Here is a portion of the Tithe map showing the centre of Scarning back in the late 1830's. The buildings marked in red are those from which tithes were due. The road layout has hardly changed in 170 years, The road going north is now known as Chapel Lane and that passing Clark Hall (now Oak Manor) is Shipdham Road.
The Oak Manor Care Home was established in 1990 and purchased by its current owners in 2006.
Brian Dye who used to work for J.J.Wright and Sons in Dereham has provided the following information about the picture below:
"This
is a picture of an annual implement sale for J.J.Wright and Sons of
East Dereham that took place in 1936 in a field about 50m from our
house. The farm, Manor Farm was owned by the Wright family and the
tractors, cars, lorries and implements here would have been from their
second hand stock or have been entered in the sale by selected
customers.
Our house is just out of the picture at the top/right, the road that
passes it is in the bottom right, in front of the cars which are parked
there by the people who have come to the sale. The table where payment
is to be made for anything purchased is under the trees in the
top/middle and an auction for a tractor is taking place just below it.
You can see the people clustered around the auctioneer. A number of
Fordson Model "F" tractors can be identified but there are also a lot
that cannot be. I have been told that an "Overtime" is in there
somewhere. Behind the tractors are a row or two of implements and some
cars and lorries which might have also been in the sale. There are two
elevators of a type used with threshing drums against the hedge.
Manor Farm house Now known as Oak Manor is now a care home and is
surrounded by small bungalows for the patients who live there. The barn
at the centre top of the picture is gone and houses cover that part of
the site. The hardcore for these properties came from our work on Black
Horse House and was dug from the car parking area which we made into
gardens. If you look at our house on Google Earth or see it "in the
flesh" it is hard to believe that it was once surrounded by asphalt.
When they put in the hardcore for this, a base of about 1m of flint
stones and gravel was used and I dug this all out with a Webb 360
digger loader and filled the base for the houses and built up roads and
gateways for a friend. Tilly trailer and Henrietta were kept hard at
work for many weeks!
Across the top of the picture is a road from left to right and another
branching at right angles. These are now bounded by more houses and the
field in the top right corner was given to the village by Mr Wright for
use as a football field and recreation field for the residents of the
village."
This picture taken in 1905 shows the houses which stood on Shipdham Road which are out of view to the right of the of the JJ Wright sale picture.
This picture which dates from 1971 shows that the farm was much the same as it was 35 years earlier, the tennis court in front of the house has gone and a large building has been erected to the rear.
These are some pictures of the Black Horse Inn. At one time there were four Public Houses in Scarning. The others were: The New Inn, Spring Cottage (popular with American airman from Wendling during WW2) and the Carpenters Arms.
All four were more or less equally spaced out along Dereham Road. After the George in Dereham the next would have been the Carpenters Arms and a mile further on you could have stopped at the New Inn another mile would bring you here to the Black Horse and another mile further west was Spring Cottage, the last before Wendling.
Have a look here:
Norfolk Pubs and here: Dereham Pubs.
Another view of the cottages at the end of Shipdham Road.
A later picture of the end of Shipdham Road, some of the cottages have been demolished and the garage has been erected behind where they stood. the village well used to stand on this corner.
Cottages next to Blackhorse Inn.The milestone at the right hand end of the now demolished cottages was subsequently relocated a few metres towards the Black Horse.
The end of Chapel Lane, a view from the churchyard. A47 is visible on the signpost.
Scarning once had a Post Office, it was situated at the end of Chapel Lane opposite the church and alongside the Black Horse Inn, the rear of this building can be seen on the 1910 picture opposite.
In this view of the village centre taken in 1989 one can see that some of the farmland has been given over to housing. The corner site is occupied by a Texaco garage, you can make out the sign on the corner of Dereham Road and Shipdham lane.
Opposite the garage the white
house is what used to be the 'Black Horse Inn' which ceased trading in
1982 and was purchased by Brian Dye and his wife Ann. Brian, a Fordson
tractor enthusiast runs a website here
in which he says that the Black Horse Inn had been a coaching inn for
many, many years. They investigated its history at the local county
records office and found references back to a lady publican in 1732.
There were other cottages on the site surrounding the inn and the horse
drawn coaches used to stop there on their journey from the Midland
towns of Leicester and beyond to Norwich and the sea at Great Yarmouth.
Norwich, at one time, was the second largest city in England after
London and was the home of a large lace and crepe industry as well as
shoe manufacture, weaving and, of course, through the Quakers, banking.
Barclays Bank started in Norwich with the Gurney family. So the road
was well travelled and the journey would have taken many days. The
Black Horse Inn was a staging post with extensive stables for the
horses that pulled the coaches.
In more recent years, many celebrities of the theatre have stayed in
these walls including stars of the vaudeville theatre, It has been said
that Marie Lloyd, used to stay there to get away from the public eye
whilst she was "drying out" from drink problems. In latter years Bill
Maynard, a comedy actor, always stayed there whilst he was appearing at
the Theatre Royal in Norwich. The village was bypassed by the main road
in the late 1970's and trade at the inn declined. Sales of beer dropped
and by 1982 the owners decided to put it on the market and this is when
Brian and Ann bought it and started to renovate it, a task that
continues to this day.
How it looked in about 1910.
Still in business in 1972
No longer in business in 1982
After purchase by Brian and Ann in 1983. Note that the houses which can be seen on the aerial view had not yet been constructed
How it looks today, almost hidden by the hedge.