On 19th June 1883 Joe married Mary (Polly) Linton Shields in Easingwold church. Her mother`s family were Mortimers from Terrington, near Sutton Bank, merchants of some kind. 4 children were born while they were still at Wrangbook, Joseph Linton 22nd October 1884, Henry Norrison (HN or Peter) 9th December 1885, Ethel Mary 16th January 1886, and Constance Abigail (Con) 3rd November 1889. 4 more were born at Park House, Hunmanby – Bertha (Bem) 26th April 1892, Alfred Duncan 3rd October 1895, Margaret Victoria (Meg) 5th July 1897, and Charles Larder (Chil) 31st December 1898. The youngest Dorothy May (Dot) was born at Malton on 4th May 1901.
The children were always very close to Harry`s,(DWG his brother) both physically and spiritually at Wrangbrook, then separated by only a few miles at Flotmanby and Hunmanby and latter still at Barton and Malton. Their fathers met regularly every week to compare notes, in a way continuing the weekly sessions held by their father. A child or two would have gone with father to the other farm for the day for a meal.
Jo took over the tenancy of 640 acres of Malton Farm, between Meldreth and Horwell, owned by Christ`s College Cambridge, in 1900. The move by train cost some £250. At least one of the farm hands moved with them and it is understood that some of their descendants still live in Orwell.
On Jo`s death on 10th February 1912, Polly took over the running of the farm, assisted by Linton when he came back from Australia and subsequently by Duncan and Chil, all acting ‘on behalf of the executors of the late Joseph Marr’. Polly moved to 7a Cardington Road, Bedford in the early 30s. During WW2 Bedford`s proximity to Cardington (the airship and balloon centre) was considered to constitute a risk of air raids so she moved to Mowbray Road, Cambridge where she died on 5th November 1940. The irony of this move was that her house was the only one in Mowbray Road to be hit by a German bomb – fortunately after her death.
I have already talked about Linton in earlier chapters but it is easier rather than divide the coverage. Linton went to Australia taking ‘his girl’ Beatrice (Trixie) Pearce, to marry him in Sydney on 25th April 1910, in spite of Alec`s advice that it was no place to take a woman, though I doubt if that reached him in time to make any difference (Alec had gone out in January that year and wrote home after a few weeks with his recommendation). From a newspaper cutting we learn that he was exempted from military service during the war because he farmed 640 acres with 9 men and 2 boys. 6 men had already joined the army. Linton drove the engine for threshing and chaff cutting. He was then 31. Chil was brought back from school at Bishop Stortford to help too. It is not known what the nature of the disagreement which led to Linton`s emigration. He had 2 children subsequently – Dorrie who married George Tarbox, and Douglas. At the time of winding up his mother`s estate he was living at 25 Craigton Road, Elthem, London SE9. He died on 12th August 1951.
Norrison was alleged by Muriel, to be the ‘clever one’ and she referred to him as the ‘pin up’ member of the family. He had been to Bridlington Grammar school from Hunmanby and continued his education at the County School in Cambridge from Malton. After that he trained as a chemist at Leeds university. Although he would have liked to have farmed his father actively discouraged him from this because it was so unprofitable.
Working initially in London he went out to work on the Kodur Manganese mines of the Vizianagram Mining Company in India. He returned to England on the SS Nyanga in February 1915 and enlisted in the RAMC as a chemist, selecting and testing water supplies for front line troops serving in France and Italy. He returned to London and then to W H Allen at Bedford, where he met Etta (Muffie) Townsend who, despite her genteel background had been one of the first lady war workers fitting piston rings on Rhone Rotary Aero-engines. They married at St Marylebone on 11th September 1920. Their marriage certificate describes her father as a ‘gentleman’: He and his family had owned and farmed large areas of Essex. Muffie spent her life serving others and in her later years became a great friend of Muriel. On his normal retirement at 65, Norrison returned to mining and spent 7 happy years on the copper mines in Avoca, County Wicklow.
Their first son, John Richard Norrison was born in Bedford on 20th August 1921. Having trained as a surveyor he served in WW2 in the Survey Branch of the Royal Artillery. He was killed in a forward observation post in a church steeple near Caen on 22nd July 1944, and is buried in La Delivrande British Cemetery at Douvres 9 miles north of Caen.
His sister Mary Henrietta Townsend following her mother`s example, was one of the first ATS Technical officers in the Royal signals. In 1948 she married Peter Thresh and they had 2 children.
The third child Philip Andrew Dennis, (jokingly called ‘the mistake’ ( says Philip who has given me much of the detail in this section), because he was born some 6 years after his sister), married Susan Henshaw at Brampton, Huntingdon, in 1955. They have 2 children one of whom carries the name Norrison.
