Feniton History Group held the 34th meeting at Feniton
Church on 11th Oct. 2012
Sadly due to the
poor weather only ten people came for a talk given by Chris Wakefield from
Ottery St Mary.
I would like to thank Chris and our Group members for their
help in making the evening a success. A total of £52 will be passed to Feniton
Church.
Using excellent
maps and graphics Chris explained his research using a wonderful document dated
1061 detailing the Ottery St Mary boundary of the time.
The talk looked
at how you can read the landscape using old maps and visual features, how the
boundaries followed ancient hedgerows and rivers, it was interesting to see how
the River Otter has changed course. The River Tale too has changed leading to
Sir John Kennaway having concern over the Feniton / Talaton parish line.
Mentioned by John Leland
in his tour of East Devon in 1542, we find the following:
“A(bout) 5 Miles
farther (from Clyst St Mary Bridge) I passid by a forde over a Riveret caullid Tale, that a mile dim. lower above S. Mari Oterey Toun goith into Oterey
Water. Ther is a Bridge of Stone by the Ford of Tale, From this Ford of Tale I
rode about 2. Miles farher to Veniton Bridge, where Oterey Water is devidid into
4. Armes by Pollicy to serve Grist and Tukking Milles. Apon 3. of these Streames I roode by fair
Stone Bridges. The First Arme of the 4. was on the lefte, and had no Bridge
that I markid. On the North side of the first Bridge was a Chapelle now prophanid.
[spelling as written]
Many of the long
hedgerows would very old even iron age to mark land ownership, the Domesday
Book
Robert Count of
Mortain Domes day to Drogo Exon Domesday
shows that Feniton was worth £4 then
dropped to 40 shillings.
The old land
measurements were quite variable, a Hide being equal t the amount of land an
ox could work in a day. and also enough
land to maintain one family.
Many place
names are very early Christian and Saxon meanings, the grapic showed that in
620 AD land to west is Christian and to east Saxon.
There is an area
called Little England in Wales, seeming people from the North Devon Coast
crossed the Channel to settle there.
As well has the
land boundaries changing the homesteads evolved to from one large open room to
portioned homes with a Buttery where wines
butts stored and from the open fire in the centre to a hearth with a chimney in
the mid 1500s
Field names reflect
the landscape features or trades and industry, words like Boo means by the street,
a
Brake would be marginal land
Even some areas were
thought to be homes of pixies and demons, the name Beowulf was mentioned.
One of the early
land owners was Mr. Sweet Esq of
Alfington, you can use these details to speculate the name origins,
perhaps Sweethams and similar names
fields were possible was once his?
This Landscape website can help explore this subject further:
