Chapman’s Butchers, 26 The Green, Martham – including The Walnuts
Chapman’s Butchers finally closed its doors to business in 2023 after serving the village for at least 125 years, and perhaps much longer. It was synonymous with being the purveyor of quality meat and poultry, mainly associated with the Chapman family.
The property consisted of Chapman’s butchers shop fronting The Green attached to a house to the rear called The Walnuts. The house has a separate entrance from the shop. The location map below may help.
Chapman’s Butchers was known to almost everyone in Martham throughout several generations but the occupation of the land and property preceded the family. Property deeds relating to the site say buildings have been there as early as 1664 at what has always been the heart of the village. Other than this very early mention of property at the site the earliest factual record we have for the land and buildings there comes from the 1807 Martham Inclosure Act(1) under which a John Moxon, of Great Yarmouth, claimed ownership of a pightle (small single-storey cottage) and two acres of land that he let to Richard Warner. See the map below. John Moxon was a businessman who did not appear to have lived at Martham but let the land to Richard, who also owned other property in Martham, which indicated he was a baker.
By the time of the actual 1812 Inclosure Award, another map was produced that also shows the same land owned by John Moxon. Note that this appears to show only two small buildings on the plot at that time where The Walnuts and the butchers would later stand.
John Moxon died at Great Yarmouth in November 1827 and an abstract of title for the property tells us that a William Woods became the owner. William (1764-1830) was a blacksmith who lived at Black Street. It is not clear if he ever lived at The Green or if it was just an investment. The deeds go on to say that the next owner was James Braddock.
The Braddock Era
James Braddock (1808-1879) is recorded as living at the property in the 1841 census and the 1842 Tithe Award. At that time James and his first wife Sarah, nee Woods (1811-1853) lived there. James was a thatcher, a trade learned from his father. James & Sarah had married at St Mary the Virgin, Martham in 1834 and probably moved to The Green soon after marrying. By 1841 they had two children and later went on to have another three before Sarah died in 1853.
James was listed in the 1842 Martham Tithe Award as the owner of 4 acres and 9 perches of land, houses, pasture and gardens being plots 172, 314, 315 and 484. The first three are shown on the map below. Plot No172 was a meadow to the south of the buildings. Plot 314 was immediately in front of the pond and was the location that later became the butchers. Plot 315 was let to John & Mary Jay and their children and was later known as The Laurels. Plot 484 was a pasture next to Cess Staithe on the River Thurne.
After becoming a widower James married again on 4th January 1857 at St Mary’s to Sarah Jones the daughter of John Jones & Elizabeth, nee Burton. Sarah was his neighbour from next door- but- one at No30 (Greenside). In 1858 they had a son called Edwin.
James continued to work as a thatcher throughout the 1860’s until the 1871 census tells us he had become a farmer of 23 acres employing a labourer. The interesting fact from the 1871 census is that he and Sarah were recorded as living at Pit Farm, The Green, but there is no reason to believe they had moved because older locals sometimes call the main pond in front of the house ‘the pit’, which may have been named after the farm or, more likely, the other way round. Pit Farm, or what we know as The Walnuts, is thatched, so perhaps it was James who maintained the roof. James died on 1st September 1879 and Sarah moved to Repps Road where she died on 6th November 1882.
After James died an abstract of title in the deeds for the land and property tells us that the occupiers became Robert Jary and then John Fisher (1850-1930). John Fisher’s involvement is backed up by several records that show that he & his wife Louise lived and worked in Martham:
- In 1879 John was listed in Kelly’s Directory at Martham as a butcher.
- In the census of 1881 John lived with his wife and children ‘West of The Green‘, Martham and he was a butcher.
- John was listed in the 1883 Kelly’s Directory at Martham as a butcher.
- In 1890 he was listed in Kelly’s Directory at Martham as a butcher and cattle dealer.
- At the time of the 1891 census John lived with his wife and children at The Green, Martham and he was a butcher.