Despite working in industry all his life Norrison`s first love was the countryside and he made a lifelong study of the natural flora. His particular interest was trees and he travelled many miles, most of it on a bicycle, in search of rare species. He was an avid reader and spent many hours writing a book which sadly was never published.
Norrison died 25th January 1973 but Muffie lived a further 12 years.
Ethel, my mother`s best friend, married Herbert (Bert) Peters in about 1910. He owned Manor Farm at Orwell, with land running alongside Malton. I think it has 600 acres and that his father bought it before WW1. My introduction to practical farming was there. I ‘helped’ with harvest in the late 20s, driving cart, shocking (stooking), horse raking (never as straight as village boys), helping load carts and on the stack as I got bigger. The sun always shone. But in several ways it was a tragic household. Eric their son born 1912, had a severe fit when about 7 years old and ever after he was sedated, unable to live a normal life. Joyce born 1916, married a fruit farmer Cyril Miller, Ruth Margaret (Peggy) born 1920 married Alan Miller, of Orwell, who served in the XIVth Army in Burma during WW2 and then took over the running of Manor Farm. After the death of Bert in 1967 and Ethel in 1968, Peggy and Alan attended to Eric until his death in 1977. Ethel had glaucoma and was completely blind for 30 years. Bert was a Justice of the Peace on top of his family cares, but perhaps that helped him to escape sometimes from the worry of what to arrange for Eric when he and Ethel were no longer able to look after him.
It was this family of children (except for Peggy who was yet to be born), who were with my family in Great Yarmouth when the place was bombed by a zeppelin in 1917.
Alan Miller is now a JP and is concerned about the problem of housing low income country folk in villages. Orwell is now a commuter belt village for London, with quick electric trains. Incomers have escalated prices beyond the reach of local workers. In a recent television programme Alan was arguing his case for allowing one of his fields to be used for local occupation low cost housing, a proposal which was being opposed by rich incomers. In September 1990 this was still Under Appeal.
Peggy Miller set in train her connections established with Mary Marr which led to Derek Marr and the discovery of Richard Marr`s story.
Connie married Ernest Broomfield – known as Bone, an RFC/RAF Officer during and after WW1. Bertha was nanny and housekeeper for Beverley Ringer and his first wife, near Norwich. Beverley had been a farm pupil at Malton before WW1. After the death of his first wife she became Mrs. Ringer.
Duncan was in the Army in France in WW1 and it is said that Douglas saved his life by insisting that he be sent back to England when he had pneumonia. Duncan and Chil farmed at Malton until 1950. In 1945 they also took over Caldecot Farm, Abbotsley, St. Neots and Duncan moved there. In 1950 Duncan took over Caldecot and Chil took Malton in partnership with his son Peter. Duncan married a farmer`s daughter Gladys Palmer of Meldreth on 21st May in 1926 or 27, the year is indecipherable on the newspaper cutting. They had 2 sons, Michael and David. Michael and his wife Anne Bath, farm at Woodhurst near Huntingdon, and they have 3 children, Duncan, Caroline and Alistair. David has provided me with a quantity of material relevant to Wrangbrook and Thomas Norrison the 1st, culled from a desk which must have belonged to TNM, then Jo, then Duncan. David was National Chairman of the Young Farmers Clubs Organisation in his younger days. He married Anne Cruickshanks and they too have 3 children, Judith, Tessa and Martin.
Meg trained as a nurse and later became Matron at Hunmanby Hall girls school, which lies across the way from the Park House Farm, Hunmanby, their home before Malton. Lilyanne, Margot, Sharon (Eric Marr`s daughter) and Patricia (Patsy) Dot`s daughter, all went to school there, perhaps some during Meg`s time as Matron.
Charlie married Dora Barker and lived in the Malton farmhouse. We called there one Christmas Eve. There was a glorious smell of partridges roasting in the aga and a great log fire blazing in the sitting room grate. Just like a page from Dickens. He loved to go off fishing in Scotland. Dora was a Red Cross Commissioner for the area and ran a Red Cross ambulance from Malton for the greater part of the War. There used to be a mulberry tree in the garden which bordered the river. An idyllic spot.
Christ`s College added to Malton Farm after WW2, making it up to just under 1000 acres. Chil and Peter had bought the adjoining Trinity Farm, Barrington in 1964. In 1978 as sitting tenants they were able to buy Malton itself, then sold half of it retaining the other half which Peter continues to farm from Trinity Farm.
Chil was, and Peter is, an active National Farmers Union member, and during WW2 Chil served in the Royal Observer Corps. Peter married first Janet Sutherland, by whom he had Charles and Richard. Second he married Mary Brown.
Dot married Jordan Simpson (brother of Grace Simpson to whom Alec was twice engaged to marry). They took a hotel, Hackness Grange, near Scarborough. Dot now lives in Scarborough and has a daughter Patricia who married Nicholas Martin, and they have 2 children James and Simon.
