Greenacre – shoemakers of Martham

This lovely old photograph of part of the Village Green features a pair of cottages with dormer windows. I had not thought much about these until recently after corresponding with a lady whose ancestors come from the large Greenacre family of Martham. Our collaboration and research have shown that her x2 and x3 great-grandfathers lived next to each other in these cottages.

Her x3 great grandfather was Richard Greenacre (1792-1866) and at the time of the Martham Tithe Award he owned the plot where the cottages stood. The plot was listed as No309 as shown below on the Tithe Award map of 1842.

Richard still lived there in 1851 and 1861 and traded as a master shoemaker. He was married to Elizabeth, nee Payne, and they had ten children between 1813 and 1835. One of their children was a son called Simon who was born in 1822. He followed in his father’s footsteps and also became a shoemaker. He married Mary Ann Leath in 1845 and they lived in one of the cottages next door to his parents in 1851 and 1861. Father and son obviously worked together and it must have been a good location to trade from being at the junction of The Green and the road to Hemsby.

John & Elizabeth Greenacre, nee Warters, of Martham

Richard and Elizabeth had another son called John (1819-1905) who also became a shoemaker. John was baptised on 10th October 1819 at St Mary’s and so was probably born just before that. He married Elizabeth Warters (or Waters) in 1842. They had seven children and John worked from home at Repps Road from about 1851 to 1876 and at White Street from 1877 to 1901 by which time he was 81 and one hopes he had retired even though the census of 1901 says he was still a shoemaker. Elizabeth died on 28th November 1885 and John on 12th June 1905 and they are both buried in plot 16 in the Baptist graveyard at Oak Tree Close.

Plot 16

By the late 19th century it is believed that Edward & Elizabeth Moore, nee Futter, lived there. Edward died in 1901 and the cottages passed to his son Henry Futter. When Henry died in 1938 he left them to his wife Arletta, nee Skoyles (1862-1958). By the time of her death, in 1958, the cottages were derelict and were sold for £250 in 1959 as part of her estate. As they were almost falling down they were demolished after being sold. The photo below shows them in their final state.

Demolished houses, The Green

In 1851 there were seven shoemakers in Martham and in 1861 there were nine, so the Greenacre family provided a good percentage of them. It is good to be able to identify where at least some of them lived and traded.

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