Westhay Farm 3c3b62

Westhay Farm

Surrounding the now absent farm are: 7 Acres Great Mead Water Mead Dairy’s Mead Stall Close Hatchet Plot

Mediaeval Westhay In 1086, there were in the parish of Stanton St Gabriel 12 farms, some 800 acres of arable land, 5 landless slaves, 3 tenant farmers (called villeins) and 8 small holders (called bordars) as well as the household of Alfred Pincerna who was Robert of Mortain’s cup bearer. A charter of 1238 shows that Joan, Queen of Scotland (right) (who was also Henry III’s sister), held: “… one hundred and twelve acres and a half in Stanton… with the villeins and all that goes with them being William Attebrigg, Richard Sebern, William West, Thomas Dalket, Richard Prikes, Robert Eleyne, Gilbert Wet, Roger Dispensar, Gilbert Brid, Richard Slibern and Martin de Staunton and twenty two croftmen and a meadow at Hilton and twenty nine acres of meadow in the marsh and 15 acres of meadow in Hay to the West.…”

Digory Gordge at Westhay The first Digory Gordge we know of was a merchant privateer in Cornwall. Digory died in 1643. Digory’s fourth child (and only son) was christened Digory Gordge. He was born in Cornwall in 1629. He married Elizabeth and became a farmer and customs agent at Westhay by 1659. Most likely, he was granted the farm for his services to Cromwell’s Parliament. Digory’s eldest son was christened Digory Gordge in 1659. He took over Westhay and ran it with his wife Ann. But he only outlived his father by eight years. Digory’s eldest son was christened Digory Gordge in 1694. He took over the family farm and also became a customs officer. He died in 1755. Digory’s eldest nephew was christened Digory Gordge. He was prosecuted in 1765 for aiding and abetting smugglers. In 1903, 94-year-old Digory Gordge was interviewed in the South Wales Evening Post. He told how, as a boy, he smuggled tubs of French brandy and once hid with his brother in a church and heard the preventive men shouting ‘Where be they? Which way be they gone?”

18th and 19th Century Westhay By the late 18th Century, after the Gordges had moved away, Westhay Farm comprised three tenements (the main farm was probably separate). Each of the three tenements had a dwelling and outbuildings, four fields of about 30 acres and a little woodland. In 1782 the three tenements were sold to their occupiers, who all worked the land. In 1816 an industrialist from Bridport who had made money in the Napoleonic War, bought all the buildings and land at Westhay. In the 1841 census, 27 people in four families lived at Westhay.