Description
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SHRUBLANDS
Shrublands, a former farmhouse, is a Grade II Listed Building, built between 1807 and 1814, in the ancient parish of Gorleston.
The larger part of the Shrublands land had formed part of a manorial estate, the origins of which date at least as far back as the 1250s, according to deeds held at Magdalen College, Oxford. This estate grew in size over the years, and in due course came to bear the name of Spitlings. This name was derived from that of a family which flourished in Gorleston and Great Yarmouth in the 14th and 15th centuries. William Spitling and his brother John first held at least part of the estate under consideration in 1395. John Spitling served as a bailiff of Great Yarmouth in 1407, while Henry Spitling - perhaps another brother – likewise served in 1415.
A later Spitling, William, described as a fishmonger of London, sold the estate to Sir John Fastolf in 1434. Sir John, who settled at Caister Castle in 1454, wrote two wills shortly before his death in 1459. The validity and content of these were to be subjects of a long and complex legal wrangle; however, in due course his Spitlings estate passed into the hands of William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, who promptly settled it upon Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1470.
A capital messuage (large house) stood within the Spitlings estate from at least as long ago as 1527; however, it is unclear as to whether it stood on the site of the later Shrublands or nearby. No house was indicated here on Hodskinson’s Map of Suffolk of 1783.
It was the policy of Magdalen College to lease out its estates; and with regard to Spitlings - renamed Shrublands when the existing house with its associated farm buildings were built between 1807 and 1814 - this was the case until this property was sold to Great Yarmouth Corporation in the mid-1940s.
Tenants of the Spitlings estate sometimes sub-let all or part of it. Thomas Thurtell, gentleman of Gorleston, the tenant from or by 1800 to 1835, built Shrublands House and promptly let it to Captain Eaton Stannard Travers, who had a distinguished naval career during the wars with Revolutionary, then Napoleonic, France. He rose to the rank of Rear-Admiral and received a knighthood. Isabella, daughter of Travers and his wife Ann, was born at Shrublands in 1822.
William Danby Palmer became the Shrublands tenant in 1830. By 1841 the house here was set in landscaped grounds of about 2.7 ha. As for the farm here, mixed husbandry obtained during the 19th century, while in its latter years it was mostly concerning with dairying.
Mostly as a consequence of the severe damage to Great Yarmouth’s housing stock in Second World War air-raids, but also due to immediate pre-war and post-war slum clearance, the Corporation sought to acquire open land upon which to build new homes for its citizens. The Shrublands property was acquired from Magdalen College in 1944; and it was partly on this and partly on land otherwise acquired, all to the west and (beyond Gorleston Cemetery) north of Shrublands House, that the Shrublands Estate of 711 prefabs was built and subsequently occupied in 1946. The construction work was partly carried out by German prisoners of war.
It should be noted that Great Yarmouth Corporation’s Magdalen Estate, to the east and south of Shrublands House, had also been acquired from Magdalen College towards the end of the Second World War. However this estate, centred upon a farmhouse called Crow Hall, had only been owned by the College since between 1884 and 1901.
Shrublands House ceased to serve as a farmhouse at Michaelmas 1947. With its buildings and about 3 ha. of land, it was shortly afterwards handed over to Great Yarmouth Education Committee for educational purposes. In 1949, this property was opened as the Shrublands Youth and Adult Community Centre, which continues to thrive within the former barn here. As a consequence of Local Government Reorganization in 1974, this property became the responsibility of Norfolk County Council.
As for the Shrublands Estate prefabs, they were demolished in the 1960s and conventional housing was built upon their sites; however, the original street pattern here was essentially retained.