Public Houses and licensed premises 

The oldest, and now only, pub in the village is The Countryman, originally The Bird in Hand, on the main road. The other fully licensed public house, able to sell beers, wines and spirits, was The Horse Shoes on Low Road, which closed in 1966, and is now a private residence, known as The Old Horse Shoes.

In the early 1900s there were also two beer houses licensed to sell just beer and cider. The Cherry Tree stood on Church Road but closed in 1907, when the Justices refused to renew its licence, and is now a private residence, called Birch Grove, while The White Horse on Saxlingham Lane burned down in the mid 1920s, and was a wooden building adjoining what is now White Horse Cottage.

It is also known that, at various times in the 19th century, there had been at least one, and possibly two other licenced premises, because White's 1845 Norfolk Directory refers to James Cannell as a beer seller, and the 1841 census has him living in part of the Thatched Cottage on Low Road. The fact that he was described in the census as a farrier and in Kelly's 1846 Directory and the 1851 census as a veterinary surgeon doesn't create a conflict as, for most beer sellers at the time, selling beer would have been a secondary occupation. Indeed it might have been his wife who did the actual brewing. There is also a reference in White's 1854 and 1856 Directories to Richard Curtis being a beer seller in Tasburgh. As there is no record of him in either the 1851 or 1861 census, it isn't possible to say where he might have operated from. It could have been The White Horse, or it could have been elsewhere. He is, however, referred to in Kelly's 1863 Directory as a thatcher, and in the 1871 census, as living in the Bird in Hand yard, but he can hardly have been selling beer right next to the pub.

Since 1994 the Social Club has held a licence for premises in the Village Hall, moving into its current extension in 2002.

The Bird in Hand / The Countryman

The name, Bird in Hand, is a reference to the medieval practice or sport of falconry. It is impossible to know whether there has been a hostelry on this site since medieval times but there has been one since the 1500s and being sited at the top of the hill above the "deep wade" would have been well placed to serve travellers. Nevertheless an inventory from 1748 hardly gives a picture of prosperity. The parlour contained a fireplace, five chairs, three stools and a table. In the kitchen there was another fireplace, nine chairs, a table and a dresser with eighteen pewter plates and five dishes. There was also a separate drinking room without a fire and just a table and eight chairs. In the stables were an apple trough, mill and cider press so there must have been an orchard close by.

By the beginning of the 1800s, improvements to the roads, brought about by turnpikes, led to increased passing trade, with daily mail and other coaches travelling from Norwich down to London, as well as more local traffic. Business became sufficiently profitable for The Bird in Hand, by then known by that name, to be bought by Weston's Brewery based in St George's, Norwich. In 1822, one of their tenants, James Reeve, was jailed for a year for encouraging rioters who destroyed a machine at Woodton - farmworker protests over the introduction of advances such as the new seed drills were widespread in Norfolk around that time.

In 1840 the Tithe Apportionment recorded William Moore as Weston's tenant but, in 1866, Charles Weston died, and the brewery together with 40 pubs, including The Bird in Hand, were sold by auction as a single lot to Norwich brewers Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs. By then, the opening of the railway in 1849 had removed much of the passing trade, as evidenced by the demand for hay, to feed customers' horses, which dropped from 50 tons a year down to just 17 tons.

In 1869 the tenant, Raynor Knights, was fined £2 with 12 shillings costs (about £235 in total by 2019 values) for permitting drunkenness in the house and, the following year his wife Charlotte charged a local farmer, Thomas Garrod, with an assault but the case was dismissed, and she had to pay the costs. All in all, it sounds as if The Bird in Hand didn't have the best of reputations at that time.

Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs remained the owners for 90 years. They were known not just for the quality of their beers but also the quality of their pub signs, a good example of which can be seen in the picture of the pub from the Norfolk Pubs website taken in 1955, when Frederick Rayner took on the tenancy.

The following year Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs were bought by Bullard and Sons Ltd and The Bird in Hand became a Bullards' pub but they in turn were taken over by Watney Mann in 1963. By 1970 Watneys had also acquired the other big Norwich brewer, Steward and Patteson, and set about rationalising its holdings with The Bird in Hand closing in 1971. It was auctioned off three years later.

