Easters Farm
While researching Rose Farm opposite the Peldon Rose I came across the name 'Easters', which appeared to be another small farm further north along the main road into Colchester, close to Langenhoe but still in Peldon. A similar acreage to Rose Farm it seems the miller and farmer, Joseph Digby, who lived almost opposite The Rose in Mill House, worked both farms in the mid to late 1800s.
Easters Farm is a name that has completely disappeared from local histories or memory and I have puzzled as to exactly where it was - nowadays its land will be farmed along with that of the larger farms - but I had in several documents come across a Jeremiah Easter from Tollesbury who was a merchant and was recorded as owning land in Peldon.
The principal biographical information I have found for Jeremiah (senior) is from an advert in a local paper
[Ipswich Journal 18th January 1804] when he, preparing to retire, was selling up his Tollesbury business as a going concern.
It is described as 'that well-known and extensive Concern in the Grocery, Haberdashery, Hosiery, Mercery, and General Shopkeeping Business...carried on by the present proprietor upwards of 51 years'.
Jeremiah Easter is mentioned as an occupier of a freehold farm in Peldon in the will of Elizabeth Wayland of Fingringhoe who died in 1804.
I give and devise
unto my Relation Charles Sach who is now in my
service \all/ that my Freehold Messuage Farm Lands
hereditaments and Estate with the appurtenances
situate at Peldon...now under
Lease to Mr Jeremiah Easter [The Will of Elizabeth Wayland NA PROB 11/1411/17]
Elizabeth bequeathed this farm, along with another farm in Great Wigborough, to Charles Sach and since he was under 21 she stipulated, should he die before reaching his majority, his sister was to inherit. It looks as if Charles lived to receive his bequest for in the poll book of 1810, living in Abberton, he had freehold property in Peldon.
Elizabeth was the widow of George Wayland (junior) who owned large tracts of land and properties locally as did his father before him - we of course cannot be certain Elizabeth Wayland's property was the farm we're looking at but it was freehold and in Peldon which is a start!
Jeremiah's name crops up as owning or having owned land elsewhere in Peldon notably in the records of Peldon Rectory Manor but these seem to be nearer the centre of the village and not the farm that was to bear his family's name.
Peldon Rectory Manor's Court book records there was a copyhold parcel of land called Barnacre, part of which was held by John Eley of Prested Hall and was occupied by Jeremiah Easter at the time of Eley's death in 1800. Eley's son, also John, then sold the parcel of land to Jeremiah through the manorial court.
Jeremiah's death (in 1807) is recorded in the minutes of a court for the Rectory Manor held on 16th April 1810, and his will was read, revealing he had bequeathed equal shares of all his property between his wife, Elizabeth, his son Jeremiah Easter and a daughter, Mira Ann Keyes married to Robert Keyes of Rockinghams, Layer Marney. In accordance with manorial custom, Jeremiah's family were then admitted to the parcel of land owned by the Rectory Manor.
There are also references to Jeremiah Easter in a diary written by Joseph Page [ERO D/DU 251/93 1773 to 1836] who was a farmer in Fingringhoe and wrote a detailed diary and farm accounts, now held by Essex Record Office. An entry reveals Page visited the farm in Peldon called 'Elys', late in the occupation of 'Jeremiah Easter', to value it. (Interestingly, Jeremiah was married to a 'Page' - were the two families related?)
The farm Page visited was part copyhold and part freehold and in a 'Memorandum of all the Real estate of the late Mr Jeremiah Easter' Joseph Page lists and values all the properties. Number 10 is as follows
late Elys a messuage and now divided into 2 tenements with 15 ½ acres of land to the same belonging 6 acres of which is Copyhold held of the Manor of Copt Hall - the Remainder part freehold now in the occupation of Mrs Easter £650
Number 11 is a field called Malting Field in Peldon aforesaid containing 17 a freehold now in the occupation of Mrs Easter £634.
