field dean
field dean
A Victorian field in Preston Plucknett
Field Dean was originally part of a large field called Deane, or Dean Field, in the north of Preston Plucknett, to the north of Preston Road and west of Larkhill Lane. It was subdivided into four fields by the middle of the nineteenth century.
The 1846 Preston Tithe Map shows Field Dean in the centre of the field system to the north of Preston Great Farm and Preston Road and west of Larkhill Lane. The Preston Plucknett Tithe Apportionment of 1848 noted that Field Dean was owned by Lady Georgiana Fane of Brympton d'Evercy and the tenant was Thomas Hawkins.
Shown as Parcel 78 at the centre of the map below, Field Dean lay to the east of the now long-gone field access track running up the centre of the map and Dodham Brook to its east. It was bounded to the north by Broad Dean (77) and to the south by Grass Dean (79).
Field Dean disappeared when Abbey Manor was built in the 1980s and the site is now occupied by Elmleigh.
maps & Aerial photograph
The main post-medieval fields of Preston Plucknett.
Map based on the 1849 Tithe Map showing Field Dean towards centre top, lying between the field access track, Eighteen Acre Lane (now a footpath), running up the centre of the map and Dodham Brook to its east.
This is a 1946 aerial photograph showing Field Dean at centre, with Broad Dean to its north and the new combined field of Arable Dean and Grass Dean to its south. At lower left is Houndstone army camp and at lower right is the post-war Larkhill Lane pre-fabricated housing estate. At centre is the Preston Plucknett Flax Works.