The Routs of Banham

The youngest daughter LIVY aka Levy (23.1.1805) marries SAMUEL ROUT of Shelfanger (a village on the Diss Road from Banham) on 17.10.1821. She would have been only 16 years old. The marriage was witnessed by EDWARD ROPER (to be HANNA MARIA's farmer1 husband two and a half years later) and SOPHIA ROUT (probably the sister or mother of the groom SAMUEL). They have five children; WILLIAM ROUT (b circa 1826), GEORGE ROUT (b. circa 1825) ELLEN(?) (b. circa 1824), RICHARD ROUT (b circa 1830) and ELIZABETH (b. circa 1832).


By 1861, RICHARD ROUT lives at 128 Tickenhall Street and is a Butcher2in Banham. He has a wife MARIA from Stowmarket and four children AGNES L (b.circa 1855), HENRY C (b. circa 1857), WILLIE (b circa 1859), and FREDERICK (b. circa 1861). RICHARD's sister ELIZABETH (aged 27) lives with the family as a servant.


The ROUTS were prominent members of Banham from this point on. RICHARD ROUT sat on the School Board (formed in 1875) with WILLIAM GAYMER JNR, and the ROUT family are listed as cider makers, butchers and dealers in 18613 and 18834. In 1881 Richard employed 4 men. His son FREDERICK is listed as a Cider Merchant and HENRY C a butcher living at 28 North Bight5.


In 1896 L.F.6 Rout & Co Ltd - already cider makers in Banham - took over their rivals Gaymer's Banham enterprise when Gaymer's moved to Attleborough (probably due to the need for expansion). Gaymer's were already using a hydraulic press introduced in 1870 but the GILBERT family had moved away by then so it is tenuous that the GILBERT Engineers would have had anything to do with its design.


ALBERT V ROUT appears on the First World War memorial in Banham.


In the 1930's Mr Rout, owner of the cider works, bought a large area, including the area near the old brick works and built a house called the 'Garden of Eden' where he dug a tunnel, filled it with coloured lights and charged courting couples to walk through it, The Garden of Eden scene was used on Rout's cider bottle labels of the time7.


1.   White's Directory 1845 , Kelly's Directory 1845, Hunt & Co's Directory 1850.
2.   Sarah Roper lives at 138 Tickenhall St in 1861 and Edward Roper lived in the street in 1841 but we don't  know the number. 
3.   1861 census.
4.   White's Directory 1883.
5.   1881 census.
6.   Leonard Frederick Rout. Lived at Lydford House according to Kelly's 1929 Directory.
7.   Banham Heritage Register, 1991.