Barroway Drove History. – Vicky Howling

Barroway Drove is a small, elongated village just outside Downham Market, in Norfolk,and Vicky Howling has lived there for most of her life [apart from a few months spent in King’s Lynn] and her family have lived there since the early 1800’s.
Her G.G.G.Grandfather had a house built there for his retirement in 1886, so several generations of the family have been raised in the village.
Vicky spent a lot of her formative years in the company of her Grandmother, who had many tales and stories to tell her, but she died when Vicky was 17.
Although she enjoyed and remembers many of the tales, Vicky regrets not asking more questions at the time.
When she married in 1989, Vicky moved into her Grandmother’s house filled with lots of family memorabilia.
Some time in 2002 at a meeting in the village hall a Jubilee Committee was formed and Vicky was part of that committee.
The project was to organise a display of the history of Barroway Drove, and Vicky and a friend set about collecting as much information concerning the village as possible.
Her father had many old photos, as well as a vast store of memories to start them on their way.
There followed many trips to Norwich to look up details in the Norfolk Records as less information was available on the internet in those days.
The Display proved very popular at the Jubilee event, and other people added points of interest for Vicky to follow up.
Vicky has taken her village display to other venues, and her next project or aim is to write a booklet about her findings, possibly by 2014.
But researching village or family history is an on –going situation, and Vicky became so engrossed in the local history that she has continued expanding her research, and has traced events going back to the late 1500’s. These include:
The state of the surrounding land, mostly waterlogged during the winter months until some drainage work was carried out before 1600.[ So before the main drainage of the Fens carried out in 1650 ].
The various owners of the land including the Beaupre Estate and the Hare Estate. How the various lanes came to be named, Lords Drove and Lady Drove.
The Tong Drains and their uses. The lattice work barrows used to transport the peat away, and probably the source of the name ‘Barroway Drove’.
Not to mention the many and varied tales, both true and not necessarily entirely true, which abounded over the years.
One of these tales concerning a ‘murder’, may have further repercussions, as the newly elected Chairman of the Fenland Family History Society hastened home after the meeting to inform her unsuspecting husband that there was evidence of murder in his family.!! So watch this space, there may yet be a sequel to the Barroway Drove History.
[Judy Green]