Beelsby House c1910.

An original photograph with a postcard back. The photographer/publisher is unknown. The handwritten annotation on the back states, “Big House. Beelsby. 21st 6/24”.

A fine, mid-Georgian house with a Roman Doric porch and one semicircular, rusticated window.

The gentleman in the photograph is most probably John Philip Sowerby (1883-1976) who lived in the house from his birth until 1931. It could be also be his father, John Ernest Sowerby (1853-1939) who was living there in 1861 (Mr H. J. Adeane’s farm), 1871 (Mr H. J. Adeane’s farm), 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911. He purchased the farm from the executors of H. J. Adeane in 1871. John Ernest Sowerby moved to Cuxwold Hall before 1921.

Notes: John Philip Sowerby died in Yeovil, Somerset in 1976.

Major General James Whorwood Adeane bought the Beelsby Estate in 1787. The family farmed their estate until 1820 when Beelsby House Farm was leased to Francis Sowerby (?-1839). John Sowerby, Junior, (c1798-1876) bought the farm in 1871. (Mr Coates bought Beelsby Hall Farm at the same time.) Source: ‘A History of Beelsby’ by A. C. Sinclair.

John Sowerby, Junior, was living in Beelsby House in 1841. So, the Sowerby family were living in the house for at least 90 years, possibly 111 years.

It is said that two children once died at Beelsby House in a drowning incident involving a water butt. This must have been Mary Winifred Sowerby, aged 12, and Kenneth Philip Sowerby, aged 10, who both died in the September quarter of 1930. This was the year before the family left the house. Sadly, another child had died in 1926 and another in 1924. Another sibling died in Canada in 1998, another in the USA in 1997 and another in Wells-next-the-Sea in 2008.