Heigham Holmes is an isolated and little known area of marshland in the civil parish of Potter Heigham (North Norfolk), formerly known as Heigham Potter due to the extensive manufacture of pottery in the village. There was also a thriving peat digging industry, which over time unfortunately resulted in many of the extraction sites beginning to fill with water. Despite the cutting of drainage ditches these were completely flooded by the 15th century, creating lakes such as Hickling Broad. Norfolk Heritage archaeologists believe that an extensive area of peat extraction once covered much of the eastern section of Heigham Holmes. The word 'holmes' is derived from the Old Norse word holmir, meaning island, and indeed Heigham Holmes was originally a bar of sand and gravel in the large estuary which existed here in Roman times, and probably still an island in a reed-covered wetland until land drainage began in the 1600s. The area extends over about 500 acres and is bounded by the River Thurne (Norfolk's shortest and once one of its finest pike fishing rivers) in the south, Candle Dyke (Although spelled Candle Dyke on most maps, the name of the watercourse appears to derive from an eel catcher named Kendal who had his set — referred to as "Kendal's set" in 19th century legal documents — in the dyke. His hut is still in place but the Broads' last eel catcher, Derek Johnson, died in October 2012, and the eel traps are nowadays only used for eel population counts.) and Heigham Sound in the west, Meadow Dyke in the north and Eelfleet Wall in the east, with the highest elevation, about one metre above sea level, situated roughly in the centre. Aerial views published on the 'Britain from Above' website and taken by Flight AFL3469 during the devastating floods in the spring of 1938, when the sea defences were breached several times at Horsey, show all the surrounding lower-lying marshes submerged.
Located less than two kilometres north of the village of Martham, this man-made island is now a nature reserve managed by the National Trust (NT), who acquired it in 1987 with grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the World Wide Fund for Nature and Natural England, in cooperation with two tenant farmers who graze their cattle on the reserve's marsh pastures. Over the years, the land was restored back to grassland by reinstating the old water levels and creating new dykes, pools and foot drains. Today the reserve is considered a unique and internationally important wetland, comprising reed-fringed flood banks and open water, grazing marshes, scrub and wet woodland, linked by a maze of dykes and pools characteristic of the Norfolk Broads landscape and home to marsh harriers, barn owls, bitterns and cranes, avocets and redshanks. Muntjacs, Chinese water deer (both non-native species) and red deer can also be seen here. The southern part of Heigham Holmes is flooded during the winter months to provide a safe feeding and roosting area for over 18,000 geese and other wildfowl.
The only access is via a floating, automated steel-decked bridge, constructed and installed by Jackson Civil Engineering for the National Trust in early 2012 at a cost of £800,000 — a lot of money, considering that said bridge was paid for with public money when in fact the public is barred "due to restricted access via floating river crossing" for 364 days a year. (Anyone, including NT members, wishing to take part in one of the pre-booked guided tours with the ranger, available between April and October, is required to pay a fee.) The structure replaced an earlier floating bridge (dating from 1987) which was operated by pulling on a chain. As the bridge has to be left open so as not to obstruct river traffic it was necessary to row back to the other side after crossing over, in a boat provided for this purpose, to re-open it, and then to row back across the river once again. A previous bridge had been installed in the early 1920s and before that a pontoon bridge built in the 19th century and described as having required three people to manoeuvre it into position was used. Although not technically a ferry and despite the absence of any records of a commercial ferry ever having operated here this river crossing has always been known as Martham Ferry.
The ferry is a large raft, which is kept in a recess on either side of the river, and floated across, reaching from bank to bank when required. There is no one to tend it, and if it happens to be on the other side, a wayfarer must wait until someone appears on the other side to get it across. It is a wonderfully clumsy thing to look at, and is not regarded with friendly eyes by the wherrymen, who run their wherries full tilt against it too often at night, or when, with wind astern, they are unable to stop. One wherryman, exasperated beyond endurance, let his wherry go at it with all her force when running before half a gale, but only smashed the bows of his vessel, not moving the ferry a bit or injuring it, for it is heavily bound with iron to withstand such experiments.
— George Christopher Davies (1849–1922), The Handbook to the Rivers and Broads of Norfolk and Suffolk (1880)
In 1926, the farmers who owned land on Heigham Holmes decided to improve their access and on 7 September signed a document which declared that "Each proprietor shall forthwith on signing this agreement pay to an account to be called the Martham Holmes Floating Bridge Account at Lloyds Bank, Great Yarmouth, a sum proportionate to his or her acreage of such amount as may be required to provide a floating caisson bridge with all necessary fittings, gear and appliances for the holding in position and pulling out and in, and with the quay headings on either side of the river, and to keep the same in repair so as to furnish the means of access and transport between Martham Holmes and Martham, which bridge shall forthwith be obtained and put in commission." The bridge was ordered from Fellows & Co Ltd of Great Yarmouth (later Richards, the shipbuilders) Ltd and it was delivered and installed with the new quay headings in June 1927 at a cost of £460 for the bridge; £427 for piles and pile-driving, swing post (apparently the propeller shaft of a disused Yarmouth drifter), buffer post, concrete, labour and cartage and £9 for a small boat. The boat was for returning to the other side of the river after re-opening the bridge when a vehicle had crossed. William Bracey and Oliver A Starling (an engineer, agricultural implements agent and wheelwright) were appointed managers and hence entitled "to collect and apply the moneys provided by the proprietors for the purpose of keeping the said floating bridge etc in efficient working order and condition." On 13 December 1926, the Potter Heigham Drainage Commission agreed to donate £30 towards this new bridge, which replaced the older bridge described by George Christopher Davies (see above).
