Home Farm Cottage History
Home Farm and Carters Cottages have a rich history of life in a rural farming community, stretching back over 500 years. This page provides insight and images covering the architectural and social history of the farm over this period. My thanks go to Neil Mattingly, Claire Edge, James Bradshaw and others who have generously contributed their expertise and images in the writing up of this document.
Available records of the ownership of Home Farm Cottage stretches back to Elizabethan times [1570s] when the property and surrounding fields were known as ‘Charterhey’ and were sold to John Crabbe, a yeoman [farmer] of Beaminster. The rustic farm buildings, back then, may have looked something like this painting of a Chideock Courtyard by Conrad Martens.
The 16th century would have been a turbulent time, social norms in rural life were over-turned by Henry eight’s Reformation.
Catholics were persecuted after the Church of England was mandated and monasteries were destroyed. Catholic churches like the ancient St Giles church in Chideock were made Protestant.
Chideock was known as having a strong allegiance to the Catholic faith and in 1594, four of its occupants were sadly executed in Dorchester for practicing Catholicism.
The 17th century also bought fear and persecution during the period of the English Civil War. In 1643, Chideock Castle was captured by the Parliamentarians and, then, by the Royalists in 1644. The Parliamentarians re-captured it in 1645 and destroyed it to ensure it would never be used as a Royalist stronghold again. Thirteen land-owners in Chideock had their land forfeited for defending the castle.
By 1718 the dwellings and 30 acres were called ‘Carters Ley’ and were endowed as a marriage settlement by ‘gentleman’ Simon Grimstead of Stalbridge to his daughter, Rose Dare. In 1751 she left it to Mary Roper of Chideock, wife of Henry, Tallow Chandler [manufacturer of candles]. In 1770, Mary’s son, Robert Roper, sold it to John Hutchins of Chideock who left the property to his son William Hutchins and son-in- law Richard Payne.
This map shows the hamlet in 1783. Home Farm Cottage extends to Brighthay Lane and adjoins the neighbouring cottages of Quarr Cottage and Green Cap. Carters Cottage has not yet been built but the wide farm yard can be seen on the map. The cottage is in the centre of a farming community focused on dairy farming, cider production and hay making. Shops and markets were a carriage journey away in Bridport and Lyme, so the hamlet had the essential skills needed to provide for their small community. These small dwellings, shown on the map in red, were lived in by family members or tenants paying rent to the owners and working as labourers on the farms, upon which they dwelt.
Home Farm, in the 17 th century, was probably one storey tall with a cob wall [about 60 cms thick and made of subsoil, water and organic material], with narrow slits for windows, a steep thatched roof and a compacted mud floor. Fires would be lit internally with the smoke rising to the wooden rafters and dispersing through gaps. These rafters were often made using reclaimed oak from ship wrecks. One can be seen in Home Farm’s eastern fireplace today. The farm’s yeomen or labourers would have lived alongside stabled animals, benefiting from their warmth in winter and a fresh supply of milk. The original outline of the stable door can be seen in the cottage, wide enough for a cow to pass through. Families had few possessions and only simple, essential pieces of furniture, such as a butter churn, bed, blanket chests, table and chairs.
At some point in the 17th or early 18th century, the owners of Home Farm Cottage replaced the lower half of the cob wall with large pieces of ham stone believed to be taken from the ruined castle. The shaped door edges and drip mouldings could be seen on the cottage’s stones during its recent restoration, as captured in these photographs.
Richard Payne [1739 to 1799], married to Catherine Hutchings [1741 to 1796], acquired the land and property referred to variously since the 16th century as Charterhey, Carters Ley, Crabbes, Slapperhey and Carters Hey in 1783. In this map from 1765 you can see that there were very few dwellings in this rural area and families, farming, fishing and religion would have been the main pastimes.
In 1802, Chideock Manor was sold by the Arundell family and some of its extensive lands around were broken up or included in the sale to the Weld family who built Chideock Manor in 1810. In 1808, records show that the well across the yard from Home Farm was dug to a depth of 33 feet or 10m. Presumably, before the well, water was collected from the river at the bottom of the field.
