residents. The advantages of Brundall’s riverside location, its convenient railway station and “freedom from heavy City rates” were big selling points, as promoted in Spelman’s brochure for another sale on 21 June 1884:
“BRUNDALL NEXT THE STATION; IMPORTANT FREEHOLD BUILDING LAND: Suitable for the Erection of Small Villa Residences, situate next the road leading to the Station… These Sites should attract Gentlemen who have their business either in Norwich or Yarmouth, to build Houses which are distant in time 14 minutes from Norwich and 26 minutes from Yarmouth: thus showing that a business man may live at Brundall and be in the Market Place, at Norwich, as quickly as if he lived in one of the best suburbs of the City, and be clear of the heavy rates of the City or Town; besides, Brundall has the advantage of a pretty country combined with the attractions of Boating and Yachting, the River being within five minutes of the lots.” The Tuck and Gilbert families had not completely monopolised Brundall. Edward William Trafford Esquire (1809-1892) of Wroxham Hall, a gentleman of ancient lineage bearing a coat of arms, became the latest owner of Brundall House and estate in 1871. In addition to the extensive grounds of the Georgian mansion, the estate included swathes of fields to the east and west of Brundall Lane (now Cucumber Lane), along Postwick Lane and northwards to Witton. When Edward died in 1892, his son immediately put the Brundall House estate up for sale. Most of it was bought by William Juby Coleman, a pharmaceutical chemist who had invented Wincarnis tonic wine and was the managing director of his factory in Barn Road, Norwich. |
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Trafford’s “Braydeston Estate” was separately advertised as 39 plots suitable for “the erection of semi-detached villa residences” which were considered, by this time, “practically the only freehold land in the neighbourhood available for building purposes”. At the auction on 13th October 1892, by far the biggest investor was Thomas Gurney Mason of Park House, Eaton, Norwich. An affluent iron founder and trader in the Midlands, he had served as Mayor of Stamford in 1874 and 1878 before retiring to Norfolk.
He commissioned Norwich architect Augustus Frederick Scott (1854-1936) to design and build Shiels Court on the west side of the newly created Braydeston Avenue. It was completed around 1893 to 1894 along with stabling, coach houses and south-facing grounds extending down to the railway line. Gurney Mason also hired Scott to build the pair of attached villas immediately opposite on the east side of the avenue in a complementary style. In the conveyance deed, his declared purpose was to gift all three houses to his beloved children in trust, not to live in, but to secure rental incomes for the future. Although he initially used Shiels Court as an address, in 1896 he sold its contents having already moved away to Bedford with his family. Shiels Court: an Arts & Crafts treasure Shiels Court was built in a modern vernacular ‘Arts & Crafts’ style in vivid red ornamental brick with decorative terracotta features and mouldings on its bold gabled exterior, supplied by Gunton Brothers of Costessey. In keeping with current ideas associated with the Aesthetic Movement, Scott loosely adapted past historical styles, combining an asymmetrical mix of 17th century Flemish and Dutch elements, tall ‘Tudorbethan’ chimneys, mullioned windows amongst a variety of different window types and even a romantic gothic turret. The sunflower motif, a popular decorative symbol of the period, was incorporated on both sides of the front entrance surround as well as on the upper gables. Inside there were geometrically patterned stained glass windows, colourful encaustic floor tiles, an impressive decoratively carved staircase rising to the top of the building and more sunflowers on tiled bedroom fireplaces. Slightly earlier in 1890, Philip Mason, (no relation to Gurney Mason) a Norwich pharmaceutical chemist, had hired A F Scott to design his grand family home The Uplands on the corner of The Street and Station Road. This imposing building may have inspired Gurney Mason to use the same architect. Scott was in high demand in Brundall; he also built Heathfield House in 1895 (formerly The Homestead) at 1, Strumpshaw Road and surveyed 20 prime acres at the “Station Road Building Estate” (now Station New Road) auctioned as 25 plots by Clowes & Nash in 1898. The creation of 'The Banks of the Yare' Two significant beneficiaries of the 1881 auctions were George Snelling Hotblack and his brother-in-law Dr. Michael Beverley. In 1873 Dr Beverley, a leading house surgeon at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, had married Marian Hotblack, the eldest daughter of John Hotblack, a successful Norwich boot and shoe manufacturer and the City’s Mayor in 1884-1885. Marian brought a dowry of £2,500 (equivalent to about £155,000 today) to the marriage. When Dr Beverley acquired his first plot of land at the western end of Brundall in August 1881 he was probably able to do so, on his modest doctor’s income, with some financial backing from his affluent wife and father-in-law. John Hotblack held Dr Beverley in very high esteem, naming him as an executor to his will alongside his three eldest sons. More Brundall plots were bought in 1882, 1883, 1886 and 1895, the latter being a key date when Marian Beverley received a generous bequest of £1,000 from her father after his death. A keen amateur botanist, Dr Beverley was able to create his celebrated 76-acre arboretum and wildlife haven full of rare trees and plants which he named “The Banks of the Yare”. This was a weekend and holiday retreat for the Beverley family where they welcomed and entertained visitors. Their main address was 54, Prince of Wales Road, Norwich, a tall town house which had been renovated by architect Edward Boardman. Marian’s brother George Snelling Hotblack and his family lived at number 52 next door and the two households regularly socialised. George also invested heavily in Brundall property from 1881 onwards, including the misnamed Manor House, its adjacent barns as well as land further eastwards along Strumpshaw Road. A senior partner in his father’s factories and described as a “Leather Merchant”, George and his siblings inherited sufficient wealth from their father’s estate in 1895 to retire from the business altogether and live “on their own means”. In 1909 he sold land to Dr McKelvie, who then built St Ninian’s at 2 Strumpshaw Road. |
A busy day outside the White Horse in the 1910s
In the garden at Shiels Court
Dorothy Hotblack's official wedding photograph, taken at Shiels Court, November 8, 1911. (Norfolk News)
 Brundall House
George also acquired a huge plot of land and marsh located between The Street and the River Yare, running down the eastern side of Church Lane abutting part of Dr Beverley’s land. In 1906 he sold a seven-acre piece at the Street end to Henry ffiske, managing director of Boulton & Paul of Norwich, who built Holm Close and Holm Close Lodge on the site.
Despite all his property ventures, when George Hotblack left Norwich to settle in Brundall with his family in 1896, they moved into Thomas Gurney Mason’s recently-built mansion Shiels Court, initially leased for a period of five years at £150.00 per annum. Along with several other influential families, George, Emily, their son George Finch and daughters Emily Violet and Dorothy Margaret established themselves as part of an elite group involved in a variety of respectable middle-class voluntary activities. These included serving as parish overseers and churchwardens, teaching at the Sunday school, charity fundraising, organising musical concerts, children’s parties and outings or freely offering “Mr Hotblack’s barn” for community events. For essential practical and social status reasons, the owners of Brundall’s impressive new mansions provided employment for an army of live-in cooks, maids, grooms and gardeners. The Hotblack daughters were married at St Andrew’s Church, Blofield with lavish wedding receptions held at Shiels Court. Emily married hospital surgeon Dr Frederick Preston in 1908. Dorothy’s wedding in 1911 to Captain Charles Devaynes Smyth, an officer in the Royal Irish Rifles and heir to a landed fortune, was a much publicised high society event. |
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