Until well into the 19th century much of the land in the parish of Potter Heigham, including Heigham Holmes, was owned by the Bishop of Norwich who was also the lord of the manor. The bishop leased his land to tenant farmers, the names of which are recorded in the 'Title Deeds, Manorial Records, Maps and other records relating to the Bishopric Estates in Potter Heigham Parish (1667 - 1853)'. In the 16th and 17th centuries, William Burway (Aug 1665), Edward Eyre (Feb 1667/Nov 1668), Thomas Damant (Dec 1712), Robert Cory (1716), S Briant (Oct 1726), John, Thomas and William Savory (June 1713 - July 1776), Sir William Paston (1733 - 1776) and Thomas Artis (1757) all had leased extensive parcels of land on Heigham Holmes "otherwise the Holmes in Heigham Potter". Engle Knights of East Somerton in 1790 obtained the Lease of Land in Heigham Potter for Three Lives from the Lord Bishop of Norwich. (Throughout the 18th century, leases for three lives were in fairly widespread use and often for a term of years, usually 31 or 41 years, or for three lives, whichever was the longer. A three-lives lease expired when all three people named in the lease had died and tenants frequently named young relatives, hoping that at least one of them would survive for many years.) The smaller and periodically flooded pastures adjacent to the island's southern perimeter and immediately north of the River Thurne were owned by marsh farmers such as William Creasey Ewing, Benjamin Bell, Robert Rising, William Pollard and James Symonds. The Trustees for the Reverend George Merriman's widow held a small parcel of land further to the north-east.
Faden's map — the first large-scale map of the whole county, surveyed between 1790 and 1794 and published in 1797 in London by William Faden, Geographer to His Majesty — shows an enclosure devoid of any buildings and presumably a cattle yard, at approximately the centre of the island which, barely a metre above sea level, is also the highest elevation. By the time the enclosure map for Potter Heigham was drawn, in 1806, a house, and a barn adjacent in the east and at right angles, had been built at this location. The exact date of its completion is not recorded but the house would appear to have been ready for occupation in the autumn of 1792, as is attested by a memorandum appended to a legal agreement according to which Robert Cory (the lessee) refunded his landlord William Savory for the kitchen fitments and utilities: "Rec'd of Mr Cory three Guineas for a Bath Stove in the Parlour, Range Hakes Crane & Oven in the Kitchen of the Holmes House, By me" — dated 6 October 1792 and signed by William Savory with a 'X'. The names of the people who moved into this new house are not known.
The buildings are again mentioned in a document dating from 2 October 1794, announcing the sale of the Holmes Estate: "To be now sold by Auction all those lands, marshes and pastures called Heigham Holmes and also all those lands and Pastures called Spurnings and being in or near Potter Heigham held by Lease for Lives of the Lord Bishop of Norwich at the annual Rent of £5 together with the Messuage or Dwellinghouse late new erected, Bullockshed, Yards, Garden, Well and Appurtenances on the said Holmes." The Spurnings, an area of apparently quite boggy common land shared by the parishioners of Potter Heigham, Ludham, Catfield and the proprietors of land on Heigham Holmes in equal measures, extended from the south-western end of Meadow Dyke in the north all the way south along the western edge of Heigham Sound.
"Also a freehold marsh adjoining part whereof is used as a drift way from Martham Swim (area adjacent to where what is today known as Horsey Road crosses the Hundred Stream, a drainage channel dividing the Hundred of Happing from the Hundred of East and West Flegg) onto the said Holmes the whole containing exclusive of the Spurnings, uproads of 100 acres which Premises are now in the occupation of Mr Thomas Francis on a Lease wherein six years will be unexpired on the 10th instant at 50£ a year — with an exception of the Parlour Chamber and Garden, Landlord paying one half of the Tithe and Poor Rate and of keeping the ditches etc in repair. There are now very good lives in existence, the one aged about 29 years and the other about 26 years — Mr William Savory and Mr Charles Pollard respectively". The sale took place in the "Oak at Martham". (The Royal Oak was the only licensed public house recorded in Martham in the late 1700s and the landlord in 1794 was Richard Bell. The pub closed in the late 19th century.) The buyer was Engle Knights, a beer brewer from Winterton. The seller was Robert Cory of Great Yarmouth, Registrar of the Admiralty Court, one-term Mayor of Great Yarmouth and a solicitor by profession, who bought and sold property. The Cory family is documented to have held land on Heigham Holmes at least since the early 1700s, some of it leased from John (and later William) Savory and sub-leased to Thomas Francis.
Detailing the "Particulars of the Holmes Estate", said document also informs that "The occupiers of land in Heigham (at the time Potter Heigham was often referred to as just Heigham) pretend to have right of Shackage (ie to graze their cattle) on the Holmes for Cattle Levant et Couchant (a term generally applying to trespassing cattle which have remained long enough to have lain down to rest and risen up to feed) from old Midsummer to three weeks and three days before old Michaelmas and in some years a few cattle have been turned on, but none in this year it being attended with much danger and Hazard as the Cattle are obliged to be boated off and on they having no other way of getting on the Holmes".
On the 1840 tithe map the house and barn roughly in the centre of the island appear unchanged but by 1884 they had been extended and amalgamated into one larger and coherent L-shaped complex as seen on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map for Norfolk. The 1884 OS map also shows a new dwelling further to the south-west and roughly at sea level in an area marked as 'Liable to Floods', a short distance to the east of a timber steam engine house and a hollow post drainage windpump on the bank of Candle Dyke, a drainage channel linking the River Thurne via Heigham Sound with Hickling Broad. The property was situated in one of the few pastures on the island that had never been owned by the Bishop of Norwich. It comprised 18 acres, 1 rood and 10 perches and in 1806 was owned by John Barker Huntington of Winterton, but by 1840 George Edward Francis held the lease for life. It is reasonable to assume that George Edward had the cottage built shortly after acquiring the lease in order to accommodate a farm labourer in his employ, and indeed the marshman Benjamin Rumbold and his family are documented to have inhabited the dwelling in the 1850s. When the OS cartographers visited the area in the early 1880s in order to survey it they carved a cut mark into the south-eastern corner of the dwelling and marked it on their map as B.M. 3·1. The cottage would however seem to have been inhabited for a few decades only — it is still marked on the 1907 map but by 1938 it had disappeared, a fate it shared with the nearby windpump and steam engine house which had already become disused by 1905.
