WOOD (now OCKERIDGE) FARM, Holt

Wood Farm was created as a result of the 1810 Holt Enclosure Act, when Morgan’s Tenement increased in size from 9 acres to 53 acres to become Wood Farm.

William Ford held Morgan Tenement from at least 1793. He had six children baptised in Holt church between 1813 and 1826. By 1839 Ford had acquired Huck’s Hill adjacent to Rowe Farm. In 1847 Ockeridge Farm, as it was by then being occasionally called, ran to nearly 58 acres for which Ford paid 69 10/- rent.

In his will of 1842 Ford left £100 her own furniture (!) to his wife Maria. He left the rest of his estate, which was valued at less than £300 in total, to his grown children, William, Samuel and Maria. When Ford died on 30 November 1848 Thomas Tombs of Hollingshead Farm acted as an executor of the will.

Lord Foley held the farm ‘in-hand’ for two years; it then appears that James Winnall of Ockeridge Waste moved in to the farm, giving up his portion of Rowley Farm at the same time. In 1861 however Winnall was living in Rowley Farm house and working as a labourer. No tenant of Ockeridge Farm is identified in the census of 1871.

James Moss, the innkeeper at the Holt Fleet Inn, held at least a portion of the farm in 1873, as did possibly George Brooks. James Bullock was at the farm in 1879. He had 67 acres and employed one man. In April 1891 two of his granddaughters, Lizzie and Alice Bishop daughters of William Bishop of Well Farm, where staying with him whilst his wife was away from home. James died at Wood Farm in March 1892. His widow Elizabeth Priscilla, died seven months later. Following Bullock, Frank Betteridge had the farm until at least 1916. By the time of the 1920 sale Frederick George Bishop was farming 62 acres in addition to Well Farm.

Wood Farm remained unsold at the 1920 sale. Betteridge was again at the farm in 1924 and apparently purchased it in the sale of 1925. In 1928 the Rice family with whom it remained until 1992 acquired the farm. In 1992 the farm was split up. It was auctioned in six lots, three of which were single field pony paddocks. The house was later demolished and a new one constructed on the same site.