Nomansland Farm

The first Thrale to hold Nomansland is thought to be Ralph Thrale (1565-1648). From this Ralph, Nomansland was held by a Ralph Thrale for seven generations.

Thomas Thrale of Hammonds died in 1637, and the farm was taken over by his son Thomas. William Thrale was a Poor Law guardian and farmed Nomansland, and another Richard Thrale farmed Sandridgebury.

William and Ralph Norman Thrale brothers

Many Thrale family artefacts were inherited by the Mardall family of Wheathampstead through the marriage of the sister of the last two Thrale bachelor brothers who farmed at Nomansland up to their death in 1883.

Ms Ennis Thompson's childhood account at Nomansland Farm

Ms Ennis Thompson, 13 April 2003.

I lived at Nomansland Farm as a child. And remember seeing the original deeds of the house, mentioning the Thrale family as owners or lessees (or is it lessors) I cannot remember which. These were written on parchment. There was a lot of other information regarding ages, births and deaths in these documents.

Apparently, for a while Nomansland Farm had been an Inn or Public House which was called The Sign of the White Horse.

I also remember that the farm was sold by the Thrale family to a family called Edwards, which was mentioned in later deeds. Certainly, when we moved in, there was an old lady, Mrs Edwards and about 25 cats in the farmhouse. That is assuming that the farm was sold and was not just taken on by the Edwards family? I cannot remember the wording on the deeds … that is one possibility. Although I doubt that the farm would have been able to have been sold on, by someone who had just leased it, unless the Edwards family had been in residence for enough years to have gained ownership rights?

In 1965 Nomansland Farm was sold to a sheep research facility of which my stepfather was a director or manager. Which is how we came to live in the house. I never saw any of the documents after we moved from Nomansland Farm.

I always wondered where these documents went. I assume that they would have been handed over to the solicitors dealing with the next sale - and they should have been handed over to the new owners. If not, they may have been passed on to my step-father's family - the Leiper family. Of whom I have no contact with. It may be worth researching this further. I am sure that they would pass on any information if they have it. I cannot believe that they would have just been lost. Someone knows something.

Nomansland Farm was sold to another local family, much was made of this in a newspaper article, which annoyed us slightly as we had been local people too! I seem to remember that my stepfather had an interest in Hill End Farm and that my uncle and ex-cavalry man owned a farm and riding school at the other end of Nomansland Common.

It was certainly a lovely place for a child to live. I believe a member of the Thrale family4 had strong hunting connections, and that the hounds were kept at Nomansland, the orchard was called Dog Kennel Orchard, which everyone locally knew about. I found many bones of large animals in the orchard, to say nothing of the odd gravestone! Probably animal gravestones … maybe!

I always thought that there was a hidden underground tunnel running through various parts of Nomansland Farm. In particular by the old windmill, behind the old stables. The ground sounded hollow when walked over. Judging by the sound, I would say it was a rather large tunnel. I was told that it was probably a highwayman's escape tunnel … they had been particularly active in that area. It still annoys me that we never looked into it further! Although Thrale.com says that they were probably refuse tips. All I can say is that they must have been big ones!

There was also a secret room which my stepbrother and I discovered behind the water tank in one of the attic rooms, although we were probably not the first to find it, it was strange.

The name Nomansland stems from the fact that it was land between two dioceses. I think that is the correct terminology. I cannot remember the definition of a diocese, but I think it consists of several parishes. Nomansland came between the two Diocese and was in neither. Hence the name - Nomansland - or something like that!

Ms Ennis Thompson, 4 May 2003.

I am glad that you found my ramblings interesting. Fortunately, I type very quickly. Unfortunately, I may repeat myself! I will look out some photos. I know I have a few somewhere! I lived at the farm from about 1965 until 1969 or 1970.

Have you been to Nomansland? We actually had a sneak visit a few months ago, when visiting family nearby. It looks much the same. It cannot really be seen by the road hence we just had to turn the car around in the yard.

Both exterior and interior were typical Queen Anne style, with window shutters, oak panelling, and interesting attics. Three storeys plus the cellar. The cellar, which could be reached from inside the house or outside was pretty large. I bet there was a secret passageway that had been bricked off. The entrance from inside the house was between the kitchen and the stairs and I think had the original oak panelled door, I remember it was quite narrow.

I'll have to find a moment to write out a quick floor plan for you, although it wouldn't be to scale, it is probably the best way to describe it, I think!

Downstairs: From right to left starting at the front door which incidentally was at the side of the house! Porch, with wisteria, dining room, sitting room, office room, stairs leading up to first landing entrance to cellar, kitchen and downstairs loo!

Landing 1 from right to left: bedroom 1 (my room), bathroom, stairs to attic, bedroom 2, bedroom 3, bedroom 4. There was one long and fairly large attic room which had two windows (with the water tank and secret room) and a smaller room, plus a large space containing further water tanks and spiders!

In fact spider-wise, I remember in the sitting room. It was wise to sit on a chair or the sofa, the floor could be dodgy! You could hear the spiders walking across the floorboards to the carpet, which was the sign to lift one's feet from the floor - to stop them from climbing up your leg! Said spider would invariably emerge from under the sofa and usually walk with a nonchalant swagger across the floor. I mean they were BIG, fortunately, none of us were scared of them. But they had a nasty habit of walking across the bedroom ceilings and dropping in our beds! This could be unnerving. For years I kept the habit of checking the bed for spiders before getting in! It was worse though when they dropped in when one was asleep, waking up with an accidentally squashed spider is not pleasant. We actually had a spider expert, come and identify them. Apparently, they were the common spider but due to centuries of undisturbed breeding and living in the cellars and attics they had become uncommonly HUGE!

There was a large building close to the house which looked extremely old, with lots of rafters and the same colour bricks as the house, I think it had remnants of stalls in it, but certainly lots of old farm machinery, various later buildings had been attached on to it at later dates. Opposite that building, were some old stables, probably the same age as the house. As the yard buildings went further from the house, the buildings decreased in age.

There was a very old summer house in the garden, which was on a turntable! I remember an old wall which surrounded the vegetable garden - the same colour bricks as the house - which looked fairly old.

The garden was fairly large, with an arbour which had an old red brick path leading up to it. A particularly large copper beech at the end of the garden, which my step-brothers climbed up and which seemed a long way to fall from. I declined! There was a very tall elm tree which I think got struck by lightning or succumbed to the wind and disease. Which narrowly missed the house when it fell, had it been any taller!

Apart from that there was mauve wisteria at the front door growing on the porch (they can live for years), laburnum trees, and two lilac trees by the summerhouse. Thinking about it they must have been planted when the summerhouse was put there. The summerhouse was blue and white as were the lilac trees. The garden had a hedge separating it from Dog Kennel Orchard.

I'm not sure what was farmed before, I think sheep figured fairly prominently. But I don't really know.

Re the Leiper family, I, unfortunately, lost track of my step-brothers when my mother and their father divorced. Which is a bit sad. The family had roots in Scotland.

Have you tried contacting the present owners of Nomansland? Good luck in your quest. When I have more time, I will send some photos.