COMMERCIAL ROAD AND ITS ENVIRONS
A Segment of the 19th Century
One of the prime areas for residential and commercial expansion in Victorian Dereham lay on that portion of Back or Orchard Lane, now called Commercial Road, which was bounded by Norwich Street and London Road, and backed by the railway. Most of this land was granted to John Norton, William Taylor, Richard Goddard and the Church by virtue of the Enclosure Award made in Dereham on 16th March 1815.
The 1830s saw much of this land subdivided and sold for development and it was to a block of houses, built on land formerly owned by John Norton and eventually named both Russell Place and Cardigan Terrace, that came a number of interested characters, who helped shape the face of modern Dereham. The most likely developers of the terrace were the Parker family, who had been Dereham builders from some years. Their name is perpetuated in Parkers Yard, the short access to the south of the houses. The name of the houses might have been inspired by Lord Cardigan, the dubious hero of the Crimean War, and William Howard Russell, the Times war correspondent who recorded the war so graphically. It is however more likely that the influence came from the liberal reformer, Lord John Russell, who succeeded Peel as Prime Minister in 1846.
Whatever the source, the name Russell was popular with the Parkers, for in 1869, there is a Samuel Russell Parker recorded living in the terrace.
Non-conformist ministers all lived close to each other in the terrace. The other resident was Mr Robert Skipper, who lived with his wife, Caroline, in one of the Russell Place houses. He was variously recorded as a builder, carpenter and brick maker, and possibly owned the defunct brickfield half- way down Commercial Road, which later served as the Hobbies factory entrance. Skipper was successful, his skills extending to architecture, surveying and financing. Many mid-Victorian buildings still standing in Dereham, although displaying a multitude of layouts, show similarities which mark them as Skipper houses.
One of his large buildings was the now demolished County School, built in 1873, north of North Elmham, close to the railway line, on the bank of the River Wensum.
Robert Skipper had three sons, Robert, George, and Frederick. Robert became a boot and shoe manufacturer, but George followed his father’s artistic bent and became an architect. He had first wanted to be an artist, but parental guidance prevailed and by the age of 23 he had gained six years’ experience in the office of a London architect. He set up his own practice in Dereham, but a year later moved into Norwich. Brother Frederick had by this time become a surveyor and had been appointed Inspector of Nuisances to the Dereham Local Board. He eventually joined his brother in Norwich, with their offices in Opie Street.
During his career George created many gems of Norfolk architecture, including the Royal Arcade in Norwich, the Hotel de Paris in Cromer, and considerable alterations to Sennowe Hall for Thomas Cook. His major triumph in Dereham must be the house in Commercial Road called ‘the Pallant’.
The house is a perfect example of Skipper design, including the distinctive twin cupolas, abundant use of Gunton’s terracotta Cosseyware, and a knowledgeable use of contemporary cast-iron work. The structure no doubt relies considerably on its clay lump content as both George and his father were experts in the use of this material. Skipper’s attention to decorative detail extends into the enclosed gardens and outhouses.
The tithe map of 1838 shows sparse development at the north end of Commercial Road, mostly on land subdivided and sold by Mr Norton in 1831.
There is indication of some development at the southern end, on land belonging to Richard Goddard; he was well set-up in the business of hatter, with a number of properties in town. He was a Church Warden at St Nicholas in 1804, and together with William Knapp presented bell No. 5 to the church. Richard Goddard appears to have remained unmarried, and on his death in 1822 left all his property to Jane Jackson, who had been his housekeeper for many years.
Soon after, Jane married George Hart, a farmer of Scarning. After both their deaths the tenants were evicted and the properties were sold. The properties must have been in poor condition as for the eight or nine dwellings Mr Rix paid £270 – a low price. He borrowed £200 of this sum. He was a bricklayer and he repaired or rebuilt all the London Road houses from Lynton House on the corner of London Road, to No 51, the last of the Lime Tree Cottages. Some of the tenants were family or friends, and one cottage was called Morton Cottage after William Gaze Morton, a contemporary businessman.
In 1891 after Rix and his wife Emily had died, his properties, including the London Road houses, were put up for auction. Lynton House went for £256 to Thomas Bales, who promptly built a second storey to the stables and servants’ quarters and improved the plumbing.