By the 1840s, the Francis family had acquired large holdings on Heigham Holmes. When Thomas Francis died, in February 1837, he left all his land to his oldest son, who in 1835 had already obtained a 21-year lease of marshes on "Martham Holmes". George Edward Francis of West End Cottage, Martham, now owned 24 of the 33 marshes and pastures either outright or by 'Lease for Lives' or 'Lease for Years' contracts. A militia captain in his younger years, he was now a gentleman of independent means who leased his land to tenant farmers, until on 28 November 1842 he unexpectedly passed away at the age of 56, intestate.
The 60-year old marshman Robert Watson, his wife Ann, their two adult sons Robert and James, teenagers Harriet and William and a baby boy also called Robert (who many years later had his own farm in Rollesby, and in the early 1900s returned to Heigham Holmes as a tenant farmer) in 1841 occupied the property marked on the 1806 enclosure map and also on the 1840 tithe map, the accompanying documents of which record it as a "house and yard". The Watson family may have been living in the house before their names were recorded in the 1841 census, but since earlier records are not available (although the first census was taken in March 1801, most of these records are now lost) the exact date of their arrival on Heigham Holmes cannot be established. Robert's name appears in a legal document dating from 1841, by which the Lord Bishop of Norwich agreed to lease a portion of his land to Robert Watson and George Edward Francis, and it appears once again in an appended parchment dated 25 March 1848, concerning the "Lease of Lands in Heigham Potter called Heigham Holmes for three Lives" from The Right Reverend Father in God Edward (Edward Stanley, 1779-1849) by Divine permission Lord Bishop of Norwich, by Arthur Lindoe Womack Esq of Winterton and Robert Watson of Potter Heigham. A memorandum appended to the document furthermore records that "On the thirtieth day of May 1848 Livery of Seizin of the within mentioned hereditaments was delivered by the within named Robert Watson as attorney for the said Edward Lord Bishop of Norwich to the within named Arthur Lindoe Womack according to the true intent and meaning of the within Indentures."
During the 1850s the Watsons shared the house with James, their disabled 34-year old son and Robert, their 15-year old grandson. Ten years later however they had moved out and by 1861 Thomas Brown, a 49-year old agricultural labourer, his wife Mary and their six children lived in "Marsh House". Their neighbours on the island were the 33-year old marshman Benjamin Rumbold and his wife Lucy, their three children, Benjamin's sister Mary Ann and a 1-month old baby, referred to in the census form as "grandchild" but presumably Mary Ann's illegitimate child (the Rumbolds were hardly old enough to have had grandchildren), who occupied the recently built cottage near Candle Dyke. By 1871, the Rumbolds had moved on (in 1881 Benjamin was working as a farm bailiff in Acle) and Charles Applegate, a 35-year old land drain marshman, his wife Susanna and their two children now inhabited the cottage. Charles' mother, the widowed Mrs Applegate senior, also lived there. The Browns too had left and William Smith, a 37-year old agricultural labourer now occupied the house with his wife Elizabeth and their five children.
As women in Victorian Britain did not have the right to vote, to sue or to own property, a group of trustees now managed the late George Edward Francis' estate on behalf of his legal heirs, Ann Rising, his widow, and his three daughters Anne Mary, Ellen Elizabeth and Mary Georgina. Ann died in June 1866 (she is buried in St Mary's churchyard in Martham), and the trustees continued to look after the family's holdings. On Saturday, 23 May 1874, an auction was held by Messrs Spelman, auctioneers, in the Rampant Horse Hotel in Norwich, "as per the instructions received from the Trustees, under the will of the late Mrs Francis, to sell the Fine Freehold Grazing Pastures known as 'The Holmes', situated in the Parish of Potter Heigham, with the Marshman's Cottage, Sheds and Yard, containing 87 acres and 9 perches and the adjacent Dry Spurlands marsh, 24 acres 1 rood 26 perches" (1 acre = 4 roods, 1 rood = 40 perches). 'The Holmes' pastures are well known and enjoy the proverbial reputation of being some of the finest grazing land in the County." For sale were further a small Freehold Accommodation Marsh also part of 'The Holmes', Heigham Sound, the Wet Spurlands marsh (ie Rush Marsh, forming the northern part of Heigham Sound) and the eel set (ie the exclusive right of fishing eels) in Candle Dyke. The current tenant's (Alfred Mabot Wiseman) lease of the pastures was to expire at "Michaelmas next" (on the Feast Day of Michael and All Angels, 29 September). (NRO MC 527/41, 761X2). The land was purchased by William Bracey, who (in August 1896) would also acquire the Martham Estate including Martham Hall and with it the manorial rights of the manor, which had existed since before the Norman Conquest, as well as several other farms and properties in Martham.
If and how this sale affected the families living on the island has not been recorded but it is documented that William Smith and his family stayed for less than a decade and that by 1881 the Browns had returned. William Brown, the 36-year old son of Thomas, his wife Ann Elizabeth, their four children, William's 70-year old widowed father Thomas, and Mary Ann Gallant, a servant, now lived at '1 Holmes'. The Applegates and their three young children continued to live in the cottage, which had been assigned the postal address '2 Holmes'. The two families, the Browns with their five children, and the Applegates with three, could still be found at Holmes 1 and 2 respectively, in 1891, but by 1901 the situation had changed again.
