Old Manor Farmhouse is believed to have been built for a wealthy wool merchant in 1650, though it is probable that there was an earlier property on the site dating back to the origins of the wool trade. Worstead, in the same parish, was the heart of Englands wool manufacture from the 1400’s.

The huge threshing barn is testament to its prosperity as a farm. Agriculture in the 17th century was very prosperous with the Lord of the Manor taxing the surrounding tenant farmers.

In the first half of this century it was hard to earn a living through farming and Old Manor Farmhouse gradually decayed. It was uninhabited since 1950 but still farmed, being known colloquially as Howlett’s Farm. The farmhouse and tithe barn escaped the ‘modernisation’ of the last century and therefore retained all of their original features.