Holme in 1851
We
have found it more difficult than we expected to re-discover the Holme of 100
years ago. To go back 50 or 60 years is comparatively easy but to delve into
the earliest days of our great-grandfathers is a difficult matter. Not long
ago we wrote an account of a visit paid by an 1851 inhabitant of Holme to the
village today. This helped us to get a better idea of what life was like a
century ago. No cars, no wireless, no tractors, no cinema, not even
Hunstanton! The "old town" was there, of course, but Hunstanton St.
Edmunds did not come into being until the opening of the railway from Lynn in
1868. Probably
one of the things which has changed least is our Church, outwardly at least.
Rev. N.I. Raven was the Vicar, and George Green, a carpenter, was the Parish
clerk. The population was then 290, today it is 385. A
century ago, the village of Holme was almost entirely away from the main road,
between the Church and Holme House, "a neat mansion, the home of Matthew
Thurlow Nelson," in those days. Mainsway and most of the nearby buildings
are fairly new. There were 60 homes in Holme in 1851; today there are 128. The
roads, of course, were very poor by present day standards, but the main road
was kept in fit condition for the passage of the Mail Coach, which left
Hunstanton Post Office at 9.30 a.m. daily for Wells. It is interesting to note
that the Hunstanton Postmaster, Mr. Miles Hamerton, was also in charge of a
Druggist's Shop and Hardware store. Holme
had its share of carpenters, cobblers, bakers, etc. but the nearest tailors'
appear to have been at Hunstanton, Messrs. Burgis and Collinson. There were
two schools in Hunstanton too, a free school established in 1842, under care
of Mr, and Mrs. Scott, and a Boarding and Day School run by Mr. Mark
Wilkinson. We know
little of the everyday life of our ancestors in those days, but we can build
up a rough picture of it from what we know of the history of that time. We
must not think of them as being entirely in the "good old days of peace
and plenty," The family budget of our ancestors was different in many
ways from ours. Look at the following prices of foods, etc. in 1860s: A loaf
of bread cost 3d and a pint of milk
1½d. Other prices per lb. were as follows: meat, 6½d; bacon 10½d;
suet, 6d; butter, l0d; cheese 8d, rice, 2d; tea, 4./- and sugar 5d. This all
looks most attractive, until we remember that the wages of a farm labourer in
those days were 10/- to 14/- a week and other workers' pay was comparable to
this. Rents ranged from £2.10 to £6 a year. Certainly there were a few
attractions in the way of entertainments then; local fairs and, of course,
Lynn Mart, provided plenty of opportunities for spending money. Probably a few
"Holmites" of 1851 managed to visit the Great Exhibition in London,
to see the wonderful inventions of the time, including the sewing‑machine
and the threshing machine, the Bolton and Watts gigantic 700h,p, engine.
Admission to that exhibition cost 1/- on four days of the week, 2/6 on Friday,
5/- on Saturday. Perhaps somebody from Holme was there to see the Duke of
Wellington, or Macauley, the great historian, and to cheer "Good old
Vickey" as she passed through the streets of London. No doubt more than
one of our great great grandmothers copied the first lady of the land and
parted her hair in the centre, " the latest style", and probably the
boys and girls of Holme School, which the Rev. Raven opened in 1848, stared
hard at the first Bowler hats. The songs of the "Nigger Minstrels"
were probably heard in Holme; the latest hits included "Comin round the
Mountain", Swanee Ribber", etc. We wonder how many people in 2051
will know the words of our latest, numbers: As far as we can gather, life in
our village was like that of most Norfolk villages of the mid-nineteenth
century. Wheaten bread was the chief food and the chief meal was the in the
evening, fruit and vegetables were used as much as possible, and fish, but
meat was rationed by the amount in your purse. Many boys started work at eight
or ten, crow scaring, and later tending cattle, singling or working as “Hold
ye boys”.
Regular work normally commenced at the age of 12, some of our young men
were probably attracted about this time to work on the railway lines in
various parts of the county. This construction work was worth more than a £1
a week and many young men found that when the job was completed farm work was
hard to get and "followed the line" to other parts of Britain.
Clothing was a serious problem, and it is probable Holme had a clothing
club, like many other villages. Health suffered because of poor drainage and
over-crowding, these were indeed the days of "closed windows and
brimstone and treacle." Fresh air was kept out of the houses as far as
possible, and quack medicines were very popular.
This is a very misty picture of Holme in 1851 but it does help us to
realise how very different was the life of our ancestors. Now let us look at
"Holme today", the part of this book which we hope will help to make
much easier the work of any young historians of Holme in years to come.
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