By the turn of the century William Bracey was trading as W & W Bracey, in partnership with his son, William junior, who had joined the family enterprise. William senior hailed from Great Yarmouth and was a builder, contractor, brick merchant and carter by trade and also owned several brick works in the area, the probably largest being located opposite the Martham Ferry and known as Bracey's Brickworks. Today only the flooded pits remain and the site is marked on the map as the Martham Pits. The old clay pits have long since been transformed into well maintained fishing lakes. Father and son Bracey are also named amongst the commissioners of the Martham Level drainage windpump, aka Bracey's Mill, built in 1908 on the southern bank of the River Thurne. William senior did not live to see the new floating bridge installed at the river crossing in June 1927.
Charles Applegate no longer lived on Heigham Holmes and, with Susanna, had moved into a cottage in Damgate Road, Martham. William Brown too had left and the 1902 electoral register records another family, also called Brown and formerly of West Somerton, as living at 1 Holmes — in a new dwelling which had recently been built onto the west end of the old house. They were the 42-year old agricultural labourer Martin William Brown and his wife Ann Elizabeth, and their seven children, Martin (marsh mill engine driver), Arthur (husbandman), Ellen, Emily, John, Bessie and Jane. In an article published in the August 1980 edition of 'Farmers Weekly', the historian Cecil Kellehar writes that "Martin looked after the cattle grazing there, kept a few of his own and also operated the windpump for the Drainage Commission. Once a week he would row over to Martham to shop and to sell such things as butter his wife had made, mushrooms he had gathered and, from time to time, one of his animals. Mrs Brown, however, is said to have lived over there twenty years and never to have crossed the water." In the 1911 census, the most recent available census record to date, the property's name is recorded as "Holmes Farm, a private house". Head of the household was Martin Brown senior and the property had three male and three female occupants.
The final record of Martin and Ann can be found in the electoral register dating from autumn 1925, when Martin would have been about 65 years old. It puts their residence still firmly at 'The Holmes', but by the spring of 1926 they had disappeared and there are no further records of anyone having lived at Holmes Farm from this time onwards. The National Trust's information leaflet informs that "A brick and flint farmhouse used to stand at the left-hand end of the barns." The aerial views taken by Flight AFL3469 in 1938 to record the extent of flooding after the sea defences at Horsey had been breached quite clearly show a house with two dormer windows facing south.
After the Browns had moved out during the winter of 1926 the house remained uninhabited and was eventually demolished to make way for a new range of farm sheds constructed in the early 1950s. The brick walls of the adjacent older, original house are however still in place and although it would be difficult to tell at a glance that the structure once used to be a dwelling, contemporary maps unequivocally place it at this location. Re-roofed and converted for agricultural use it became the bullock shed mentioned in the 1953 auction catalogue (see below). Only the old copper, situated in what once used to be the scullery, has survived and can still be seen today. The experts who assessed all the extant buildings on Heigham Holmes on the occasion of a landscape survey (SNA63028) conducted in 2007 and published on the Archaeological Data Service website (Associated ID- HBSMR Id: MNA153847) would however not only seem to have been confused regarding its former use and date of construction, which is 1791/2 and not 1850 as stated, but they also placed Heigham Holmes in Horsey, whereas it has always been and still is situated in the parish of Potter Heigham.
During the first quarter of the 20th century Heigham Holmes was farmed by George William Chapman (Clarkes Farm, Martham, which is still in the family today); George Robert Cook (farmer, Burnt Cottage); Horace John Debbage (The Green); Abadiah Oliver Dyball (Gibbet Hill); Keith, Blake & Co (Representatives of the Chantry for the Poor, Norwich); Charles W Knights (High Street); Benjamin Charles Goose (farmer and market gardener, Rectory Farmhouse); William Arthur Rigg (baker, Black Street); Oliver Arthur Starling (engineer, Hope Cottage, Station Road); Edmund Nichols (farmer, Moregrove Hall Farm); Thomas Arthur Edmonds (farmer, Grove Farm) and Alfred Mabbot Wiseman (Martham House), all of Martham, and William Beales of Hemsby (near the station), Isaac William Manship (farmer, Low Road, Ormesby) and Robert Watson of Back Lane, Rollesby, the grandson of Robert Watson the marshman who had lived on the island five decades ago. The Braceys however continued to be the main landholders.
Having inherited the family business on his father's passing, William Bracey junior, a fruit grower and merchant, now owned 261 acres, almost half of the acreage on Heigham Holmes. The land was used for summering a herd of about 90 dairy cows from May until September and for grazing heifers which stayed on the island throughout the year. In July 1937, however, the "Martham Estate including Martham Holmes dairy farm and wild fowling estate — a Unique Island Site" was put up for sale by auction, held in the Royal Hotel, Norwich. The sales catalogue informs that "The property is approached by means of the floating bridge at Martham Ferry, whence a roadway leads to the centre of the Island, where, on high ground with sandy subsoil, are erected the farm buildings consisting of a Cottage or Shooting Box, Milking sheds for 100 cows, cow yard, barn with well, pump, petrol engine and storage tank, boiler for steriliser (sterilising cabinet not included), 2 Dairies, 10 Loose Boxes. The Grazing Lands are most conveniently grouped around the premises and provide varying types of pasture. From the Sportsman's standpoint, its isolated position and proximity to noted wild fowl resorts (Hickling Broad and Horsey Mere) render it a very attractive occupation" (NRO MC 180/181, 667X4). Some of the lots, including Martham Manor and Heigham Holmes, however failed to attract a buyer and the Braceys' presence in Martham continued.
After the Second World War, they were one of only five merchants of soft fruit, mainly blackcurrants, in England, sending large tonnages each year to the wholesale markets, canning, and jam-making factories all over the country. When William Bracey (junior) died in January 1949, the business continued as a family trust until 1971, when Raymond Crisp, the grandson of William Bracey took over. By the time the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line, which linked Melton Constable and Great Yarmouth and had a station at Martham was closed in 1959, the Braceys had switched to road transport and were hence little affected. In the 1970s, Messrs William Bracey were still in business and in 1973 the company was the first in England to pioneer a fully-mechanised method of fruit processing, an innovation which reportedly cost about £25,000. Profits however plummeted dramatically during the following decade due to competition from cheaper imports, and in the early 1990s the merchant side of the company ceased. The business was eventually sold in 2002.
