Hide Field
Hide Field
A former part of the great West Field of Kingston Manor
The Terrier of 1589, referring to the great West Field recorded "In Elizabeth Diers close next the way 5yds upon the Hide" - 'next the way' meaning alongside Ilchester Road. Originally a hide had been an area of land, albeit a variable unit but usually taken to mean about 120 acres. Originally the hide represented the amount of land which could be ploughed in a day by one plough team of eight oxen. A hide was considered adequate for the support of one free family and the term had originally meant a household. Apparently Hide Farm existed until 1950 but I have been able to find little trace of it in the records.
Hide Field (Parcel 1426) was a rectangular field on the southern side and at the eastern end of the field access track known as Lower Larkhill Lane (today the eastern end of Stiby Road).
The 1846 Tithe Apportionment noted Hide Field measured 4a 2r 10p and was used as pasture for grazing livestock. The Apportionment noted that the owner was Edward Watts and the tenant was Samuel Dodd.
Hide Field was bounded on the north by Lower Larkhill Lane, on the west by Long Ground (Parcel 1436), on the south by Great Hide (Parcel 1430) and on the east by Hide Plot (Parcel 1427).
Today the former Hide Field is occupied by the houses and gardens of southern side of Stiby Road at its eastern end and the northeastern spur of Southway Drive.
For details on historic land measurement (ie acres, roods and perches) click here.
maps & Aerial Photographs
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.
The Larkhill area reproduced from the 1842 Tithe Map. Hide Field is at top right.
The 1946 aerial photograph - at this time Hide Field, seen in the top right quadrant of this photograph, had not been built on
The same area today 'borrowed' from Google maps.
The 1842 Tithe Map superimposed (only very slightly out at the bottom) over a modern map.