Thomas Bales had been a publican and horse hirer at the Dukes Head in Quebec Street. By this time he had built up a practice as a veterinary surgeon at Glencoe House near the Dereham cattle market. He was a well- known figure in the town and a member of the Local Board. He is remembered by a number of the older townsfolk as the owner of one of the first motor cars in Dereham, in which he could be seen, with his wife Emily, resplendent in a broad straw hat, secured with a chiffon scarf, sitting upright and smiling next to him. Emily is known to have been fastidious and somewhat eccentric, and is recorded as having little velvet bags made to cover all the door knobs in the house.
Soon after the introduction of an organised police force by Robert Peel in 1829, Dereham had its own civil law enforcement organisation. By the middle of the century a proper police station had been built in Commercial Road, close to where the later one now stands.
Both John Abbot and Samuel Parker (possibly the same Samuel Russell Parker) were Superintendents of the Police, resident in Norwich Road, and the 1881 Census shows Edward Symonds established as Superintendent in the Police house with his wife Sarah. Close by lived his Sergeant, Alfred Cooper, with his wife Diana and son and daughter, and they had two police officer lodgers. By 1892 Edward Symonds had a force of 17 constables, with Sergeant Alfred Wilken assisting him in maintaining law and order in the area.
During the same period a house had been built next to the Police Station, called Revenue House, to accommodate the Supervisor of the Inland Revenue. Thomas Machie, the previous Supervisor, had been living in Yaxham or London Road. The new Supervisor, William Mackay, lived in Revenue House with a wife and five children, and one sixteen-year-old maid.
In 1853 the Trustees of Jane and George Hart put their property up for sale. This was a block of land stretching northwards up Commercial Road on the eastern side of its junction with London Road. It was bought by Thomas Studd who raised the money for the purchase by taking a mortgage with Mr Robert Skipper. Thomas borrowed money twice from Robert for this project, an amount of ninety pounds to buy the land, and another amount to finance the building of seven sturdy houses called Providence Terrace being 81 to 93 on Commercial Road.
Robert Skipper provided woodwork, bricks and possibly the design of the buildings. Thomas Studd evidently was a successful business man. When he died in December 1891, as well as Providence Terrace, he left a mansion on Norwich Street which abutted the railway line, once used as the Labour Party HQ (now demolished).
The Providence Terrace subsequently passed to Hannah Wyatt who married Charles Secker. In the 20th century, Hannah gave the terrace to her daughter, Grace.
The local town directory shows that few family names endured for long in the town, suggesting the population was continually on the move, using its new prosperity and improved communications to find out what went on in the outer world. The houses in Commercial and London Road corners prove a bit of an exception as throughout their history certain names recur, Bullard, Wells, Empson and Wacey being examples.
At the northern end of Commercial Road and turning east along Norwich Street we find that prior to the coming of the railway in 1846 and contrary to current trends, organised agricultural activity in the form of nurseries and market gardens were encroaching on the town boundaries. By the 1830s the Moore family were established nurserymen on what is now known as the Garrett site (Morrison’s). This previously was the site of Hobbies Ltd factory. William Moore ran his nursery with six men and two boys, so it must have been quite a large operation. At home he had three daughters, one of whom was the housekeeper, one, was a draper's assistant, and the third a governess and school teacher who ran one of Dereham’s many 19th-century schools. Education was in increasing demand and the occupation of school mistress was one ideally suited to genteel ladies.
There were five scholar girls, aged 7-16 years and three scholar boys aged
6-7 years, which must have made it an active household.
Nursery work may not have been very rewarding in the 19th century as the records show that most in this occupation had secondary employment, such as beerhouse keeper, shoe mender or agricultural labourer.
James Moore was the other market gardener operating in this area, and his son is recorded as being a trainee nurseryman. Toward the end of this century, a nurseryman, John Green, moved into the area from Norwich and it is from his connections with the Moore nursery and a timber yard on the railway site that the company of Hobbies was formed.
One of the prime areas for residential and commercial expansion in Victorian Dereham lay on that portion of Back or Orchard Lane, now called Commercial Road, which was bounded by Norwich Street and London Road, and backed by the railway. Most of this land was granted to John Norton, William Taylor, Richard Goddard and the Church by virtue of the Enclosure Award made in Dereham on 16th March 1815.