Fortunately that was not the end of the story as following refurbishment the property re-opened as a free house under the name of The Countryman.

The Horse Shoes

Under the 1818 Enclosure Award Charles Dye was granted a piece of vacant Common Land between Low Road and the river, stretching from Jasmine Cottage to Grange Meadow, in the middle of which he built a house on top of the hill, with his son Samuel Meadows Dye operating as a wheelwright next door. Exactly when the house was built isn't known, but the Tithe Apportionment Award records that by 1840 Samuel Dye, having inherited it from his father, had let the property to James Avis, but whether as a house or a pub is unknown, although the 1841 Census refers to Mr Avis as an agricultural labourer. However by 1845 White's Norfolk Directory records Samuel Dye as being both a wheelwright and a victualler i.e. a publican, and his premises as The Horse Shoes, so we know the property was being used as a pub from then onwards.

Samuel Dye's wife, Mary, was said to have been "an ardent Baptist lady", which is perhaps why he gave up the running of The Horse Shoes, whilst continuing with his wheelwright's business next door, and leased the pub to Cann & Co. who had a brewery business in Wymondham. Their tenant from 1850 to 1865 was Samuel Baxter, who as well as being a publican also ran a butchery business from the property. When Samuel Dye died in 1866 the property was put up for sale by auction and was described as " All that building of brick and tile comprising 5 sleeping rooms, 5 rooms on the ground floor and excellent cellar, slaughterhouse, stable, gig house, and other convenient buildings with about two acres of orchard and arable land in the occupation of Cann & Co. or their under-tenant in which an excellent trade in beer and spirits has been carried on for many years." The property was sold to Mr Alexander Francis Campbell who was a major landowner/investor in the parish but lived in Great Plumstead.

From 1866 until The Horse Shoes closed in 1966 there were only 5 recorded publicans, Ephraim Littlewood until 1872, William Dann to 1904, Charles and Clara Baker until 1934, Charles Hales to 1940 and finally Sydney and Elsie Byford, showing an unusual degree of stability at the heart of the village. During the Second World War the brewing of beer was rationed and the pub was only open Friday night, Saturday and also Sunday night (unless the week's beer had all been drunk by then). That often happened as soldiers were stationed at Tasburgh Hall in the early years of the war and later, after American airmen arrived at Hethel airfield in 1943, a week's beer could disappear in an evening, although the Byfords would try to keep a barrel back for village regulars. They would have to go round to the back door for a secret pint in the cellar. One regular, Mr Crowe from Village Farm on Low Road, was known for being able to down a pint quicker than most and would often earn a shilling or two from any unwary American who challenged him to a speed-drinking contest.

Cann & Co. had been taken over by Norwich brewers Morgans in 1894 but whether they took over the beer supply to The Horse Shoes isn't clear. What is known is that the owner of the pub, Mr Campbell, died in 1882 and at some point, possibly then, The Horse Shoes was acquired by the largest of the Norwich breweries, Steward and Patteson. At a meeting in 1962 between Bullards and Steward and Patteson to discuss the future of their pubs following their joint purchase of Morgans' brewery company, it was agreed that The Bird in Hand owned by Bullards should be kept open, but The Horse Shoes should be allowed to close, as its beer sales had fallen to 41 barrels a year. By 1966, when The Horse Shoes finally closed, only 8 barrels were consumed that year. Mr and Mrs Byford were allowed to remain in the property, Mr Byford dying in 1970 and Mrs Byford in 1974. By then Steward and Patteson had been taken over by Watney Mann who sold the property as a private residence although externally the property has hardly changed since the photo was taken in 1897. The bar was to the right of the front door and included the single story extension with its own door. The room to the left of the front door was referred to as The Smoke, presumably the preserve of pipe smokers as most people in the pub would have smoked cigarettes during the War.