Neither of these, I believe, are 'Easters'; the copyhold land belonging to Copt Hall in Little Wigborough would indicate Elys was on the west side of Peldon and Malting Field is next to Malting Farm, along the Peldon Road between Peldon and Abberton. Of significance however, Malting Field was later to be let or sold in the same auction as Easters Farm.
So we now turn to the son, Captain Jeremiah Easter, who with his mother and sister inherited a third of his father's estate
In September 1826 Jeremiah, the son, sold the Rectory Manor land to George Wyatt Gibson who at the time had acquired a number of Peldon's farms amounting to hundreds of acres. By the time of the Peldon tithe awards (dated 1840) there is no mention of 'Easter' as an owner or tenant anywhere in the village. As we shall see however, the son, Captain Jeremiah Easter appears as owner in the 1839 tithe awards for West Mersea - not Peldon - of land totalling more than 28 acres including a 'yard and buildings'.
But where was it?
Before a boundary change, West Mersea owned a large part of the land from the Strood along the main road to Langenhoe - in 1953 this became part of the parish of Peldon. The fields held by Jeremiah Easter in 1839 were the most northerly belonging to West Mersea just before entering Langenhoe. He is listed as the owner of fields 1 to 5 occupied by Langenhoe farmer Charles Cooper.
The plots are numbered on the tithe map as follows - all the fields were arable.
1. Yard and buildings
2. Tye Field - 9 acres +
3. Middle Field - 6 acres +
4. Little Field - 4 acres +
5. Further Field - 9 acres +
Have we found Easters Farm?
Comparing maps from the nineteenth century is challenging. The field numbering system employed in the tithe awards map bears no relation to the later ordnance Survey numbering and I have to thank Tony Millatt from Mersea Museum for the 1897 OS map below where he has added in red where the fields from West Mersea's tithe map of 1839, numbered 1 to 5 are likely to have been sited.
As can be seen the plot marked no 1 in red is the yard and buildings of a farm on the edge of Peet Tye Common and the acreages of the fields do correspond roughly to the total on the later OS map. The farm buildings shown here have disappeared without a trace and no one now remembers them. Tony estimates the house, called Stoke Courcy, (built in the 1930s) is where he has placed the red X. More of this house later.
Part of OS 1897 25 inch map
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland maps.nls.uk
This map is part of maps.nls.uk/view/104189420
Colchester Heritage Explorer records an archaeological survey in the area of these farm buildings which shows bricks found on the site date to the 16th and the 17th centuries, indicating the farmhouse possibly dated to the 16th century.
Bank about 5ft wide. Artefacts have been found, mainly C19 rubbish, but including C17 clay pipe bowl and a sherd of Staffordshire slipware. All the bricks date from the C16-17, and there was a structure further south which was demolished in the last quarter of the C18. The original records suggest this may have been a moated site. Only commoner with rights C Nyman, Mersea Road, Peldon.
Colchester Heritage Explorer Monument record MCC8912 - Pete Tye Common
Both an unnamed farm and Malting Field were advertised to be let in 1852. As we have seen, following Jeremiah senior's death, according to Joseph Page, Mrs Easter was in possession of Malting Field.
PELDON AND WEST MERSEA
TO BE LET FOR A TERM OF YEARS
With Immediate Possession, and either together or separately
A SMALL FARM, with House in 3 Tenements, Barn and
Out-Buildings, and 34 Acres of very superior Arable
LAND, eligibly situate about 5 miles from Colchester, near the
High Road to Mersea and Peldon, and adjoining to Peet Tye,
over which it has a right of Commonage.
Also a FIELD of Excellent Arable LAND called 'THE
MALTING FIELD,' containing 17 ½ Acres, situate in Peldon,
and adjoining the High Road from Abberton to Peldon.
[Essex Standard 24th September 1852]
With the help of the newspaper report of a court case we know who the next tenant was.