The 1830s saw much of this land subdivided and sold for development and it was to a block of houses, built on land formerly owned by John Norton and eventually named both Russell Place and Cardigan Terrace, that came a number of interested characters, who helped shape the face of modern Dereham. The most likely developers of the terrace were the Parker family, who had been Dereham builders from some years. Their name is perpetuated in Parkers Yard, the short access to the south of the houses. The name of the houses might have been inspired by Lord Cardigan, the dubious hero of the Crimean War, and William Howard Russell, the Times war correspondent who recorded the war so graphically. It is however more likely that the influence came from the liberal reformer, Lord John Russell, who succeeded Peel as Prime Minister in 1846.
Whatever the source, the name Russell was popular with the Parkers, for in 1869, there is a Samuel Russell Parker recorded living in the terrace.
Non-conformist ministers all lived close to each other in the terrace. The other resident was Mr Robert Skipper, who lived with his wife, Caroline, in one of the Russell Place houses. He was variously recorded as a builder, carpenter and brick maker, and possibly owned the defunct brickfield half- way down Commercial Road, which later served as the Hobbies factory entrance. Skipper was successful, his skills extending to architecture, surveying and financing. Many mid-Victorian buildings still standing in Dereham, although displaying a multitude of layouts, show similarities which mark them as Skipper houses.
One of his large buildings was the now demolished County School, built in 1873, north of North Elmham, close to the railway line, on the bank of the River Wensum.
Robert Skipper had three sons, Robert, George, and Frederick. Robert became a boot and shoe manufacturer, but George followed his father’s artistic bent and became an architect. He had first wanted to be an artist, but parental guidance prevailed and by the age of 23 he had gained six years’ experience in the office of a London architect. He set up his own practice in Dereham, but a year later moved into Norwich. Brother Frederick had by this time become a surveyor and had been appointed Inspector of Nuisances to the Dereham Local Board. He eventually joined his brother in Norwich, with their offices in Opie Street.
During his career George created many gems of Norfolk architecture, including the Royal Arcade in Norwich, the Hotel de Paris in Cromer, and considerable alterations to Sennowe Hall for Thomas Cook. His major triumph in Dereham must be the house in Commercial Road called ‘the Pallant’.
The house is a perfect example of Skipper design, including the distinctive twin cupolas, abundant use of Gunton’s terracotta Cosseyware, and a knowledgeable use of contemporary cast-iron work. The structure no doubt relies considerably on its clay lump content as both George and his father were experts in the use of this material. Skipper’s attention to decorative detail extends into the enclosed gardens and outhouses.
The tithe map of 1838 shows sparse development at the north end of Commercial Road, mostly on land subdivided and sold by Mr Norton in 1831.
There is indication of some development at the southern end, on land belonging to Richard Goddard; he was well set-up in the business of hatter, with a number of properties in town. He was a Church Warden at St Nicholas in 1804, and together with William Knapp presented bell No. 5 to the church. Richard Goddard appears to have remained unmarried, and on his death in 1822 left all his property to Jane Jackson, who had been his housekeeper for many years.
Soon after, Jane married George Hart, a farmer of Scarning. After both their deaths the tenants were evicted and the properties were sold. The properties must have been in poor condition as for the eight or nine dwellings Mr Rix paid £270 – a low price. He borrowed £200 of this sum. He was a bricklayer and he repaired or rebuilt all the London Road houses from Lynton House on the corner of London Road, to No 51, the last of the Lime Tree Cottages. Some of the tenants were family or friends, and one cottage was called Morton Cottage after William Gaze Morton, a contemporary businessman.
In 1891 after Rix and his wife Emily had died, his properties, including the London Road houses, were put up for auction. Lynton House went for £256 to Thomas Bales, who promptly built a second storey to the stables and servants’ quarters and improved the plumbing.
Thomas Bales had been a publican and horse hirer at the Dukes Head in Quebec Street. By this time he had built up a practice as a veterinary surgeon at Glencoe House near the Dereham cattle market. He was a well- known figure in the town and a member of the Local Board. He is remembered by a number of the older townsfolk as the owner of one of the first motor cars in Dereham, in which he could be seen, with his wife Emily, resplendent in a broad straw hat, secured with a chiffon scarf, sitting upright and smiling next to him. Emily is known to have been fastidious and somewhat eccentric, and is recorded as having little velvet bags made to cover all the door knobs in the house.
