Barn Elms replaced the earlier one occupied by Sir Francis Walsingham, "Elizabeth's Spymaster". Queen Elizabeth I would visit Barn Elms to see her Spymaster. Barn Elms features in English literary history from the time the royalist poet Abraham Cowley moved to the house belonging to John Cartwright in 1663. In the 1660s Barn Elms became a fashionable destination for boating picnics. Samuel Pepys, who arranged many a Sunday afternoon or moonlit evening boating party to Barn Elms himself, recorded that on 26 May 1667: "I walked the length of the Elmes, and with great pleasure saw some gallant ladies and people come
Roy Francis (Royal Navy officer) later sold the WHR to finance the construction of the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway, which runs between Wells-next-the-Sea and Walsingham, Norfolk and opened in 1982. Francis died in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on 27 January 2015 at the age of 92. He left a wife, Marie, two children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His funeral was held on 13 February at St. Peter's Church, Forncett St Peter, Norfolk. attended by about 200 people. Francis lived in nearby Forncett St Mary. Roy Francis (Royal Navy officer) Lieutenant-Commander Roy Wallace Francis (2 July 1922 – 27 January 2015) was