the other end of the scale six men shared ten acres. The population can be estimated at around 125 persons, less than a third of the predominantly agricultural population of Victorian times. On the lands of Roger Bigot there were new masters on the spot in the form of Berard and Azelin, men with likely names for Norman army veterans. The archaeological evidence from the vicinity of the church shows that from around AD 1100 activity there declined until a hundred years later the church stood completely isolated. The village had transferred piecemeal to the valley below, its flimsy dwellings scattered around the edges of small greens. Tasburgh in the 19th century Before 1800 most of the houses in the village were timber framed, but a growing shortage of wood, starting in the previous century, had led to the larger houses being built in brick with tiled, rather than thatched, roofs. Examples are Tasburgh House, Watermill House and Tasburgh Hall (then called Tasburgh Lodge). From the early 19th century smaller houses followed suit and early brick buildings can be seen on Low Road between and including the Old Horseshoes public house and Forge Cottage, all built between 1818 and 1840. Other houses and farm buildings of these times were of clay lump construction, surviving specimens include Rookery Cottage and White Horse Farm in Lower Tasburgh. In the previous century the churchwardens had been able to balance their books on the income from fields given charitably, the Town Lands, but inflation during the Napoleonic Wars caused such an increase in costs that a compulsory Church Rate was necessary in order to raise money for major repairs to the church. Mail coaches, carriers carts and freight wagons passing along Ipswich Road, then a well maintained turnpike, brought trade to Upper Tasburgh. Here stood a large inn, the Bird-in-Hand (now the Countryman) and close by was a smithy. In 1817 a shop stood near the site of the present Norwich bus stop, with numerous outhouses and a large orchard, today the site of Orchard Way. The shop survived until about 1940. In Church Road stood the Cherry Tree public house (now Cherry Tree House) at that time reputed to be a den of poachers. Poverty continued to be a problem for many of the villagers, particularly during the agricultural depressions at the beginning and latter part of the century. In 1816 Thomas Clabburn