After William Bracey's death the family's herd of dairy cattle, summered on the island, would seem to have been disbanded whilst the range of buildings was considerably extended by the construction of large sheds including a cowhouse and a dairy, designed to modern standards and adjacent to the older buildings. Shortly after their completion, the Braceys' holdings on Heigham Holmes were once again advertised as for sale. On 20 June 1953 "Heigham Holmes — A valuable marshland dairy holding with splendid modern dairy premises and 173 acres, approached by a well metalled tar macadam road from Martham Ferry", was advertised for sale by auction, at 12 noon, by Savills the estate agents. The auctioneers were RC Knight & Sons of Norwich. In the auction catalogue, which includes two black and white interior photographs of the brand new cowhouse, the property is described in some detail: "The magnificent farm premises are situated in the centre of the holding and include: A range of 9 timber and corrugated iron Loose Boxes; the modern T.T. (Tuberculosis Tested) Cowhouse for 103, of brick and corrugated asbestos roof construction with steel roof trusses; centre Gangways, and concrete Standings, with Sterilizing Room and Cooling Room, Calf Boxes; Barn and Bullock Shed and Yard. Mains electricity is connected by an underground cable passing under Lots 7 and 8. Water supply is from a deep bore by an automatic electric pump in the tower above the Cooling Room, to a storage tank and thence by gravity. The Land lies well in a ring fence and includes about 35 acres of sound Arable Land, about 9 acres of Carr, and the remainder sound well-drained Grazing Marshes, the whole extending to about 173 Acres, 1 Rood, 1 Perch" (NRO MC 39/240, 487X4). This time there was a buyer.
William Alston of Park Farm, Wymondham, purchased three of the lots advertised in the auction sale — Martham Manor, Church Farm and Heigham Holmes — the latter with the intention of summering his herd of Frisian dairy cattle on the island. The cows were milked twice daily in the dairy until sometime during the 1960s when this practice was discontinued and the building became redundant. Only heifers were from then on taken onto the island, and as some of the pastures were turned into arable and used for growing corn, a number of farm horses were stabled in part of the barn. Over the years, William Alston acquired all the land on the island and on his death the property passed to a relative, who today is one of the National Trust's two tenant farmers. Alston cows are hence still grazing on Heigham Holmes. The farm buildings are also still standing and apart from the dairy building, which has since lost its top storey due to structural damage, they remain unchanged. Until recently some of the sheds were used for storage and others for housing cattle during the winter months. The National Trust currently maintains the complex as an historic record of past land use.
Another building hailing from bygone days is a Grade II listed, privately owned and, sadly, derelict four-storey tower mill now known as Heigham Holmes drainage windpump. In the 1871 census it is being referred to as "Watson's marsh mill, on the Holmes", named after Robert Watson, the marshman who had once operated it. It is situated beside Eelfleet Wall on the south-eastern perimeter of the island. The structure dates from the mid-19th century and was one of the earliest windpumps using an internal turbine casing instead of the more common paddle wheel to raise water from the marshes, which lie below the height of the surrounding ditches and the river, into the River Thurne. Most of the running gear, including a complete set of track and centring wheels, wind shaft, crown and bevel wheels and the internal turbine casing, is believed to still be in place. In the 'Drainage Mill Action Plan and Strategy' report published by the Broads Authority in September 2013 the structure is described as leaning to one side, with its condition increasingly worsening due to severe brickwork erosion and rot in the main beams. The Broads Authority's report further asserts that "The mill sits on the site of an important WW2 airfield".
Heigham Holmes is indeed rumoured to have served as a Second World War landing ground used by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) but no evidence has to date been found to substantiate this rumour. The SOE was formed on 22 July 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe, and one of the organisation's best kept secrets were the night time activities involving 138 and 161 (Special) Squadrons of Bomber Command, RAF, flying SOE agents into occupied Europe by moonlight in their Lockheed A28 Hudsons, Short Stirlings, Halifaxes, Whitleys or Lysanders, the latter without doubt being the most famous aircraft involved in this secret work.
In a publication titled 'Norfolk and Suffolk Airfields and Airstrips' (Part 6), authored by Huby Fairhead and published by the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum in June 1989, the author states that "From about 1940 to 1944 an RAF landing ground was located on the marshes known as Heigham Holmes. It appears all black Lysanders were detached here during this period while based at Newmarket or Tempsford, possibly for operations into the Low Countries". This appears to be the original (and only) source of information on which all later researchers have based theirs. The text also mentions a complex of farm buildings "to the east of a grass landing strip", the length of which is given as 6,000 yards (5,486 metres). This must surely be a mistake, considering that wartime RAF main runways were on average about 2000 yards (1,830 metres) long and secondary runways considerably shorter, and that Lysanders did not require a landing strip at all but could land on virtually any reasonably level ground and under conditions which would have defeated any other aircraft. Group Captain Hugh Verity, the commander of 161 Squadron, claimed that he could land a Lysander within the space of 150 yards (less than 140 metres). The recollections of two (unnamed) local residents are also recorded: one reported a forced landing (apparently due to lack of fuel) he says he witnessed in a field near Martham and that he was asked by the pilot to walk to the airfield to inform the staff about the situation because he was not allowed to leave his aircraft. This of course begs the question as to why the pilot would not have used his R/T wireless communications system, which every aircraft and certainly every Lysander was equipped with. The second eye-witness recalls having seen "all black" aircraft flying to and from the site during the war, when in fact it has been documented that the special Lysanders were painted all black for a restricted time only.