In 1853 there was an assault charge at the County Court, against William Lappage by Peldon labourer, William Storne; at the root of it was a dispute over land. In the story that unfolds, it was clear that the farm in question was owned by Capt. Easter of Tollesbury (although the name is incorrectly spelt) which would indicate this farm was 'Easters'. We discover that the former landlord of the Rose had moved into Easters at Michaelmas (September) in 1852 and that the previous farmer to hold the land was E Cooper who had farmed it for 26 years taking us back to around 1826 - this ties in with the tithe awards' tenant of 1839, who was probably of the same family if not the same person, Charles Edmund Cooper. The plaintiff, William Storne clearly lived in an adjacent farm cottage.
Defendant [Lappage] who was formerly landlord of the Rose public-
house Peldon, quitted it to occupy a farm in the parish, at
Michaelmas. Plaintiff [Storne] who occupied a tenement adjoin-
ing the farmhouse, and a piece of garden ground on the
farm, was now compelled to give up occupation on the
accession of defendant as tenant of the estate. It ap-
peared, however that this plot of garden ground originally
formed a portion of the waste land called 'Pete Tye'
belonging to the lord of the manor, but was encroached
upon fenced in, and now considered as belonging to the
farm. Previous to defendant becoming tenant, plaintiff
and his father-in-law had occupied the cottage and garden
26 years, and plaintiff now considered that the garden plot
was originally taken from the common, and the owner of
the farm had no more title to it than he had. Defendant
however considered it formed a portion of the farm he had
hired, and that he had sole right to possession of it. - Plain-
tiff's wife [Mrs. Storne] stated that on the 29th December, whist she
was in the garden defendant came and ordered her off the
ground, telling her that she had no business there, as he
was the occupier, and on her refusing to leave he pulled
up the fence and admitted a flock of sheep, which com-
menced cropping the vegetables. Defendant then began
to pull up the garden produce, and on plaintiff's wife
threatening to strike him with a rusty scythe if he
did not desist, he pushed her down, knelt on her,
and injured her in such a manner that she was
under the care of Mr. Norman, surgeon of Mersea, for
a week. Defendant now said he had possession of
the garden given him by Mr Perry, clerk to Mr.
Cooper, solicitor, who had the letting of the farm,
which belonged to Captain Easthaugh [Easter], of Tollesbury...
The report goes on to detail the attack by Mrs Storne on Lappage with her rusty scythe which drew blood.
...Mr Perry, clerk to Mr Cooper, said he had known the
land for 20 years to be an adjunct to the farm, but could
not say whether it had always been held by the tenant of
the farm - His Honour said he apprehended thatwould be the issue; supposing the garden to be an encroachment upon
the waste land, he could not see what Captain Easthaugh [Easter]
had to do with it ... Mr. E Cooper
said he occupied the farm 26 years, during which time he
let the disputed ground with plaintiff's house, as he always
considered one went with the other
In the end the Justice found in favour of Lappage and warned Mrs Storne that in his opinion she should be brought to court to answer the charge of stabbing.
William Lappage died later in the same year as the court case, on 16th November 1853, and left everything to his wife, Sarah, he was 50 years old. Whether Sarah continued with the lease on the farm has not been discovered.
William Lappage has an interesting back-story.
On 10th December 1830 a wage riot took place after a small group of labourers in Peldon had visited other households in the night and early morning to compel fellow farmworkers to join their number. Their objective was to seek a daily wage of 2/3d and beer from their employers. Three men identified as the ringleaders, were arrested and appeared the very next day before magistrates at Colchester Castle, William Lappage, William Warner and William Smith.
On 4th January 1831 the three men were subsequently tried at the Quarter Sessions in Chelmsford having
'tumultuously and unlawfully assembled at Peldon and with many others at present unknown conspiring by force to raise their wages and committing a riot'.
'SENTENCE: convicted of riot. To be imprisoned and kept to hard labour'.