From 1789 and the French Revolution, onwards until 1815, England was at war with the French. The threat of Napolean’s navy arriving on the southern coast meant that the south coast had gun towers, armed patrols and coastal beacons ready to ward off invasion. This threat was ended decisively during the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Arthur Payne, yeoman, 1780 – 1854, took over the farm from his brother in 1841. Here is a map of the cottage from 1841. The separate human dwellings, shaded red, are shown and there is the addition of a ‘privy’ [toilet] at the bottom of the garden. The ‘companionable’ double toilet seat is still in the privy to this day.
Plot 382 is no longer a dwelling as shown on the map of 60 years before, it is now the front yard of Home Farm Cottage. Later photographs show the family cart parked here with ease of access directly into Bright Hay Lane.
Arthur owned numerous plots listed on this map, including apple orchards for cider making on 370 to 375 and plot 401, a withy bed. Withy is a willow stem used for thatching and basket making. At some point in this period, Home Farm no longer needed thatching. The house walls carry the deep scars of an enormous, all engulfing fire. Remnants of the burnt timbers were found rendered inside the wall cavities and on window lentel as can still be seen in the east ground-floor bedroom. The building was repaired, after the fire, by raising the walls using locally salvaged stones and creating a shallow roof of slate. Four chimneys were built, and 3 two-storey terraced houses were arranged, each with their own front door, the stable door converted to the front door of the main house. The walls were made of a layer of the destroyed Chideock Castle ham stone, upon which was a layer of the original cob and then the newly laid chert and flint stone. The three layers are recorded in this photograph taken in 2021, during the renovations and after the 1900s cement render had been removed.
Arthur Payne wrote his Will in June 1853, shortly before his death. He wrote, ‘I give and bequeath all my household goods, plate, linen and china unto my daughter Sarah, the wife of Bernard Berry. Also, I give my freehold estate called by the name of Carters Lea, in the parish of Marshwood, containing 15 acres.‘ In this photo you see a section of his Will, signed with a feather quill, at the age of 73.
So Sarah Payne, 1813 – 1895, the third of four children, inherited from her father, Arthur, in 1854 on his death. Sarah Payne had already married Bernard Berry, in 1841 [recorded as a dairyman with 20 acres], when she was aged 28 and he 25. These early photographs of the two were taken some 15 years later [courtesy of the W. Burgess collection]. Carters Cottage was built around the same time as Sarah inherited. Hence, the same family owned Home Farm Cottage , Carters Cottage adjacent and a scattering of other dwellings in the hamlet.
The farm of dairy pasture and cider apple orchards, provided a subsistence level of earnings. The family were rumoured to have subsidised their income by smuggling rum up from the coast, hiding it in Stanton St Gabriels Church ruins [near Golden Cap] and carrying it away when all was clear, using Hells Lane holloway to reach the next smuggler in the network.
Barnard Berry and his wife Sarah [BBS] recorded their ownership of the farm on the iron water pump they had installed in front of Carters Cottage, below which exists the 10 metre well. The date below of 1858 is probably around the time the cottage / barn was built as it does not exist in the 1841 map but appears on the 1886 map shown below.
The ‘East house’ is separated from the main house and gardens of the two small cottages on the lane. A second privy has appeared, built along the edge of the stream that runs eastwards into the River Winniford.
In the 1881 Census Bernard Berry, ‘dairy man’ aged 65, farmed 20 acres. His daughter, Sarah, aged 26, lived with them, along with her husband Thomas, the carpenter, and their first son Alfred. Sadly, Bernard’s son Hugh, died aged 19 in 1871. His son, John, died in 1875, a ship’s butcher ‘presumed fallen overboard’.
