 The Union Workhouse, for the Hundreds of Tunstead, as it was known, closed its doors when the National Health Service was founded in 1948 and much of the old workhouse was demolished in the 1950s.It is thought that because the workhouse was situated in the village, the local district council was the Smallburgh Rural District Council and, indeed, members of that council met in the board room of the workhouse until its closure.The Smallburgh Rural District Council then met in special council offices in Stalham until its demise on 31 March 1974, when it was subsumed within the North Norfolk District Council under local government re-organization.