Yeovil's Virtual Museum

Dairy House Plot

Of Stone Farm, a detached part of Preston Plucknett

 

Dairy House Plot was a small field containing at least two buildings, towards the northeast corner of Stone Farm.

This area is actually a detached part of the parish of Preston Plucknett, known as Preston in Stone, and the Preston Plucknett Tithe Map of 1849 shows the plot as Parcel 159, divided into two equal halves with two buildings shown in the eastern part. It was bounded on the west by Furze Leaze (Parcel 157), on the south by Square Orchard (Parcel 164) and Great Orchard (Parcel 163), on the east it was bounded by Pit Orchard (Parcel 160) and to the north by Home Mead (Parcel 158).

The Preston Plucknett Tithe Apportionment of 1848 helpfully notes that Parcel 159 was the "Dairy House, Outhouses, Garden, &c". It also notes that Dairy House Plot was in the ownership of Henry Goodford Esq. of Chilton Cantello and occupied by Mrs Phillis Coles, as indeed was the whole of Stone Farm at this time. The Tithe Apportionment reckoned the area of Dairy House Plot as 3r 30p.

Other known owners / occupiers had been James Harris (1800), Mr Pester (1810), Mr Spear (1818), Stephen Coles (c1821-1827). Phillis Coles, in her later years assisted by her sons, ran Stone Farm after the death of her husband Stephen until her own death in 1877. Her son Edmund ran the farm after her death until his death in 1885. By 1886 a Mr Russell was farming Stone Farm and in December 1886 placed an advertisement in the Western Gazette noting that the "Dairy To Be Let, from 2nd February next, 40 cows". In 1901 the tenant farmer was John Sawtell.

At some time before 1946 Home Mead, Furze Leaze and Dairy House Plot were merged to form a large square field as shown in the 1946 aerial photograph below. It appears from the photograph that one of the buildings, or its remains, were still evident at this time but the boundary had been removed. Nevertheless, the 'shadow' of the western part of the plot remains visible in the photograph.

In more recent times this new, larger field was itself merged with Pit Orchard (Parcel 160), Orchard Close (Parcel 161), Long Orchard (Parcel 162), Square Orchard (Parcel 164) and Great Orchard (Parcel 163) to form the very large present-day field shown in the recent aerial photograph below.

 

The Stone area reproduced from the 1849 Tithe Map. Dairy House Plot, marked as '159 Plot', is towards the top right corner.

 

The 1946 aerial photograph showing at centre the field created by merging Home Mead, Furze Leaze and Dairy House Plot (with one of its buildings still apparently visible as a black rectangle in the bottom left corner of the field). The dark wavy band running across the top third of the photograph is a tree and bush-lined brook that forms the parish boundary between Preston in Stone to the south and Mudford to the north.

 

The modern aerial view showing the large field at top right formed by the merging of Furze Leaze, Home Mead, Plot, Pit Orchard, Orchard Close, Long Orchard, Square Orchard and Great Orchard. At left the boundary hedge between Lower Five Acres and Lower Ground has been removed very recently to form a similarly large field.

 

The 1849 Tithe Map superimposed over the current Google Earth image. Although the field boundaries do not align precisely, remember that the 1849 survey was undertaken by hand using primitive surveying equipment. The location of the former Home Mead is at top, right of centre.

 

Between the hedge and the tree line, both running the full width of this photograph, is the large modern field comprising the former Furze Leaze, Home Mead, Dairy House Plot, Pit Orchard, Orchard Close, Long Orchard, Square Orchard and Great Orchard. Photographed in 2015.