History of The House

‘The Lawns’ is listed by the Government as a building of “architectural and historic merit” (Grade II).  It was the former home of Miss Mabel Alice Jane Hales who, in December 1982, was “Granted the dignity of becoming a Member of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire” by the Queen.  This award was in recognition of her service to the British Red Cross over a period in excess of 50 years. 

Many years ago two rooms of her adjacent property at 41 Norwich Road were given over to fund-raising activities for the Red Cross, and the same Red Cross Shop exists to this day.  She also used ‘The Lawns’ and the adjacent land for Red Cross fundraising activities including annual Garden Fetes.  Jane Hales (1904-1995) was also a writer of stories about Norfolk people, places and place names and in all wrote or co-authored 16 titles.  Her last publication was “Ninety years in one House” (published 1996,  ISBN 0 948 4000 47 1) which is her story of her life spent at ‘The Lawns’ where she was born and where she died.  A new reprint of this book has recently been made, and copies and available for purchase at the house or in local Holt bookshops. Money raised from these sales will go to the Red Cross.

There are three stained glass windows in Holt Church to commemorate three of her Hales predecessors – the most famous window is the depiction of the pilgrims of the Canterbury Tales which was placed in memory of her father. The 1881 census of ‘The Lawns’ shows that the Hales family employed a housemaid, a parlourmaid and a cook, but by the 1901 census, Jane’s father, Robert Hales (a local GP) had added a further employee – a governess to look after his then three children.  Jane Hales was never to marry and have children of her own.  She would recognise the house today as it retains its historic features including the original marble fireplaces, cornices and impressive staircase. 

Ancestral portraits going back to Sir John Turner MP Bart of Warham whose daughter Ann Turner married Robert Hales in the mid-eighteenth century are still held by family members.