By Janet Archer

When the Kendrews purchased The Ollands house and gardens in 1883 it had been a Bircham family residence for more than 50 years – the last Birchams living there were William Bircham (1800–1886) and his wife Marianne Dalrymple.

William had inherited the house from his uncle, also called William (1769–1853), who had married twice but had no children. This earlier William was the Bircham responsible for building The Ollands in the 1830s.

The Reepham Life 2022 Calendar picture for February (above) featured The Ollands, Reepham, taken by Edward Makinson Haigh in the 1860s, when the house was still owned and lived in by the Bircham family.

John Anthony Kendrew was a civil engineer who was born in Salford, Lancashire, in the 1830s. His proposal entry in the membership list of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1870 gives evidence of him having worked in railway construction abroad, such as Canada, Brazil and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

By1884 the Kendrews were already taking part in the social life of Reepham. John Kendrew later served as a local magistrate and as a member of various committees, including the Aylsham Board of Guardians.

He was chairman of the school board when land was being purchased for building the new primary school on Whitwell Road (part of this road was called Sun Barn Road at that time).

In the 1860s William Bircham had won prizes at horticultural shows for fruit and vegetables, notably grapes grown in the vinery that was 70 feet long.

John Kendrew also won prizes throughout the late 1880s and 1890s, notably for “Black Hamburg” grapes, tomatoes and chrysanthemums, as well as apples, soft fruit and potted plants such as primulas and cyclamen.

The Kendrews’ daughter Mary was married in St Michael’s in 1906 and a full report of the occasion was given in the Norfolk News. Traders from the town were invited to The Ollands to greet the bride before the wedding.

After the wedding 300 schoolchildren and their teachers were treated to a tea, and on the Sunday it was the turn of the “widows and old people of Hackford”, all being given a piece of wedding cake.

John Kendrew died in 1914. His wife Mary moved to Surrey and died in Reigate in 1920.

Above: John Anthony Kendrew and his daughter Mary.

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. For more information about opening times and current services, please email.