William Lappage was sentenced to 12 months hard labour, William Warner 15 months and William Smith 6 months. They at least avoided transportation.
In those days, hard labour often amounted to road building, quarrying or walking on a treadmill within a prison. In Colchester Gaol there was no room for a treadmill and any prisoner sentenced to hard labour would be sent to the county Gaol in Chelmsford in Springfield Road.
Ten years later, William Lappage appears listed as a 'publican' in Peldon's 1841 census.
As for the owner of the farm, Captain Jeremiah Easter, he is remembered in Tollesbury as having erected a monument commemorating Nelson and Wellington in the Elysian Gardens a few years before his death. Today, rather incongruously, the monument is surrounded by a council estate. The inscription reads:
THE
ELYSIAN GARDENS
PLANTED IN 1839
AND
THIS PILE ERECTED
IN COMMEMORATION
OF
NELSON
AND
WELLINGTON
BY CAPTAIN
JEREMIAH EASTER
1852
Photograph by David Kemp and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons License
From
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6501894
On the reverse of the monument is an inscription which gives an insight into Captain Jeremiah Easter's military career in the Peninsular War (between 1809 and 1814). These were battles fought on the Iberian peninsular by the British, (led by Wellington), the Spanish and Portuguese against Napoleon,
CREDITO IN DEO
THAT OFFICER WHO
ERECTED THIS PILE
WAS PRESENT AT THE
COMBATS AND BATTLES
AT ALBERCHE AND
TALAVERA IN 1809
BUSACO RETIREMENT
SOBRAE AND LINES
AT TORRES VEDRAS
IN 1810
FOZ D'AROUCE AND
FUENTES D'ONOR
IN 1811
Captain Jeremiah Easter died on 8th September 1858. It is not known if his family took on Easters or whether it was sold.
The next tenant found, Joseph Digby, appears in a newspaper report of his prosecution under the Contagious Diseases (Animal) Act. The local Police Constable related that Digby had failed to report that pigs at his farm in Peldon called 'Easters' were infected with foot and mouth disease. A second charge was made that 16 pigs had been straying on the highway and Police Constable Cook reported they had been driven into Easter's yard where diseased cattle had previously been identified.
[Essex Standard 30th August 1872]
In 1874 the newspaper carried an advert for an auction on behalf of Joseph Digby who 'is leaving Essex'. The auction was to be held at The Rose Inn and for sale were
98 acres of Luxuriant, GROWING CROPS of
WHEAT, BARLEY, OATS, BLUE PEAS,
and *MAZAGAN BEANS [Essex Standard 3rd July 1874]
* an old variety of fava/broad bean
This acreage no doubt included his other farms and possibly land belonging to the mill.
In 1900, Easters was put up for auction along with Malting Field. Easters was then being let to Mrs. Jemima Eagle, the widow of Henry Eagle, tenant of Peet Hall Farm just to the south. The farm seems to have been called both 'Peet Tye Farm' and 'Easters' (borne out by a later advertisement) and had an area of 33 acres (which differentiates it from the much bigger Pete Tye Farm on the other side of the common). It is interesting to note that no farmhouse is mentioned just agricultural buildings.
Lot1.- In West Mersea and Peldon, convenient
Small HOLDING, known as Peet Tye Farm, well
situate on Peet Tye Common, including
AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS
And
33a. 0r. 35p. rich Arable and Pasture Land, with
feeding rights on the Common, as now let to Mrs.
Eagle. [East Anglian Daily Times 3rd September 1900]
The Essex Standard 15th September 1900 reports the successful bidders.
WEST MERSEA AND PELDON
At the Corn Exchange, Colchester, on Saturday
afternoon, Mr. C.M. Stanford sold by auction the
following properties:-
Small freehold agricultural holding, Peat Tye Farm, West
Mersea and Peldon, with over 33 acres of land. Mr. Frank
Pertwee, £406
Enclosure of freehold arable land, the Malting Field,
Peldon, containing 18a 6p Mr Henry Goody (Colchester) £175
Frank Pertwee, the son of Thomas Pertwee, whose family had farmed The Lodge Farm in Langenhoe for generations, ran a business as a Colchester corn merchant, and was to keep a farming interest in Langenhoe until 1924 although following his father's death, the Lodge Farm was auctioned in 1919.
