To all the readers of my web page I have
some sad news to tell you that my Brother Ernest Gage, the author of 'Costessey
Hall' and 'Costessey - A Look Into the Past'
died on the 24th January 2010.
He will be sadly missed.
Hi,
my name is Brian Gage and welcome to my Web Site. The
following few pages describe the two books written by my
brother Ernest Gage.
I have updated my web page by adding information about the Old
Costessey Brick Works. You can view the information by clicking
on the following. I hope you find it interesting.
His first book - Costessey
Hall - was published in 1991 and the following is a
foreword by Richard Wilson - who arrived as the Parish Priest
of the Church of our Lady & St Walstan in 1987.
"I quickly became aware of the close connection between
the
church and
Costessey Hall and the immense debt
our parish owed to the Jerningham Family. Mr Gage has painstakingly
recorded the history of the family and in so doing has given
us a great deal of information about the growth of our parish
and of the community of Costessey itself, some of it derived
from senior citizens. The written record is greatly enriched
by a magnificent collection of photographs which are a treasure
in themselves".
After the publication of
his first book, Ernest put his thoughts to the writing of a
second book dealing with all the old properties in the Village
of Old Costessey, many of which are still standing. Going
through the Tithe Plans of 1840 and ordnance maps of 1880
onwards he produced a plan to enable him to visit all the properties
that where still standing
in order to get the up-to-date information. This was an
enormous task to undertake which he eventually completed in
1997. As a result an interesting history of all these old
properties and their occupants has been beautifully described
in this his second book -
Costessey A Look into The Past
Both books are on sale at
various book shops - details are shown in General Information
section.
Ernest Gage moved to Folgate Lane, Costessey in 1956.
He retired from the drawing office of the GPO in 1975.
In his retirement he was an accomplished wine maker -
organ player of the year - water colour painter and
photographer.
He then became interested in history and was known as
the Local Historian. He began his research into the
history of Costessey and published his first book on
Costessey Hall in 1991. In 1992 he continued his
research into the history of Old Costessey and his
second book 'Costessey - A Look into The Past' was
published in February 2002.
