Little Hautbois

Little Hautbois is a small hamlet in Broadland, England, part of the parish of Lamas. The name is pronounced 'Hobbis', and can be seen thus spelled on a memorial on the outside of nearby Lamas Church. The population of the hamlet is included in the civil parish of Buxton with Lamas. In the Middle Ages, the settlement of Great Hautbois was the head of the navigation on the River Bure, and it is thought Little Hautbois developed from that. The name is taken from that of the de Alto Bosco, or de Haut Bois, family, who acquired these lands at the Norman Conquest.

As of 2007^[update], Little Hautbois consisted of eight dwelling-houses, one a holiday cottage rented out by the owner. The church of Little Hautbois, once owned by the monks of St Benet's Abbey, fell into ruin in the 15th century when the parish was amalgamated with that of Lamas. Although ruins were still visible in the 18th century, no sign of the building now remains above ground; the only trace of its existence is a depression in the grounds of Little Hautbois Hall. Little Hautbois has the feel of an isolated rural community now, but two former main transport routes pass through it: the River Bure, canalized in the 18th century to allow navigation up to Aylsham, and the Bure Valley Railway, now a light steam railway but formerly a full-sized railway.

Sources indicate that this was a building of some importance, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Metal detector work on the site, which lay between the Hall and the road, has uncovered, among other things, a Papal seal. Some have identified this as the site of a chapel and hospital for travellers, founded by the de Alto Bosco family, who held the parishes of Great and Little Hautbois at the time of the Domesday Book, although this hospital may have stood a little further up the river, at Great Hautbois. Foundations were visible in 1907.

Little Hautbois had a public house, the Adam and Eve, until the middle of the 20th century. During the Second World War, it was a popular drinking place for personnel of the nearby RAF Coltishall airfield. Today, the Adam and Eve is a private house, but the house's past is preserved in its name of Adam and Eve House. The remains of a pub sign-board are visible beside the front gate of the house's large gravel forecourt. Adam and Eve House has a fine three-bay frontage, the upper floor being lit by three dormer windows. The brick is diapered in a simple chequerboard pattern. Adam and Eve House was built in the 18th century as a farmhouse, extended by the addition of a lower, two-storey wing in the 19th century. 20th-century alterations included the addition of a garage and the rearrangement of windows in the lower block. It was originally thatched, as was the barn (now converted into a house called Eden Cottage) beside it. The roof of the house was replaced with pantiles in the 20th century after a fire seriously damaged the barn.

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