Bernard Berry died in April 1886, aged 70, leaving his brother-in-law, Richard Payne [‘cordwainer’ or shoe-maker] as executor, helped by his widow, Sarah Berry. In his Will he left ‘live & dead farming stock, implements and crops in the custody of Thomas Chedd’, his son-in-law, 1856 – 1931 [carpenter and farmer] to pay his expenses. His ‘household goods, furniture, garden and house, next garden, plot & orchard of 1 acre’ was left to his youngest daughter, Sarah Chedd 1855 – 1954. Alongside this, he left her the cottage and garden, ‘late occupied by Job Pomeroy’.
To his second daughter, Harriet Ironside, Bernard Berry left the ‘dwelling house and garden at East End adjourning the said dwelling house, plus stable, wash house and pigsty and rights to the well of water’ with the, then, 30 year old pump that had represented the happy beginning of their land ownership together. He left a house in Morcombelake to a third daughter, Caroline Pope. Additionally, he left the ‘Slapperhay’ fields to all three of his daughters.
Sarah had married Thomas Chedd from a local farming family in 1878, when she was aged 23 and Thomas 22. They had seven children together. Thomas was listed on various census as wainwright [making cartwheels], carter and dairy farmer.
By the 1891 census, Thomas Chedd was named ‘Head of the Family’, with his wife, Sarah, and six children, Alfred, Charles, Clara, Jessie, Thomas & Rosa and Sarah Berry – the widow. Arthur Payne, 42, is living in ‘New House’ with his wife Harriett, 49, and two children, Arthur and Elizabeth. This could potentially be the name used for the more recently built Carters Cottage.
The inheritance of properties between family members would have caused tensions in this small community. Here is an article from the Gazette in 1900 showing Sarah Chedd, aged 45, taking her cousin Arthur Payne, 51, to court to keep the peace. It states, ‘quarrels were frequent’ between the cousins.
This photograph of the Chedd family [courtesy of the R. Chedd collection] would have been taken about 1901 as the youngest, Dora, looks about 7 years old. Perhaps they are all in black to mark the death of Queen Victoria or their grand-father Eli Chedd from Ship Farm – Morcombelake, who died December 1900, or this was simply their Sunday best. They do not look a happy family, but in this period, people were not expected to smile for the camera.
Here is a photo of some of the family in their work clothes, taking a break from farming in the early 1900s. They are drinking their dairy milk or farm cider and eating pasties or Dorset knobs. A favourite treat at Home Farm was to soak the Moores Factory Dorset Knob in tea and sprinkle sugar on top. Young Dora, who later inherited the farm, can be seen on the far left, aged about 12 with the family dog.
In this map of 1901 not much has changed in the property except for the building of a lean-to on the Eastern House and another lean-to building has been demolished in the garden of Carters Cottage.
This 1920s photograph, taken at the entrance from Bright Hay Lane, shows Farmer Chedd with a white beard, wearing his dairy apron, with a dog, a hay cart and family members or tenants and the local chimney sweep, in the midst of winter. Notice the chimney sweep’s feet with his worn leather soles tied on with pieces of rag.
Here are two paintings of Carters Cottage and Home Farm Cottage from the early 1920s by Elsie Neve, courtesy of Claire Edge [a Chedd descendant]. Carters Cottage had a chimney back then, and Home Farm Cottage had four chimneys and two front doors, the main part of the house having a porch. Perhaps a middle house was accessed from the rear garden. Notice a conservatory type frame on the west end of Home Farm, attracting the maximum warmth for potting plants.
This second lean-to is reflected in the map of 1928. Old Farmer Chedd, in his 70s, with his dairy apron on, carrying two pails of milk on his wooden yoke.
In the c1918 photograph [courtesy of the Barrett collection], Thomas Chedd, aged around 65, stands beside the barn entrance to Carters Cottage, with his grandson William Barrett (son of Clara Barrett) next to him aged around 15. In the other photo of the same era below [courtesy of the Galpin collection], Sarah Chedd, aged around 66, is standing outside Home Farm, now three properties at the front, and driving down Chideock High Street in the family cart, with her niece Lizzie Larcombe. Sarah Chedd was supported by Dora, born 1894, and registered as ‘mother’s help’ in the census of 1921.
