ROBERT GOOSE
Robert Goose had purchased the Canal House estate by 3 November 1827 when he is recorded making contributions that year in Ashwellthorpe's Surveyors Accounts [PC 88/9] towards the upkeep of parish roads, hedges, bridges etc. His tax assessment of £116. 5s. 0d. [£116.25], which determined his obligation to pay his contribution, did not change over the period of the next nine years, but his contributions varied between 4s.03/4d [20p] and 12s.21/4d [61p]. The status of Robert Goose was changed to that of an Outsitter from 1830 – someone who owned land in the parish but was not resident.
1828 Ashwellthorpe Estate Map purchased by Robert Goose [NRO, BR 276/1/582]
The Ashwellthorpe Estate in 1828 purchased by Robert Goose [BR 276/1/582], comprised just over 108 acres arable, 43 acres pasture and 3 acres Plantation. It also included Wreningham's Mill Field which contained the postmill.
It is not yet definitely known which Robert Goose purchased the Estate – it could have been the Senior or Junior Robert Goose. Robert Junior was of Hellesdon Lodge in August 1828 when offering a reward of £50 [over £6,000 in 2026 value] for one of his stolen fat shearling ewes, and his Hellesdon Lodge address was given in the (Depwade) Ashwellthorpe and (Humbleyard) Wreningham Electoral Registers of 1835 and 1836.
Robert Goose the younger married by Licence, as a widower, Anna Maria Smith of Fritton at St Catherine church in that village, on 28 December 1809. At the time of this marriage, Robert was described as a Gentleman of Lakenham.
Robert Senior was buried at Horsham St Faith on 13 February 1828 aged 81. In his Will, made on 8 September 1824, Robert Senior - Farmer of Horsham St Faith - mentioned his wife Mary, sons Robert the Younger and Thomas and daughters Mary Harrison and Elizabeth Baxter. He left various belongings and household effects to wife Mary and bequests to his other children after Mary's death, but the residue of his personal estate went to Robert the Younger.
Although having the qualification to vote in Ashwellthorpe by virtue of his house and land in the "lower end of the village", the main residence for a Robert Goose was given as Hellesdon Lodge, in various Electoral Registers until c. 1837. There was a sale by Spelman Auctioneers at the farming premises of Robert Goose at Hellesdon over two days on 4 & 5 October 1837 when farming stock of carriages, wagons, farm machinery, horses and other livestock were up for sale. This was a common practice when moving from one farm to another in a different area where the soil, cropping pattern etc. could be very different. It did not seem that Robert Goose, even as one of the largest landowners in Ashwellthorpe, took much part in parish adminisration with no apparent sign of him acting as an Overseer of the Poor, Churchwarden, or Surveyor.
But he and his wife were living in Ashwellthorpe when the Tithe Commutation Act was enacted after 1836. Tithes were a tax requiring one-tenth of agricultural produce to be paid to the Church until the Reformation; thereafter it became payable to private landlords and was inheritable. This kind of tithe payment had become unpopular during the agricultural depression and burgeoning industrialisation, and the Act brought about monetary payments (or tithe rent-charges); some had already come into use informally. Tithe Commissioners were appointed to administer the process of change which would involve a land survey and its valuation to ascertain the parish rent-charge and to calculate each individual landowner's liability to pay a tithe, and hold meetings with parishioners to inform on valuations and terms.
Robert Goose traded various timbers at auction sales like the one which took place on 25 April 1842 on the Estate which had been advertised by Spelmans the Auctioneers in the Norwich Mercury on 16 and 23 April. At the time of the Tithe map, there were several small (under 1 Acre) Plantations on the estate, amounting to c. 3.5 Acres with Wood as the stated cultivation.
The Scots Pine had been native to Norfolk since the Ice Age whereas other firs were introduced from the mid-1820s onwards, so the fir trees of "large dimension" might possibly indicate the species Scots Pine! Ash Timber trees were a very tough but flexible hardwood, then much in demand for spade and axe handles, agricultural implements and, by the wheelwright, carriage/cart/wagon construction. Some years after Robert Goose's death, Francis Clowes Auctioneer of St Andrew's Hall Plain, advertised an auction to take place on 12 June 1855, on "lands late the property of Mr Robert Goose in Ashwellthorpe". The trees for sale then were 28 oak timbers "of large dimension and excellent quality, 60 ash trees and timber and large beech, willow, elm and poplar trees.
Robert Goose Junior died aged 77 at Canal House, Ashwellthorpe, on 3 November 1847 and was buried at St Mary and St Andrew Church in Horsham St Faith on 11 November. An Auction at the request of the Executors of his Will, was organised by Mr Butcher Auctioneer on Saturday 17 June 1848. Advertisements were placed in various Norfolk and Suffolk newspapers for several weeks for this property and its neighbouring farm and land of 145 Acres, also owned by Mr Goose.
It did not sell at this auction and was offered again in August 1850. It is not clear who was the next owner of Canal House but Robert's widow, Anna Maria Goose nee Smith had moved to 40 Victoria Street, Norwich by 30 March 1851 [Census].
Robert Goose's Will was proved in Norwich Consistory Court on 11 October 1848 and it contained many financial bequests to his wife Anna Maria nee Smith's nephews and nieces and his own Goose nephews and nieces. He also directed that his various properties in Ashwellthorpe, Hapton, Fundenhall, Wreningham and Lakenham should be sold within two years, but immediately bequeathed all household goods, furniture and house contents and £500 to his wife with another £300 to be invested with the interest going to his wife for life. His various bequests to family members were £14,500 – amounting in total to £15,300 in total [£2.3 million in 2026].
Anna Maria Goose died aged 72 at 40 Victoria Street, Norwich, on 13 June 1961 and was buried in the churchyard at St Catherine, Fritton, near Hempnall, on 16 June.