The Cherry Tree

Under the 1830 Beer Houses Act any rate-paying householder could apply for a licence to sell beer and cider in his house on payment of a one-off fee of two guineas (roughly £190 in 2019 values). Such beer or cider was often home brewed or made and as its style and quality was so clearly linked to the licence holder, beer houses to start with tended not to have a name like a pub but were known simply as, for example, Smith's Beer House with an entry in early trade directories as, John Smith beer retailer. It was not until a change in the licensing laws in 1869 that beer houses began to acquire permanent names and in some cases became linked to specific breweries.

The first named reference to The Cherry Tree seems to have been in about 1880 when Abel Couzens is recorded, in the 1881 census, as being a beer retailer at The Cherry Tree, but that wasn't his only occupation as Mr Couzens was also described at the time as a market gardener. However, it is believed that previous occupiers of the premises may have been licensed to sell beer and cider since at least 1854. White's 1854 Norfolk Directory records Benjamin Garrard as a beer seller and the 1851 census says he was a grocer and shoemaker in Upper Tasburgh, whilst ten years' later the Directory refers to William Briggs as a beer seller, and the 1861 census records him as a drillman living in Upper Street, now Church Road. Kelly's 1875 Norfolk Directory then records Mary Ann Tubby as a beer retailer and she had lived in Upper Tasburgh since at least 1871, when the census records her as a shopkeeper. Her late husband was recorded in the 1861 census as a beer house keeper at Shelton, but he seems to have moved to Tasburgh before he died. as Kelly's 1864 Directory records a Charles Tubby as being a shopkeeper in Tasburgh, so he might well have sold beer as well.

Abel Couzens continued running The Cherry Tree until it closed in 1907. When his licence had come up for renewal, the magistrates in Long Stratton heard an objection based not on any complaint about the conduct of the business, which was selling over 400 gallons of cider a year, but on the population of Tasburgh no longer justifying four licensed premises, an argument no doubt put forward on behalf of The Bird in Hand! Census returns showed that the total number of residents including children had declined from 423 in 1881 to 368 in 1901. The magistrates referred the final decision to the Quarter Sessions and, at the Annual Licensing hearing in February 1907, renewal was refused, and the licence expired at the end of that month. Mr Abel Couzens remained in the house running his market garden, but that was the end of any sale of beer or cider.

The property is now a private house - Awaiting image.

The White Horse

Hunt's 1850 East Norfolk Directory mentions that John Jefferies was a beer retailer and blacksmith in Tasburgh and, as the 1851 census records the Jefferies family as blacksmiths living in what became known as the White Horse, it seems safe to assume that this was the first mention of the property being used for the sale of beer. However, by the time of the 1851 census, John had moved to Dickleburgh, leaving his younger brother and family still living in the property. It is possible that the Jefferies family were followed by the beer seller Richard Curtis, but the earliest reference to The White Horse as such was in the 1861 census, when Robert Cowell was in occupation. As with the Cherry Tree, it was quite common for beer sellers to have a second, or even primary, other occupation, so we see Robert Cowell described as a cordwainer or shoemaker, his successor Henry Rix was also a carpenter, while his son Robert, who succeeded him, was a farmer and builder. John Want at The White Horse in 1891 was a carpenter followed by Francis James who, in 1901 and 1911, was also described as a carpenter.

Early in that century there seems to have been a tie up with Bullards, forming a triumvirate of big breweries with Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs at The Bird in Hand and Steward and Patteson at The Horse Shoes, since the Norfolk Pubs website records that Bullards decided not to renew their lease of the premises when it expired in October 1914. By then, of course, WW1 had started and the brewing of beer as well as opening hours were being restricted under the Defence of the Realm Act passed that year.

The last licensee was Arthur Hurry. Kelly's Directory records him as being at The White Horse in 1916, and he was still referred to in their 1925/6 edition, but by 1929 there was no further mention of The White Horse. In William Moore's memories of life in Tasburgh from when he arrived in 1937, he records that The White Horse had been a wooden building, which had been burned out and never restored, so that must have been sometime between 1925 and 1929. He suggests that Mr Hurry, who was also a builder and chimney sweep, had fallen asleep after consuming too much of his own cider, and it was his pipe that had set fire to the property. Whatever the reason for the fire, that was the end of The White Horse but it gave its name to the adjoining White Horse Cottage, and to White Horse Farmhouse opposite.

This building is now a private house.