On 14 April 1903, the Tuesday following Easter Monday, Francis Richard Samuel Bircham was married to Agnes St Clair Bruce in St Mary’s church in Reepham.
The town was decorated with flags and garlands, arches were erected in the Market Place and at the entrance to the church, and the path leading to the porch was covered with a red carpet strewn with primroses.
Pictured in the Reepham Life 2024 Calendar for April (above), the arch showing “Long Life and Happiness” had “Good Luck to Them” on its other side.
The occasion was reported in the Norfolk newspapers at length, commenting that it was a full 50 years since such a fashionable event had occurred in the town, and emphasising that the wedding dress had been made by Mesdames Lacey of Bond Street.
From the newspaper reports we learn that “the bells pealed out a merry chime, and the usual quietude of the town was disturbed by the booming of guns”, and the guests were treated to a “recherche breakfast” served in a large marquee attached to the Old Brewery House. In the evening a ball was given for about 200 local tradesmen and servants in Hackford old schoolroom.
Above: A second photograph of the Market Place later in the afternoon. Photo: courtesy Gary Meek
Francis, the groom, was the son of Samuel Bircham (1838−1923). He gave his residence as Beech Hill, Woking. This was his father’s property that Samuel had purchased in 1892, while still owning and living at the Moor House in Reepham.
The bride, Agnes, was already known as Nan and had been living in the Old Brewery House with her older sister Margaret since 1901. They had left the Isle of Man with their mother Jemima and the youngest daughter Dorothy after the death of their father Alexander.
Agnes’ mother Jemima Bruce became a tenant of Hackford House and was still living there in 1915 occupying eight rooms. She later moved into Norwich with her daughters Margaret and Dorothy.
Margaret (known as Daisy) is recorded as working at Reepham’s Red Cross hospital from 1914−1916, and younger sister Dorothy was a volunteer nurse during the same period.
Agnes is also recorded as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse during the First World War, resident at the Old Brewery House. She continued to live there with her three children, Richard Merrick Samuel, Michael Guy and Ann, after her divorce from Francis in 1919. She died in 1969 at the age of 90. Her daughter Ann continued to live at the Old Brewery House, later moving to Swannington and lastly to a care home. Ann Bircham was buried in Salle churchyard in 2006.
Janet Archer
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.