Hope Cottage, 47 The Green, Martham
The house was not called Hope Cottage until around 1890 but I will call it that for identity purposes. When it was built, in the early 19th century, it stood prominently on the east side of The Green. Originally it was one of very few on that side of The Green and would probably have been the largest one there.
We can check to see if the house existed in 1812 by looking at the Martham Inclosure Award map of that year which is shown below. The black blocks indicate dwellings and it is difficult to decide if it existed or not from this map. There is no landowner name drawn on the map for that area and the land was probably simply deemed as being part of the village Green in the ownership of the Lord of the Manor.
Thomas Bushell (1795-1878)
Thirty years later things are a little clearer. The house existed at the time of the 1842 Martham Tithe Award and the map associated with the Award is shown below. The house stands on plot number 678, outlined in pink, which was owned and occupied by Thomas Bushell. It is quite possible that Hope Cottage was built by Thomas in the late 1820’s.
In addition, Thomas also owned plots 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 610, 611, 612 and 613 at Cess to the north at what is today Cess Lane. Plots 72 to 75 each had a cottage on them with arable land. Plot 76 had a cottage and garden. Next to them he owned plots 610 to 613 which were meadow, garden and turf land. In all the land he owned amounted to 6 acres, 3 rods and 10 perches.
The same land had been owned by his father, William, in 1812 and Thomas inherited it arising from a tragic incident when his father was killed by lightning whilst tending to his horse in a field at Cess in 1823.
Thomas was born at Martham in early 1795 and his parents were William Bushell & Susannah, nee Drake. He was baptised at St Mary the Virgin on 29th March 1795. When he was 28, he married Hannah Deary the daughter of John Deary & Sarah, nee Whitaker. That was on 19th August 1823 at St Mary’s. Hannah was a widow when she married Thomas having previously been married to William Seago. Thomas became a successful grocer and was living at Hope Cottage from as early 1832 when he was listed in the Martham Electoral Register as an owner of a freehold house and land at The Green. Similarly, he was listed in the 1841 census as a grocer although the house was still not named at the time. He then turned to farming and by 1851 he was living off his income from land and rents. He had retired from farming by 1861 and seems to have continued living at Hope Cottage until his death on 3rd March 1878. Hannah had died two years before him aged 83. They are buried next to each other at St Mary the Virgin graveyard section F, plots L5 and L6.
The house was not named in the 1881 census and it is not clear who lived there or if it was unoccupied.
Oliver Aldred Starling (1861-1950)
Oliver was the next known owner of Hope Cottage. He was born in 1861 at Winterton-on-Sea to George Davey Starling & Tryphena Marie, nee Thurtle. Oliver grew up at his parents home at Mill Cottage, Hemsby Road, Winterton. His father was the miller at Hemsby and Oliver may have learnt the mechanical workings of the mill from an early age which would have given him a good grounding for his future career. In 1890 he was recorded in the electoral register for Martham as living at Hope Cottage, The Green in Martham. This is the first time we come across the house actually being called Hope Cottage so it is likely that it was named by Oliver.
There is a splendid, mature fig tree in the back garden that, given its size, could well have been planted by Oliver.
On 10th February 1892 Oliver married his cousin Laura May Thurtle, the daughter of Robert & Anne Thurtle. They married at her home village of Ormesby St Margaret by which time Oliver was a self-employed agricultural engineer.
Oliver & Laura had six children who were all born whilst they lived at Hope Cottage:
- Frank Oliver Starling who was born on 22nd June 1895. In 1925 he married Bertha Mabel Dyball of ‘Greenside’ across The Green. Frank died in 1970 and Bertha in 1974.
- Alec Leslie Starling who was born on 26th July 1897 but sadly died the following year, aged one.
- Ralph George Starling who was born on 26th September 1899. He married Margaret Thurtle (no relation to his mother) in 1932. Ralph died at Dover, Kent in 1969.
- Eric Robert Starling who was born on 23rd January 1903. He married Edith Eleanor Barnes in 1932. Eric died at East Dereham in 1978.
- Marjorie May Starling who was born on 28th August 1905 and married James Kirkland at Great Yarmouth in 1932. Marjorie died in Surrey in 1976.
- Olive Mary Starling was born in 1911 but tragedy struck again when she died aged only 18 months.
Above photo courtesy of Richie Warnes – left to right: Oliver, Eric, Laura, Marjorie & Frank.
Oliver was an active community man and in 1908 contributed towards a parish fund to clean out the ponds that were little more than sewers at the time. He greatly enjoyed playing cricket and by 1915 had moved to live at Westgrove in Station Road (Rollesby Road) where he provided a meadow that was between the house and the railway line for the Martham cricket team to play their home games.
Oliver’s wife Laura died in 1931 and four years later he married Ivy Grace Palmer at Great Yarmouth. Ivy died in 1949 and Oliver on 21st July 1950. Oliver and Laura are buried together at St Mary the Virgin graveyard section H, plot K1. Their gravestone is shown below.
Sisters Helen & Maria Rising
By 1915 Oliver Starling had moved to Westgrove and Hope Cottage must have had new occupiers but it is difficult to trace who they were. The 1939 Register, drawn up by the Government in preparation for war, lists Helen and Maria Rising as living there but the property named in the Register merely says, “The Cottage”. Helen & Maria were spinster sisters from the landowner/farming Rising family dynasty of West Somerton and Martham. You can read more about the family by clicking on their surname. Helen was born in 1861 and died in 1944 but her sister, Maria (born 1872) lived until 1962. Locals say she still lived at Hope Cottage in 1950 but no formal sources are given for this.
Recent information has been provided by a descendant of Leonard & Constance Spencer who lived at the house in the 1960’s when it was called Thurne Thatch. Len is certainly remembered locally as having a photographic business at the studio attached to Yew Tree Cottage which is just across Back Lane from Hope Cottage.
If you have any information about the occupiers of the house from 1950 onwards, please contact me.
