Mill Farm

Does anyone in the village recall the names Mill Meadow, Helwys at Crosse or Fulls Gap?  These are all names of properties that appear on nineteenth century title deeds for Mill Farm.  What seems certain is that the farm was built in the 1790’s possibly in response to the demand for wheat created by the Napoleonic wars.  It ceased to be an operational farm when the buildings and land were sold off separately in 1972.

The last family to farm here were Godfrey and Mary Newcomb who purchased the farm from a Mr Leist in 1950 for the sum of £4250 including £500 for the stock and crops and £1000 for the house.  On this basis the land was valued at £55 per acre.  Leist in turn had purchased the farm from Miss Bullivant who purchased the farm in 1942 for £1100.  Going back to the nineteenth century, the farm appears to have been the property of a large landowner James Drane. 

Mary Newcomb is now remembered as an  outstanding artist and her work is in many collections. Her daughter Tessa, who grew up on the farm, is now an eminent artist in her own right and still lives locally. 

A tractor is just visible in the photograph of Mary and Godfrey parked in the shed that is now our living room and in the photograph of Tessa in a pony trap, taken from the same view point but at a later date, steps can be seen leading up to a loft where Mary had her studio.  Amongst other enterprises, Godfrey used the barn below as a pottery studio.  The threshing barn can be seen in the background of the photograph of Tessa, this time on a donkey.

When the farm was broken up, the large threshing barn, now known as the Tithe Barn, was sold to Mr and Mrs Kempstone and their son Jake.  It was subsequently sold to Gill Levin and many will be familiar with the barn through the concerts that she holds there and from the Waveney Valley Art Trail open days.

Mill Farm itself, which is the small cottage next to the lane, was bought by Natalie Oliver, the wife of the band leader Vic Oliver.  (His first wife was the daughter of Winston Churchill, much to the great man’s displeasure!).  

The remaining farm outbuildings, now Mill Farm Cottage, were purchased by an architect Jean Condor, who went on to marry Jacko Moya, one half of the architectural practice Powell & Moya, best remembered for designing the Skylon at the Festival of Britain.  By coincidence Jean was the sister-in-law of Natalie Oliver. Jean Condor converted the buildings to provide a kitchen, bathroom and living room.  The total cost of the work was estimated at £4028 for which she received a grant of £1000.

Mill Farm Cottage was then sold in 1985 to John and Audrey Valentine, who many in the village will remember.  Helen and I purchased Mill Farm Cottage in 2004 when the Valentines moved to be closer to family.   Sadly, John died in 2009.

We should be fascinated to hear if anyone has any recollections of the previous owners of Mill Farm, or indeed of the days when it was still a working farm. I am grateful to Tessa and her sister, Hannah,  for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs and for the loan of documents relating to the sale of the farm.

Andrew Major