PURSE CAUNDLE HISTORY - CHAPTER 1: TOPOGRAPHY - 4. WOODLAND AND ORCHARDS

WOODLAND

A great deal of the area was at one time wooded forest. A conjectural map of Anglo-Saxon England shows a swathe of woodland called Sealwuda, about 10 miles wide and 45 miles long, running slightly north-eastwards between Sherborne and Shaftesbury, starting about ten miles south of Sherborne and ending south of Caln. With the coming of man, wood was needed for house building and fuel; and then agriculture and keeping of animals for food meant further diminution of woodland. But the love of hunting, especially following the norman Conquest, resulted in widespread deafforestation, including this part of Dorset's Blackmore Vale and Forest.
At the time of Domesday there was apparently only 15% of the nation's land covered in woodland. Domesday said there was held by Athelney Abbey in 'Candele' an area of 'woodland 3 furlongs long and 2 furlongs wide' - presumably 60 acres (or 24.281 hectares in modern parlance). As the precise boundary area of that time of what would become Purse Caundle is not certain, so is that of the woodland described - though it could well have been a larger Plumley Wood.
It has been recorded that King John (1199-1216) hunted many times in and around the Blackmore Forest. He was also responsible for some disafforesting in the country, e.g. Staffordshire in 1204, so could also have carried out some in Dorset. King Henry III (1216-1272) also hunted in Blackmore, when and where the incident occurrded which supposedly gave rise to the place-name of King's Stag. See CHAPTER 4 for fuller details of this hunting and its consequences.
In 1317, when repairs were to be carried out at Sherborne castle, wood was to be used 'from Gillingham Forest and from Caundel Park.' It is not yet known where this latter location was, though there are several fields called 'Park Hill' situated together between the A30 road and the road leading to Stalbridge Weston. In 1545 there was mention of "Abbottes Wood and Roughcrofte Coppes (6 ac[res].)" - the latter now being the northern part of Plumley Wood (O.S. 52) - see CHAPTER 4 and APPENDIX D.
Coker's Survey of 1623/4 said that long since had the Forest of Blackmore (or Vale of Whitehart) had been disafforested, though not yet Gillingham Forest and Cranborne Chase.
Lewis's Topography of 1844 gives Purse Caundle 'about 100 acres of woodland and copse' out of a total parish area of some 1558 acres. Some 19th century censuses show that a few inhabitants were engaged at times in woodland trades.
There is still the same amount of woodland, with Plumley Wood being by far the largest area, suggested as representing a fragment of the original forested are of Blackmore Vale. The ancient Hanover Wood on the western parish boundary is actually in Milborne Port, whilst Frith Wood to the east is also just outside the parish boundary. Other pockets of woodland and coppice are scattered around the parish, including strips along the inner verges of the main A30 road. Some of this woodland contained fox earths, as are noted in CHAPTER 8.
A small area of tree saplings was planted at Church Farm by the landowner early in 2008.

PURSE CAUNDLE WOODLAND c.1903

O.S. 18: Deadman's Covert 2.492 acres

O.S. 22: Muse Hill 4.132 acres

O.S. 23: Hussen Hanging 6.527 acres

O.S. 48: Stock Wood 1.257 acres

O.S. 52: Plumley Wood 53.562 acres

O.S. 69: Wood House Covert 4.237 acres

O.S. 94: Dole Covert 6.347 acres
O.S. 153: Crendle 2.452 acres
O.S. 160: A30 verge 0.262 acres
O.S. 164: A30 verge 0.479 acres
O.S. 172: Gospel Ash 1.170 acres
O.S. 174: Crendle 0.812 acres
O.S. 175: Crendle 0.326 acres
O.S. 192: Caundle Brake 5.869 acres
O.S. 199: Broadsill Copse 10.000 acres (approx)

Total = 99.924 acres

Total parish area = 1558.282 acres = 6.41% approx. woodland

ORCHARDS

In the eighteenth century the Vale of Blackmore was noted as the pre-eminent cider-producing district of Dorset. Purse Caundle was one of the cider-producing parishes.

On the c.1780 Purse Caundle estate map of the then Lord of the Manor, Francis, Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, an orchard is symbolised as such immediately south of Tripps Farm buildings; and others just written-in as such at (1) not unsurprisingly where now stand the two 20th century dwellings Court Orchard and Brook Orchard of about 1 1/2 acres, (2) about half an acre on the west side of Well lane, and (3) the six acres 'Great Orchard' field (O.S. 143) eastwards of Church Farm buildings.

On the 1785 estate map of the new Lord of the Manor, Robert Colt Hoare, the same orchards are repeated, except that at Well Lane.

In 1793, cider was valued in Dorset at £1.1s.0d to £1.10s.0d a hogshead of 63 gallons - not the normal 56 gallons.

On the Purse Caundle Tithe Map of 1838 just two orchards are mentioned: both being at Clayhanger - see 1953 below.

In the two illustrated O.S. maps of 1903 (with acknowledgements to Ordnance Survey), orchards will be seen around the parish: just south of Gospel Ash Farm; a small curving area just north of Church Farm buildings; at Clayhanger behind June Cottage and possibly behind Hillside; where is now Court Orchard and Brook Orchard; behind the Manor House; north-east of Manor Farm buildings; and just south of Trip's Farm buildings.

PURSE CAUNDLE ORCHARDS c.1903

O.S. 42: Trip's Farm 2.040 acres

O.S. 55: Clayhanger 0.122 acres

O.S. 63: Clayhanger 2.333 acres

O.S. 106: Manor Farm 1.408 acres

O.S. 116: Purse Caundle (Home) Farm 1.529 acres

O.S. 118: Manor House 0.759 acres

O.S. 122: Court Farm 0.657 acres

O.S. 123: Court Farm 1.880 acres

O.S. 135: Church Farm 1.765 acres

Total = 12.493 acres

At the 1911 Hoare estate sale, (1) Manor Farm had an orchard of nearly 1 1/2 acres east of the farm buildings; (2) Church Farm had just over 1 3/4 acres in a curved strip north of the farm buildings; (3) Court Farm had two orchards totalling just over 2 1/2 acres (north of the farm buildings, and where is now Court Orchard and Brook Orchard); (4) Trip's Farm is shown as having an orchard just south of the farm buildings.
At the 1918 Hoare residual estate sale, what was to be June Cottage was described as having a 'Productive Garden and Orchard' with a total of 25 perches.
When Clayhanger smallholding was sold in 1953, it was advertised as containing a 'useful orchard' of just over two acres, and an orchard house with a cider press.
Cider was to be brewed in the 1990s by John Waltham at Manor Farm from his own orchard - see CHAPTER 9.
Vestiges of these orchards still remain around the parish.

Websites of interest:
Dorset Woodlink: Making the most of Dorset's woodlands. www.dorsetaonb.org.uk
www.forestry.gov.uk/ewgs www.dorsetcoppicegroup.org.uk www.dorsetwildlife.co.uk
The Woodland Trust: www.woodlandtrust.org.uk
Symondsbury Apple Project: www.appleproject.org.uk