- In the 1892 Kelly’s Directory he was at Martham and was a butcher.
- In the 1896 Kelly’s Directory he was listed at Martham as a horse dealer.
So, it seems that John Fisher ran the butchers from around 1879 to 1895. There is no further record of John being at Martham but in the 1901 census he is shown to have moved with his family to Elmers End, Croydon, Surrey where he was a horse dealer and ran a stable.
The Chapman Era
Descendants of the Chapman family tell me there was a strong family link between the Chapmans and the Fishers so it is probably no coincidence that the departure of John was followed by William Chapman (1837-1919) becoming the owner in 1897 as confirmed by the property deeds, which described the property then as follows:-
“Freehold house, barn, stables, cart shed, lodge, gig house, and cowhouse with a garden and a piece of arable land comprising two acres more or less.”
The bundle of deeds also includes a sketch map – shown below – that proves continuity with the 1807 and 1812 maps shown above.
William Chapman was a very successful farmer of 140 acres at Filby in 1881 and he had also become a butcher according to the 1891 Filby census. However, there is no record that William ever lived or worked in Martham. He was married to Eliza, nee Edwards and they had three sons and four daughters between 1869 and 1885. His first son was George Chapman (1869-1936) and Kelly’s Directory of 1896 tells us he had become a butcher in Martham. He had followed on from John Fisher and ran the butchers business his father had purchased.
The photograph below of the main pond dates to about 1908. It is one of the earliest to include Chapman’s butchers which is in the background and you can just about make out that the front is a shop. So the new shop front was probably built between 1897 and 1908 in which case John Fisher ran the business from a room in what is now The Walnuts.
The lovely photograph below shows the butchers at Christmas 1913 with a full sign in George’s name, hanging meat and delivery carts.
William made his Will in 1917 and died on 18th July 1919. He was buried at Filby. By that time all three of his sons had become independently successful farmers. In May 1919, only a few weeks before his father died, George had purchased the 136 acre Moregrove Estate in Martham along with several houses as well as continuing to run the butchers shop. William’s second son, William Francis Chapman (1872-1939) remained a bachelor and went from working with his father to owning the Manor Farm at Filby. His third son, Edmund John Chapman (1879-1957) owned the 191 acre Homestead Farm at Filby. It may be no surprise, therefore, that all of them were very busy and perhaps that is why William left the Martham butchers’ shop to be managed by his Executors rather than leaving it outright to one of his sons. In any case, it was George who had run it for several years and continued to do so.
George was married twice. Firstly, to Ellen Thurtle in 1899 and after she died to Edith Mayhew in 1904. One of his sons from his second marriage was Edmund George Chapman, known as Ted, (1905-1996). George died in 1936 and in legal terms the ownership of the butchers continued in the name of family members as trustees whilst in practical terms George’s son Ted ran the business daily and became one of the trustees. Ted married Constance Hurren in 1930 and for a short while, until about 1936, they lived next door to the butchers shop at Selwyn House but in 1936, following the death of his father and his mother’s move to The Firs in Rollesby Road, Ted & Constance moved into The Walnuts at the back of the butchers. Ted & Constance had a son called George Edmund Chapman who was born on 24th April 1931 and grew up in his father’s footsteps as the 4th generation of Chapmans to be involved with the butchers’ business at Martham.
During the period that George ran the business, one of his staff was Philip Dowe. He joined the business in 1977 when he was only 14 and steadily learnt the trade under the guiding hand of George. George retired and Philip took over the business in 1996. He went on to run it for 27 years before he also retired in 2023. An era came to an end when Philip finally closed the business and put the former shop and house up for sale. Planning permission was recently (2026) given for the shop to be converted into part of The Walnuts for domestic use.
My thanks to Philip Dowe for letting me see the Deeds to his butchers and The Walnuts.
(1) = An “Act for Inclosing and Draining certain Lands, in the Parish of Martham”.