The modified Lysander Mk IIISCW (or SD — Special Duties) like other aircraft used for clandestine operations were indeed initially painted a matt black colour, helping them to slip into occupied Europe undetected when carrying agents or VIPs to and from enemy territory on missions which almost always took place during the "moon nights" of each month — moonlight being essential because the pilots were flying without navigational equipment other than map and compass. The colour pattern was however modified, with the top of the wings and fuselage reverting to dark grey and pale grey and hence providing better camouflage against night fighters approaching from above in moonlight. Lysanders were designed to land in fields illuminated by nothing more than three hand-held torches, and fitted with an armoured floor, improved radio equipment and provisions for two passengers as well as a fixed ladder to the rear of the cockpit on the left side for quick access. A large auxiliary tank slung under the belly carried the additional fuel required for flying distances exceeding the standard range of 600 miles (966 kilometres).
An article published in the 'Airfield Review' magazine (Volume 8, No. 4) also reported Huby Fairhead's "unusual discovery in East Anglia of a secret airfield, the existence of which has never been published" and that "it possessed three hard runways and a control tower despite being situated amidst marshland and being virtually surrounded by a river and dykes". Although the information regarding the existence of three concrete runways had by 2009 been amended and Huby now said that there were no such runways after all, he once again stated that the use by SOE had been confirmed albeit without offering any evidence to substantiate this claim.
In a personal communication (27 July 2015) Huby Fairhead provided the additional information that "Post war the watch office on the side of the farm building was reduced and roofed over". Although Mr Fairhead's description fits perfectly with one of the extant buildings on the site, the problem is that the structure in question had not existed during the war and can hence never have served the purpose of a watch office (control tower). The National Trust refer to it as their look-out post and it can be found on the first floor of the former purpose-built dairy, a once three-storeys high building dating from the early 1950s which has since been reduced in height due to structural problems.
Norfolk Heritage (NHER) experts, quoting the above-mentioned publication as their only source of reference, visited the site several times (in October 1989, in August 2003 and in March 2005) and concluded that "no convincing evidence for the existence of an airstrip, military buildings or associated defences could be identified". Contradicting their own information the Potter Heigham parish summary, also published online, however informs that "perhaps most intriguingly there is evidence that the SOE used a field in [sic] Heigham Holmes as a secret airfield from which agents were flown into occupied countries during World War Two", and a large pasture to the north-west of the farm buildings is, inexplicably, identified as the landing ground on the complementary map also published on the Norfolk Heritage Explorer – (described as) the definitive database of the county's archaeological sites and historic buildings. About 20 head of cattle can clearly be seen grazing on this "landing ground" in an aerial photograph taken by the RAF in September 1944 (when said landing ground would have been active), which the NHER's experts claim to have consulted. (The picture has the reference number A203 and bears the handwritten annotation 106G/UK/832:23 Sept 44:F20//541 SQDN)
In 2010, the BBC included Heigham Holmes as one of the locations featured in their 'Secret Britain' programme. In his interview with the BBC presenter the National Trust's senior warden on Heigham Holmes, Stephen Prowse, also refers to the information contained in Huby Fairhead's publication, adding that local residents when questioned confirmed that they saw aircraft flying in and out of the area, and that the site would have been perfect not only because of its remoteness but also because the elevated banks along the river and drainage channels shielded it from prying eyes. This however is not quite true as in fact the island can be overlooked from the southern bank of the River Thurne (now a public footpath) all the way from Martham Ferry to Martham Broad even during high summer when the vegetation is most abundant, and the banks and dykes would of course not have prevented anyone from seeing aircraft flying above, as indeed witnesses have said they did. The National Trust's most up-to-date information leaflet, published on the occasion of the 2014 Heigham Holmes Open Day, states that "During WWII there was a grass landing strip here used by Lysander aircraft of 161 Squadron on SOE operations". In a short film produced in 2014 by students of Flegg High School in conjunction with a local history project and made available online, no new information came to light.
Peter Thompson MA in his archaeological desk-based assessment of land off Hemsby Road, Martham (commissioned by Mr Alan Presslee of Cornerstone Planning Ltd on behalf of Norfolk Land Ltd, executed by 'Archaeological Solutions Ltd' and published in July 2014) states that "A military airfield for Lysanders used in 1940, was located 1.7km to the east (of the assessment site)". All the organisations, institutions and experts involved have however so far not produced a single shred of real evidence to actually substantiate the information they are disseminating. Only the Museum of The Broads (in Stalham), laudably, exercises some restraint by saying that "the small airfield at Heigham Holmes is believed to have been used by Lysander aeroplanes to drop SOE agents into occupied Holland".
The first prize for misinformation must go to the "Secret WWII Stations" web page, which appears to be maintained by members of the Barton-Le-Clay Local History Society and offers the information that "The Lysander(s) was stored under cover in the barn during daylight hours and only brought out as and when required for night flying". The anonymous author does not reveal the source upon which this information is supposedly based, but it is obvious that s/he has never seen the barn in question, as in fact it is not nearly large enough to accommodate a Lysander with a length of 30ft 6in (9.30m), a wing span of 50ft (15.24m) and a height of 14ft 6in (4.42m) — let alone more than one.
Mike Fuller, who grew up in the nearby village of Ludham and as a founding member of the Ludham Community Archive has made many valuable contributions to the wartime history of the village, including the RAF airfield in the vicinity, remembers having heard stories according to which Lysanders were flying air-sea rescue missions out of an unspecified location at Martham. However, No 278 Squadron, the air-sea rescue squadron which covered the coast off East Anglia, was based at RAF Matlask from October 1941 to April 1942 and at RAF Coltishall from April 1942 to April 1944. The squadron is documented to have used Westland Lysander IIIA aircraft from October 1941 until February 1943, and the Lysanders reportedly seen by witnesses would seem to have been those of 278 Squadron on air-sea rescue operations. There are no records of Heigham Holmes or of any other location at or in the vicinity of Martham having also been used for air-sea rescue operations. Mike also recalls rowing across Candle Dyke and wandering about Heigham Holmes as a schoolboy but did not observe any wartime activities nor did he see aircraft when exploring the island, as boys are in the habit of doing. Mike would however not have been able to observe any military activities or aircraft if the landing ground had been used at night and if aircraft stopped only briefly for refuelling and to take on passengers, as has been suggested.
