Brickfield Farm, 55 Staithe Road, Martham
(This page has been written in association with ‘Brickmaking at Martham’).
Brickfield Farm is a three bedroomed traditional thatched farmhouse that stands on the northwest corner of Staithe Road and Damgate Road. Historic records show that it has been there since at least the early 19th century and possibly well before that. There was a time when it was one of just a few thatched cottages associated with the hamlet of Damgate which was separate from Martham. In those days Staithe Road was known as Damgate Road or in other words the road that led from Martham to Damgate.
Further evidence of its age is the barn that fronts directly onto Staithe Road. This may have been built before the house but is built in a fairly distinctive English bond brickwork pattern which dates it roughly from the mid 17th century to the 18th century by which time the more decorative Flemish bond became more popular.
1812 Inclosure Award.
According to the 1812 Martham Inclosure Award there was a cottage standing in one rood of land on the site where Brickfield Farm stands today. It is shown, outlined in red, on the map on the right. It was owned by George Wilson (1748-1834) but occupied by William Braddock (1777-1864). George Wilson was born in Norwich but by 1812 lived in Martham and owned eight acres of land that included a cottage, barn, yards, stable and garden. He died in 1834 and is buried at St Mary’s.
Braddock Family
So, William Braddock (1777-1864) was living at Brickfield Farm in 1812 and he was also listed in the Martham 1842 Tithe Award as the owner of plot No15 as shown, in blue, on the Tithe map below. The plot includes a house in the south west corner where Brickfield Farm stands today. In total William owned 15 acres, 2 roods & 32 perches of arable land, marsh, houses and premises around the village in 1842. In 1804 William had married Elizabeth Wilson, the daughter of George Wilson, mentioned above, so it is possible that William had inherited George’s land through his wife. William & Elizabeth had at least eight children one of which was Charles, born in Martham in 1811 and another called Daniel born in the village 1819.
Charles was also listed in the 1842 Tithe Award as the owner of plots 10 &11 between what is now Somerton Road and Staithe Road. These amounted to one acre and one perch. No 10 was a brick ground. Both plots are shown outlined in red on the map above and are opposite Brickfield Farm. It seems that the farm was named after the brick ground. Charles was a brewer and a cooper but was also listed as a brickmaker in three Martham business directories between 1846 and 1850.
It was William & Elizabeth’s son Daniel (1819-1900) who continued to run the farm after his father had died in 1864. Daniel had married Elizabeth Harper on 15th September 1846 at St Mary’s and they went on to have at least five children between 1846 and 1861. By 1861 Daniel was farming 48 acres and employed 3 men and a boy to assist him. Daniel continued working from the farm in the 1870’s and 1880’s and in 1879 was listed in Kelly’s Directory as being a brickmaker but by 1891 the Braddock family association with Brickfield Farm had come to an end when Daniel, who by then was 72, retired and moved to Low Road, West Somerton.
Grimble Family
Brickfield Farm was not named as such in the 1891, 1901 or 1911 censuses but can be identified from the walking order of the census returns and other documents as being occupied by George & Emily Grimble. George was born in Martham in 1846 and Emily in 1850 also in Martham. They were married at St Mary’s on Christmas day 1872 and went on to have nine children. Two died as infants and most of the others grew up and left the village. Emily died in 1919 and this triggered another change of occupiers at the farm with George moving to Oak Cottage, Staithe Road where he died in December 1922. Two of his sons, Arthur & Wilfred, had continued to live with him and help him out on the farm but after his death lived together at Somerton Road where they were smallholders and Wilfred was also a grocer.
Nichols Family
By coincidence just as Emily Grimble died in 1919 and her husband and sons moved out of Brickfield Farm, Edmund Nichols (1867-1939), who had long held the farm tenancy at nearby Moregrove, also had to move because the then owner of Moregrove decided to sell it. Edmund & Julia Nichols became the new occupiers at Brickfield Farm and the 1921 census tells us that they were living there with seven of their fifteen children.
Edmund was born at Caister-on-Sea in 1867 and married Julia Gallant, a local Martham girl, at St Mary’s in 1888. Before they moved to Brickfield Farm Edmund and his father before him had farmed at Moregrove for over 40 years. Julia died in June 1938 and Edmund in October 1939. Both are buried at St Mary’s. One of their sons was called Thomas George Nichols (1907-1985), known as Tom, and he took over at Brickfield Farm after the death of his father. He married Eva George in 1927 and they had five children whilst they lived at the farm. Eva died in 1982 and Tom in 1985 and both are buried at St Mary’s. One of their children was another Tom, named after his father, and he took over the running of the farm after his father died. His full name was Thomas George Nichols and he remained at the farm until his death in 1998. Thus, for just under 180 years only three families managed the land and oversaw crop planting and harvesting at the farm from William Braddock in about 1812 to Tom Nichols in 1998.