Lower Grubhams

lower grubhams

A former part of the great West Field of Kingston Manor

 

Grubhams, or Grobhams, may derive from a personal name of a former owner - one of the jurors on the 1589 Terrier, for example, was William Grobham. Alternatively, it may, as suggested by Goodchild, derive from the Middle English grubbed meaning land from which trees and shrubs had been cleared.

Originally one large field and part of the great Medieval West Field of Kingston Manor,  it was referred to in the will of William Newman, dated 1727 ".... crop of wheat on Grobham's Ground." By the time of the 1842 Tithe Map the field had been split into Lower Grubhams (1353) and Higher Grubhams (1354).

Lower Grubhams was noted in the 1846 Tithe Apportionment  as 4a 2r 14p and used as meadow - grassland not regularly grazed by livestock but allowed to grow unchecked in order to produce hay. It was itself partitioned into two fields with the parcel numbers 1353 and 1353a but both still called Lower Grubhams.

Lower Grubhams was a field of Larkhill Farm and was bounded to the north by Thorne Lane, to the east by Old's Close (1355), to the south by Higher Grubhams (1354) and to the west by Lockyer's Mead (1351) and Cogan's Mead (1352). The Apportionment noted that the owner of Lockyer's Mead was William Jones Prowse and the tenant was James Pope.

Today the site of the former Lower Grubhams is occupied by the houses and gardens of Thorne Lane and Wessex Road.

For details on historic land measurement (ie acres, roods and perches) click here.

 

maps


This map, based on the descriptions in the 1589 Terrier and the 1846 Tithe Map of Yeovil shows the approximate boundaries of the Manors of Kingston and Hendford as well as the manorial three-field system used in Kingston.

 

A conjectural map of the great West Field of Kingston Manor showing ancient sub-fields, most likely common fields, within the overall bounds of West Field.

 

The Larkhill area reproduced from the 1842 Tithe Map. Lower Grubhams is top, left of centre.

 

The 1946 aerial photograph showing Lower Grubhams as the right side of the light field at centre (the left half is Cogan's Mead and the staggered boundary between them shows as a feint whiter line) the partially-dark part of field to its right is also part of Lower Grubhams.

 

The same area today 'borrowed' from Google maps.

 

The 1842 Tithe Map superimposed (slightly out at the bottom) over a modern map.