According to William Edgar T Sloggett and Edmund Nichols, who were both farming at Martham during the war years and have since passed away, the aircraft always arrived at night and only to pick up agents who, after having completed their training elsewhere, had been transported to Heigham Holmes by car. According to some sources, the agents stayed in a hotel in Great Yarmouth, whereas others believe that they spent the night in the local pub at Martham. Edmund Nichols, who farmed some of the land on the island as a tenant, also recalled that the old barn was used as a briefing room and that its walls were painted in the RAF colour scheme. It is true that a barn at RAF Tempsford (Gibraltar Farm Barn) had indeed been used for briefing SOE agents, but this barn was never painted in the RAF colour scheme and neither was the barn on Heigham Holmes, as its whitewashed brick walls clearly attest. Furthermore, on Heigham Holmes the farmhouse was still standing and uninhabited, and, one would have thought, would have served such a purpose much better.
Martham resident Jeremy Moore, an internationally accomplished aviation engineer — who for many years was not only involved in the professional restoration of different types of WW1 and WW2 aircraft but also piloted many of these at air show displays — emphasises that Lysanders required a headwind for landing and that it was therefore essential that the landing ground could be approached from any direction so that the aircraft could always land against the wind. Jeremy has identified a large pasture immediately to the east of the farm buildings as fitting all requirements perfectly, but it is of course impossible to determine if Lysanders actually ever landed there.
William Buck, a local researcher of WW2 aircraft crash sites, who has been collecting information about Heigham Holmes for many years, also believes that a landing ground existed and that it was used for refuelling and picking up agents, but admits to not having found any evidence to date.
From April 1942 onwards the men from 138 and 161 Squadrons RAF who flew these secret operations were based at RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire. The airfield was designed by illusionist Jasper Maskelyne to look like an ordinary working farm, known as Gibraltar Farm. Before the move to Tempsford, RAF North Weald and RAF Stapleford Tawney (both in Essex), RAF Stradishall and RAF Newmarket (both in West Suffolk) and RAF Graveley (Cambridgeshire) are known to have served as SOE's operating bases. It has further been documented that RAF Kinloss (Moray) was used as an advance base for operations to Norway, and that in August 1944 RAF Winkleigh (near Exeter) served as a forward base for 161 Squadron. RAF Tangmere (West Sussex) served the same purpose for missions to occupied France and when detached to their advance base, the 161 Squadron's Lysander pilots stayed in a cottage (Tangmere Cottage) opposite the aerodrome's main gate for about a week before and a week after full moon (source: 'We Landed by Moonlight — Secret Landings in France 1940-1944', Hugh Verity). Considering that Heigham Holmes is about the same distance away from Tempsford as is Tangmere (roughly 145 kilometres/90 miles), albeit in the opposite direction, it is believed by some that the site was used for SOE operations to Holland. The published operations record books (ORBs) of the squadrons involved however do not support this theory.
The SOE's Dutch section's covert activities included the ill-fated 'Operation North Pole' also referred to as 'Englandspiel' (England Game), which is covered in some detail in Leo Marks' (the SOE's codes and ciphers chief during the war) 'Between Silk and Cyanide — the Story of the SOE's Code War' and in 'London ruft Nordpol' by the head of the German Abwehr Section IIIF (Holland), Major Hermann Joseph Giskes. Of the 56 agents sent to Holland, 43 were captured by the German Abwehr on arrival and 36 executed in September 1944 at Mauthausen concentration camp. Eleven RAF aircraft were also shot down in the process. Many of the SOE's files were, perhaps conveniently, lost in a fire shortly after the war and other documents have since also been lost or were perhaps deliberately destroyed, presumably to hide the abject failure of these missions and the unnecessary loss of many agents' lives. The relevant Dutch files are closed until 2042.
Whilst the SOE files remain inaccessible and may never see the light of day, the relevant RAF files concerning the operations carried out by 138 and 161 Squadrons RAF (Special Duties) in coordination with the SOE and other intelligence services are publicly available (since 1998) and complete, and not one of the handwritten entries bears the mark of censorship. The ORBs are held at the National Archives at Kew (AIR 27/1068) and reveal that the aircraft used on missions to Holland were Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys (twin-engine medium bombers) and (after the conversion in December 1942) Handley Page Halifaxes (four-engined heavy bombers), neither of which would have been capable of landing on Heigham Holmes. The ORBs of 138 Squadron (AIR 27/956 and AIR 27/957) furthermore document that the great majority of the Dutch operations, including the dropping of agents by parachute, were flown by this squadron. Not one of the Dutch agents was transported in a Lysander. With few exceptions (for instance, a Liberator required for bombing a specified location in Poland flew out of RAF Foulsham in Norfolk), the ORBs of both squadrons also record that operations were flown from RAF Newmarket and RAF Stradishall, and after the move to RAF Tempsford from there and, occasionally, from RAF Tangmere, and that the great majority again landed "at base". On their return from missions to France, a number of aircraft however did land at Tangmere, and 161 Squadron's Lysander Flight, which flew many missions to France, was at times detached to Tangmere. (Between August 1941, when No 138 Squadron began Lysander operations, and the end of 1944 when the fighting had moved out of France, the Lysanders are documented to have made at least 400 sorties, and No 161 Squadron's Lysander Flight (A Flight) reportedly took 293 people into France and retrieved about 500.) Although the name of every advance base and indeed of every aerodrome a 138 or 161 Squadron aircraft ever landed at is recorded, the ORBs do not contain a single reference to Heigham Holmes, in other words, the records irrefutably disprove the theory of the site having been used by the SOE.
From Tempsford or Tangmere, the Special Duties squadrons also flew "Sussex" inter-allied intelligence missions as well as operations for a number of other organisations, including ISDL (Interservice Liaison Department), 'Alliance' (a French intelligence organisation), Le ST Air (the French Airforce Intelligence Service), MI9 (British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, a department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945, which during WWW2 was tasked with facilitating escapes of British prisoners of war and organising the return of evaders, ie those who succeeded in evading capture in enemy occupied territory) and SIS (the Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI6, which collects Britain's foreign intelligence), whose operations were frequently named after plants. Hugh Verity recalls that the SIS's Air Transport Forms (ATFs) were always typed in mauve, whereas the ATFs issued by the SOE were typed in black ink. As SIS operations were classified "officially inadmissible" they are not always recorded in the squadrons' ORBs.
John Andrew "Tommy" Thomas, who served most of his operational tour as a rear gunner in one of 161 Squadron's Halifax bomber aircraft and was later transferred to B-Flight of 161 Squadron, where he became a winch operator in MPU (mail pick up) operations, has stated with some conviction that Heigham Holmes was never used as a forward landing base, but suggested instead that it may have been used for the training of Joes (SOE term for agents).
Prospective agents were schooled in Special Training Schools (STSs, about 50 of these establishments are believed to have existed in Britain) and their training was carried out in four stages. The Preliminary schools' syllabus included physical training, weapons handling, unarmed combat, elementary demolitions, map reading, field craft and basic signalling (use of radio communications). In June 1943, a more streamlined method for the initial selection of students was introduced and a Student's Assessment Board was established at Winterfold House (STS7, formerly STS4) in Cranleigh, Surrey. Parachute training was conducted by STS 51 and 51a near Altrincham in Cheshire with the assistance of No. 1 Parachute Training School at RAF Ringway near Manchester. The third phase of training was provided by Paramilitary schools based at ten shooting lodges in the Arisaig and Morar areas of Invernesshire. Hugh Verity describes the practical training which took place at Somersham, a grass airfield near Tempsford: "During the first half of December (1942) training at Somersham continued by day and night. The flight was running a short course for 'Joes', as we called the agents. They lived in one of the country houses nearby (Bignor Manor near Petworth, then owned by Tony and Barbara Bertram) which had been taken over by their organisations. They were driven to Tempsford for classes or to Somersham for practical work (ie how to choose suitable fields for landing, how to lay landing lights, how to conduct a pick-up landing and how to access and exit a Lysander in the shortest possible time). Each of us was responsible for the training of one particular agent." The last phase of training took place at one of the Finishing schools located on the Beaulieu estate in Hampshire (Beaulieu formed part of the group B agent training schools of which eventually there were eleven). All the SOE's stations and training establishments, including their locations and code numbers, have been identified and documented. There is no record of a training school in Norfolk, and there is no mention of Heigham Holmes.
On the occasion of a visit to Heigham Holmes on the one day in the year when the National Trust allows public access onto the island, no physical evidence could be found of a landing ground or of the military use of any of the buildings, and certainly not one of them is large enough to house a Lysander. Any traces of rudimentary grass landing strips would of course have completely disappeared a long time ago.
Some inexplicable and hence irregularities can however be seen in the already mentioned aerial view taken by the RAF in 1944. The black and white photograph shows an area of interconnecting tracks or paths, some skirting stock fences, of what would seem to be compacted earth and roughly forming the shape of an X, with the cross sections measuring approximately 250 yards (230 metres) and 185 yards (170 metres) in length respectively, a short distance to the south-east of the then much smaller barn complex. There are no visual clues as to which purpose these tracks might have served other than being pathways that for some unfathomable reason criss-crossed a pasture. Views taken at different times might well provide a simple explanation but unfortunately none are available.
The NHER's Sarah Massey's interpretation is that "The disturbance, clearance and digging obviously undertaken on the farm looks very recent and may well relate to the clearance of any remaining military features" — it is true that many SOE sites were hastily abandoned or demolished after disbandment in the winter of 1945 but how the above mentioned conclusion could be reached from looking at an RAF aerial view taken a year before the event remains a mystery. Furthermore, Sarah concludes that "The Nissen huts formerly recorded as being to the east of the runway must have already been removed by September 1945", apparently blind to the two structures clearly visible in said picture and once again failing to note the date (September 1944) on the photograph she is commenting on (Norfolk Heritage Explorer, March 2005). In an aerial view taken by the USAAF in April of the same year (reference US 7PH GP LOC298 V 5019) the view is unfortunately obscured by a layer of clouds. Whether the structures, if indeed they were buildings and not haystacks (a number of haystacks can be seen in the immediate vicinity in an aerial view taken by Flight AFL3469 in the spring of 1938), served a military purpose, as has been suggested, can in any case not be determined from aerial views alone.
An area of short grass, measuring about 285 yards (260 metres) in length and 8.75 yards (8 metres) in width adjoins the X-shaped dirt track immediately to the north. This strip is orientated north-south and would appear to have been surrounded by long grass. It does look like a grass runway and is easily of sufficient length for landing a Lysander. A triangular-shaped area devoid of any vegetation can be discerned at its south-eastern corner. Could this have been a landing strip, with a hardstanding at one end used for parking a Lysander? More likely, the strip was created by the farmer cutting grass for making hay and indeed hay ricks or stooks can clearly be seen in a neighbouring pasture, and the fact that Lysanders needed to land into the prevailing wind of course excludes the use of a fixed landing strip.
RAF Tempsford was deliberately designed to resemble a working farm. Heigham Holmes in effect was a working farm. The parallels are certainly intriguing and rumours and speculation are a good starting point for further investigations, but they remain just that until proof is found. Concerning Heigham Holmes proof has been found, and facts have finally caught up with fiction: the 138 and 161 Special Duties squadrons' ORBs attest that SOE Lysanders never landed here to fly agents to the Low Countries or to anywhere else.