Yeovil's Virtual Museum

Nine Acres

A part of Preston Lower farm

 

Nine Acres (Parcel 142) was a large field of  Preston Lower Farm. The 1848 Preston Tithe Apportionment noted that Nine Acres was owned by Robert Tucker and occupied by Joseph Roberts. The apportionment recorded that the field was arable and measured 7a 2r 8p rather than the nine acres of its name. All eight fields of Lower Farm whose names suggested an acreage such as Three Acre Mead, Four Acres, etc., were actually less than their names would suggest. However this is due to the use of 'Statute' measurements in the Apportionment which were actually smaller that 'Customary' measurements.

Nine Acres was bounded on the west by the brook that flowed south from Preston Road by the Union Workhouse and joined the Old Mill Leat in the corner of Pookhay Mill. On the south it was bounded by Pookhay Mill (Parcel 143), to the east by Catshill Ten Acres (Parcel 148) and to the north by Five Acres (Parcel 141).

By the time of the 1889 Ordnance Survey, shown below, Nine Acres, had been combined with Five Acres to form one single field. By the time of the 1946 aerial photograph Summerleaze Park had been laid out across what had been Five Acres, reaching as far as the former Nine Acres and Summerleaze Park School (now Oaklands Primary School) now occupied most of the rest of the field.

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

 

 

The 1849 Preston Tithe Map. Nine Acres is at centre right.

 

The 1849 Preston Tithe Map overlaid on a modern map (the 1849 map is slightly incorrect at bottom right).

 

The 1889 Ordnance Survey shows the extensive fields of Lower Farm labelled 'Preston Grove' stretching eastwards. The dotted line across the fields, indicating a footpath, was the line of the later road, also called Preston Grove. Nine Acres, by this time combined with Five Acres, is the large rectangular field at top centre.

 

The 1946 aerial photograph showing the approximate boundaries in red of the former Nine Acres with Summerleaze Park School occupying the eastern portion. Preston Road runs along the top, Preston Grove along the bottom left while St Andrews Road is at left and Grove Avenue at right.