In the East Anglian Daily Times, 19th November 1900, there is an auction announcement for 'Peat Tye or Easter's Farm, Peldon' where the buildings and 23 elm trees were to be sold. It is clear the new owner, Frank Pertwee, was removing all the agricultural buildings on the site and a number of trees.
THE FARM BUILDINGS, and Standing Timber,
comprising Capital Open Horse Shed and
Granary, Open Cart Shed, Open Bullock Shed, Cow-
house, and 23 Elm Trees
An auction advert in September 1918 mentions no farm buildings at all and it is, incidentally, the last time we find reference to the farm being called 'Easters'. Presumably the vendor was Frank Pertwee.
PELDON, NEAR COLCHESTER
THREE enclosures of Valuable FREEHOLD
ARABLE and PASTURE LAND, known as
EASTERS, comprising an area of about
33 ACRES
with feeding rights on Pete Tie Common adjoin-
ing, well situate near Abberton Village, on the
high road from Colchester to Mersea.
Possession at Michaelmas next. [East Anglian Daily Times 20th September 1918]
There has been a steady process in the 20th and 21st centuries of the assimilation of small farms into larger farms and with no farmhouse or agricultural buildings this could have been an end to 'Easters'. But I believe it had a second life as a small farm with the arrival of Danish farmer Charles Emil Pilsen Nymann. We have already seen his name in the report of the archaeological survey as the 'only commoner with rights'. This refers to him maintaining the rights to graze his cattle on Pete Tye Common - a right which was mentioned in the 1918 particulars for Easters. He was to graze his cattle on the common right up to his death in 1978 - the last farmer to do so.
Born in Copenhagen, Charles Nymann met his wife, Stephanie De Courcy Beamish, while they were both working on a Buckinghamshire farm at the end of WW1. They married in Totnes in 1922 and there is a reference to them both in the UK Police Gazette listing them as Aliens Traced in 1922 in Boston in Lincolnshire. During WW1, the Aliens Restriction Act of 1914 required foreign nationals to register with the police. This was continued into peace time with the 1919 act which further restricted employment in sensitive areas like the civil service and was designed to safeguard the UK's security.
In the electoral roll of 1923 we find Charles and Stephanie living in Wick Farm Cottages in Langenhoe.
In the Chelmsford Chronicle in 1931, there is a list of all the parcels of land belonging to Peet Hall Manor that had been sold at auction as the estate was broken up. Included in this were
two enclosures of pasture (22 acres), Mr. E Nymann, £80 [Chelmsford Chronicle 3rd July 1931]
I am told by local farmer, Robert Davidson
Mr Nymann built Stoke Courcy house with its 40 acres & commoners grazing rights for 72 cattle in the mid 1930s.
Referring back to the OS map above, the red cross marks the spot where Charles Nymann built his house which is still standing today although derelict. As can be seen, it is on a plot (field No. 5) which a hundred years before was listed in the tithe awards as belonging to Jeremiah Easter. Is it not likely that Nymann bought part of what had been Easters and added the 22 acres from Pete Hall Manor?
Listed as a poultry farmer in the Kelly's Trade Directory in 1935, by the 1939 register Nymann is a dairy farmer.
There are many who remember Charles Nymann - known as 'Nymann the Dane' following his cattle as they grazed on the common with his bicycle, his stick and green wellies.
Today, the house stands empty and falling apart and I believe still belongs to his descendants; the land is leased to other farmers and the name 'Easters' is consigned to the history books.
Elaine Barker
Peldon History Project
Read More
Peldon People - Nymann the Dane
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