West Barnes in 1536

West Barnes in 1536

A lease to Thomas and Geoffrey Bedle in 31 August 1536 was copied into Ministers' Accounts following the Dissolution of Merton priory in 1538, and provides the following information:¹

Farm called Westbarnes:-

£18 10s. from the farm of:-

a certain mansion called Westbarnes with all buildings, barns, stables, curtilages and gardens pertaining

7 small closes lying near the mansion 31 acre

Certain other parcels of land, meadow and wood:-

A close called Bromsell 33 acres

Hoppyng Mede, a close of meadow and wood 45 acres

Hoppyng, a close 55½ acres

Pitles, a close 25 acres

Eastfeld, a close 106 acres

Canondownhyll, a close [48 acres]

A field called Twyryfeld 33 acres

and 3 closes called Westfeld and Blaldenys 188 acres

with all tithes within the demesne of this farm except the tithe of wood growing within the farm

as demised by indenture.

The closes and fields are named clockwise around the house and its 7 small closes, starting at 9 o'clock. The map shown here is a reconstruction based on later evidence and using field boundaries shown on 19th-century maps. Two arms of a moat around the buildings survived well into the 20th century, and are depicted here, fed from the Pyl Brook, which ran diagonally south-east--north-west across the small closes south of the buildings.

The acreage of Canondownhyll was omitted, but is given in a later document. Although Westfeld and Blaldenys are here grouped together, the former eventually became the nucleus of Blue House Farm (Visit our pages on Blue House Farm), while the latter of Blagdon Farm (Visit our pages on Blagdon Farm), so the boundary between them is here shown by a dashed line.

1 TNA SC 6/HenVIII/3463 m.6