left £400 invested in annuities for the relief of the parish poor, the interest to purchase bread or coal to be distributed on the first Monday of February each year. A handsome plate recording this charity can be seen on the vestry door of the church. Further relief for the needy came from the interest from £45 Consuls left by Miss Bateman in 1828. Alongside these the Meek Charity dating from 1598, was distributed. By 1840 the parish poor house, the Town House, was ninety years old and in a sad state of repair. The newly appointed rector, Henry Preston, did not hesitate to call it the 'Pest House' and donated materials for immediate repairs. At the same time he forbade the practice of forcing the old and infirm residents to work on the nearby allotments. In 1836 Pulham Workhouse, still clearly visible as Hillcrest Court on the A140, began to take over responsibility for the destitute of the area and the Town House was eventually converted into two cottages for the parish roadmen, being conveniently close to the parish gravel and marl pits in Marl Bottom. The Old Rectory standing to the west of the church was built by the Rev Henry Preston in 1840 to replace the ruinous rectory he had inherited at what is today Glebe Cottage on Low Road. His capacious and elegant Victorian building has in turn been succeeded by a new rectory built close by in 1983. The indefatigable Henry Preston brought education for all to Tasburgh when he founded a public elementary school on his rectory land alongside Church Hill (in those days, School Hill). The school was officially opened on 15 September 1844 with this prayer, 'Oh Lord my God, hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth unto Thee today, that Thine eyes may be open towards this house, night and day'. There were sixty-two children attending school that first year. Most came from Tasburgh, but some walked from Tharston and Flordon; the youngest were five years old. In 1854 the schoolmistress was Eliza Goddard. The single room of the school was enlarged in 1880 to accommodate no less than 100 pupils, and in 1899 a new classroom was added to hold thirty infants. A vast improvement in the transport of people, goods, livestock and mail came with the opening of the Eastern Union Railway through the