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The earliest record of Strattons is on the 1797 Faden’s map. It clearly shows a T shape and a driveway straight up to the front door. This supports the conclusions which can be drawn from the evidence of the existing building. The house appears to have begun life as an adaptation of a building on a north south alignment, (possibly a malting barn) used as the central Portico, with two wings added to create a vernacular ‘Palladian Villa’. The added wings are built of a similar size brick to the existing centre but are not bonded to it. There is also evidence behind the internal plaster of brick arches at levels not consistent with the current floor levels. The Venetian windows were originally of stone (only the stone cills with marks of stone mullions remain) and have been replaced with wooden ones of late c18 date. There is evidence inside that the principal rooms may have been wood panelled (two patterns of cornicing were found reused as packing in old roof repairs). During re-pointing work on the brickwork, there were found to be over painting marks, consistent with there having been at some point a canopy over the main door and windows. The dormer window on the right hand side has a beautifully inscribed name and date of ‘Z. Bryant July 26th 1792’ in original lead, probably indicating the date when major work of refurbishment was carried out on the original Queen Anne house. There is a late Victorian (after 1882) extension on three floors which provided a master bedroom, bathroom and drawing room or music room. The semi basement part of the main house was also either refurbished or created at the same time.
If Strattons was indeed a Villa, it may have been privately owned by someone in Norwich or the surrounding countryside who would have used it as a base when enjoying Swaffham’s social activities. It may equally have been a commercial enterprise, comprising of the Villa set in pleasure gardens also containing a bowling green, a cockpit and billiard rooms.
The first noted owner of the Villa was the Rev William Yonge who moved here from Barnstaple, Devon in 1779. He had a large family of eight daughters and one son. Rev Yonge died in 1845 at the old age of 92. His sister in law married Admiral Lord Nelson’s brother who was rector of Hillborough to the south of Swaffham. Upon Nelson’s death, his title passed to his brother who enjoyed the limelight and the association with Lady Hamilton.
The newspapers noted that “in 1806 The Earl and Countess Nelson with their daughter, Lady Charlotte Bolton visited D Fisher’s Theatre in Swaffham (the site opposite Netto’s Supermarket). Miss Horatia Nelson Thompson and Lady Hamilton stayed at the Villa and the Earl bespoke the play ‘She Stoops to Conquer’. The day previous Lady Hamilton entertained at the Crown inn, some of the most considerable families of the town”.
It is very likely that Rev Yonge was responsible for upgrading and enlarging the original building, including the conversion of the roof into habitable rooms and extending the rear.
There is a reference in 1836 to the house being as an academy run by Matilda Cooper.
In 1845, the map shows the house owned by Charlotte Dowell (daughter of Rev Yonge) but let to George Betts, a grocer.
Strattons then appears to have been used like a dower house for the next sixty or seventy years with several of the Yonge children spending their remaining years here. The 1881 census lists Louisa Yonge aged 84 with the remaining inhabitants as nurses or servants.
In 1883 Emily Augusta Reynolds Dolignon, one of Rev Yonge’s grand daughters inherited the house and is most likely responsible for building the Victorian extension which provided modern amenities for her and a refurbishment of the older part for servants.
The First World War changed the servant master relationship in large houses forever. And the Villa, no exception, was sold to Surridges, the cricket bat manufactures. They used the land at the back for a sawmill and to stack roughly cut bats prior to shipment down to Witham for finishing. ’Razor’ Smith the famous slow bowler from the early 1900’s lived at Strattons and worked as a salesman for Surridges.
His daughter Gertrude would have been in her twenties and would have met and married Herbert Stratton whose family had farmed in Swaffham for centuries.
In 1922 Surridges moved their operation down to Essex and the Villa was purchased by Henry Lee Warner a London Barrister and member of an old Norfolk family. He moved from the Paddocks (now a Nursing home on the Cley road), probably as a retirement downsize. Henry famously defended some of Swaffham’s citizens, free of charge when they were prosecuted for trespassing after a local farmer attempted to close off the right of way down Silver Drift on Westacre road.
Henry’s widow died in 1938 and James Warnes, a local farmer purchased the house for the grand sum of £675. It may not have been the investment James was looking for because with Hitler menacing Europe, not many people were willing to give him a profit. Gertrude Stratton, not one to worry about Hitler, used her late father’s inheritance and a deal was struck for £650. Mrs Stratton changed the name from the Villa to the Farmhouse because she thought it sounded too grand. Her husband Bertie earned a living as a gentleman farmer and she ran the house rather like a guest house, taking in officers during and after the war. Children from Hammonds Grammar School were also boarded. Many people have memories of taking holidays at the farmhouse and being taken out by Bertie on his horse and trap down to his farm. Later as Gertrude got older and Bertie died, the house was turned into flats and bed sits. Mrs Stratton died in 1985 and having no children, the estate was sold and shared out to distant family, some of whom were Morses, the old brewing family of Swaffham.
The farmhouse became Strattons in 1990 when Les and Vanessa Scott bought it and turned it into a Hotel.
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