Square Orchard

Square Orchard

Of Stone Farm, a detached part of Preston Plucknett

 

In his 'Agricultural Survey of Somerset' of 1797, John Billingsley refers to the large number of orchards for which the land is "peculiarly adapted". The large acreage devoted to this purpose in the Yeovil area reflects the county's reputation for cider making. The low wages being paid at that time to agricultural workers were augmented by an allowance of cider; a labourer received one shilling a day in winter 'with cider' and one shilling and fourpence with cider in summer. The latter amount was also paid for mowing grass per acre and one gallon of cider, while reaping wheat was paid for with four shillings per acre and 2½ gallons of cider. The large number of orchards in the town itself and the parish as a whole lasted right up to the end of the 19th century. Apples grown from grafts or crab stocks were such varieties as Royal Wilding, White Styne, Court of Week Pippin, Pouncet or Cadbury, Flood-Hatch, Black Pit Crab, Buckland, Mediate or Sourham, Royal Jersey, Woodstock, Red Hedge Pip, Old Jersey and Red Streak - all varieties which are unknown today.

 Square Orchard was a small square(ish) orchard, one of several in 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 Square Orchard as Parcel 164. It was bounded on the south by Eight Acres (Parcel 165), to the west by Lower Ground (Parcel 156), on the north by Furze Leaze (Parcel 157) and Dairy House Plot (Parcel 159), on the east by Great Orchard (Parcel 163).

The Preston Plucknett Tithe Apportionment of 1848 notes that Square Orchard 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 Square Orchard to be 1a 3r 31p.

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 but his widow sold up and retired in February 1900. In 1901 the tenant farmer was John Sawtell.

As seen in the aerial photograph of 1946, shown below, Square Orchard still retained its apple trees at this time. Recently however Square Orchard was merged with all the other fields in this northeast corner of Stone Farm to form the very large present-day field shown in the recent aerial photograph below.

Today all the orchard trees in the northwest corner of Stone Farm have gone.

 

maps and aerial photographs


The Stone area reproduced from the 1849 Tithe Map. Square Orchard is at top, right of centre.

 

The 1946 aerial photograph showing Square Orchard at centre, still containing its apple trees.

 

The modern aerial view showing the large field at top right formed by the merging of Furze Leaze, Home Mead, Dairy House 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 Square Orchard is towards the top and right of centre.

 

Gallery


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.