Soon after the introduction of an organised police force by Robert Peel in 1829, Dereham had its own civil law enforcement organisation. By the middle of the century a proper police station had been built in Commercial Road, close to where the later one now stands.
Both John Abbot and Samuel Parker (possibly the same Samuel Russell Parker) were Superintendents of the Police, resident in Norwich Road, and the 1881 Census shows Edward Symonds established as Superintendent in the Police house with his wife Sarah. Close by lived his Sergeant, Alfred Cooper, with his wife Diana and son and daughter, and they had two police officer lodgers. By 1892 Edward Symonds had a force of 17 constables, with Sergeant Alfred Wilken assisting him in maintaining law and order in the area.
During the same period a house had been built next to the Police Station, called Revenue House, to accommodate the Supervisor of the Inland Revenue. Thomas Machie, the previous Supervisor, had been living in Yaxham or London Road. The new Supervisor, William Mackay, lived in Revenue House with a wife and five children, and one sixteen-year-old maid.
In 1853 the Trustees of Jane and George Hart put their property up for sale. This was a block of land stretching northwards up Commercial Road on the eastern side of its junction with London Road. It was bought by Thomas Studd who raised the money for the purchase by taking a mortgage with Mr Robert Skipper. Thomas borrowed money twice from Robert for this project, an amount of ninety pounds to buy the land, and another amount to finance the building of seven sturdy houses called Providence Terrace being 81 to 93 on Commercial Road.
Robert Skipper provided woodwork, bricks and possibly the design of the buildings. Thomas Studd evidently was a successful business man. When he died in December 1891, as well as Providence Terrace, he left a mansion on Norwich Street which abutted the railway line, once used as the Labour Party HQ (now demolished).
The Providence Terrace subsequently passed to Hannah Wyatt who married Charles Secker. In the 20th century, Hannah gave the terrace to her daughter, Grace.
The local town directory shows that few family names endured for long in the town, suggesting the population was continually on the move, using its new prosperity and improved communications to find out what went on in the outer world. The houses in Commercial and London Road corners prove a bit of an exception as throughout their history certain names recur, Bullard, Wells, Empson and Wacey being examples.
At the northern end of Commercial Road and turning east along Norwich Street we find that prior to the coming of the railway in 1846 and contrary to current trends, organised agricultural activity in the form of nurseries and market gardens were encroaching on the town boundaries. By the 1830s the Moore family were established nurserymen on what is now known as the Garrett site (Morrison’s). This previously was the site of Hobbies Ltd factory. William Moore ran his nursery with six men and two boys, so it must have been quite a large operation. At home he had three daughters, one of whom was the housekeeper, one, was a draper's assistant, and the third a governess and school teacher who ran one of Dereham’s many 19th-century schools. Education was in increasing demand and the occupation of school mistress was one ideally suited to genteel ladies.
There were five scholar girls, aged 7-16 years and three scholar boys aged
6-7 years, which must have made it an active household.
Nursery work may not have been very rewarding in the 19th century as the records show that most in this occupation had secondary employment, such as beerhouse keeper, shoe mender or agricultural labourer.
James Moore was the other market gardener operating in this area, and his son is recorded as being a trainee nurseryman. Toward the end of this century, a nurseryman, John Green, moved into the area from Norwich and it is from his connections with the Moore nursery and a timber yard on the railway site that the company of Hobbies was formed.
The information in this section is taken from a document written by members of Dereham WEA and the University of Cambridge Board of Extra-Mural Studies led by Chris Barringer in 1989, and given to the Dereham Archive in 1998.
The original authors were: Joan Adams, Chris Barringer, Ben Norton, Teddy O' Donnell, Brian and Ruth Warwick-Smith, with help and additional material from Colin and Anne Chambers, Joy Lodey, Sharon Lake and Beryl Flatt.
The text was prepared for this website by Steffi Spooner.
The original authors were: Joan Adams, Chris Barringer, Ben Norton, Teddy O' Donnell, Brian and Ruth Warwick-Smith, with help and additional material from Colin and Anne Chambers, Joy Lodey, Sharon Lake and Beryl Flatt.
The text was prepared for this website by Steffi Spooner.