Thomas passed away in 1931, aged 75. One likes to think that his later days were restful. Below, he can be seen watching time pass peacefully, in Chideock High Street [now the busy A35], opposite the church of St Giles, in the 1920s when the road was much lower than it is today.
Sarah lived for a further 23 years and enjoyed time with her grand-children and great grand-children. Her great, great grand-daughter described how Sarah’s grand-daughter Nora [Clara’s daughter] had two sons, Robert and Cliff. The great grand-children used to visit Great Grandma Chedd and Great Aunt Dora during the long summer holidays of the war years, running from house to house in the small holding. This photograph shows Norah visiting her retired mother, Clara, at Home Farm in the 1940s.
Cliff recalls, “From time to time throughout our childhood we were taken to Chideock and were introduced to the fearful great grandmother. She would say things such as “Behave yourself or you will see my little cane I keep behind the mirror on the mantle-shelf.’
‘I remember at a very young age going up to bed by candle-light and in the bedroom was this enormous four poster bed with a very thick feather mattress. As children, we had to climb upon a chair to get onto the bed and then slowly sink down into the feathers. In the morning I would get up, go to the wash stand in the corner and pour cold water from the large pitcher into a large bowl. For toilet requirements, at night or very early morning, you would use the “guz-under” [the bed]. During daylight hours one would use the “dunny” at the bottom of the garden.”
By 1945 Clara and her husband George Barrett, retired from running a convenience shop in Somerford and moved into the East house at Home Farm, previously occupied by widow – Sarah Berry. Sadly, George only lived to enjoy one year of retirement.
Cliff recalls, “During August 1947, I was just 13 years old and a school friend and I went for ten days holiday to Grandma Barrett’s (Clara’s) at Home Farm. We would spend most of our time in the fields with the farmers from Hells Farm, haymaking, or stacking the corn bales into stooks. Now and again, there was a rabbit to be had. We would also run the occasional shopping errand to Mannings in the village, or take a large jug to Huxters Dairy farm at the crossroads. He would open up the churn, dip in a pint measure (ladle) and pour the milk into the jug.”
When Sarah passed away in 1954 aged 99, she had effects valuing £708. The Bridport News reported the event of her death in this article. Sarah left her spinster daughter, Dora, aged 60, as owner of her home, with Clara still occupying the East House. Clara died soon after her mother in 1956. The family re-decorated her little cottage and let it to a Mr Chainey.
The local thatcher, Dave Symonds, tells how Dora wore a beret and was often seen wearing her dairy apron. Dora had been managing the small holding, milking three cows twice a day, cooling then filling a churn ready for transport. She harvested apples from her orchard for the farmers ‘scrumpy press’, an important contribution to the age old North Chideock Cider Club. She also let some of her land to a local family, the Brooks. This map from the 1950s shows the chicken coops at the rear of Carters Cottage have gone and a wall is in place divides the rose garden in two, possibly for a parking space.
The photograph [courtesy of the Pattison collection] shows the farm in the late 1960s when local family, the Pattinsons, kept horses on the land to the rear of Home Farm Cottage. On 3rd June 1971, Dora passed away ending a five century era of farming at Home Farm Cottage. Aged 77, she had effects worth £6,329 [about £100K in today’s money]. The documentation, for 15th September 1971, stated “Morey and Sons of Bridport have arranged an auction comprising a pair of cottages and garden, outbuildings and land extending to about 2 acres. To be sold in two lots followed by the furniture and contents.” Lot 2 was the buildings, orchard and pasture north of the cottages totalling 1.87 acres and let prior to purchase to Mr B. A. Brooks at £6 a year. The land was bought by the Brooks and left to grow wild. Home Farm and Carters Cottage were bought by a family as a second home.
By the 1980s, Home Farm Cottage had become so run-down that there was talk of demolishing it. In the 90s, the Garwoods of Twickenham bought it as a family holiday home but never lived there. The local thatcher, Mr Scott, recalls part of Carters Cottage being full of old wood, iron hay racks and farming tools in the 90s, when he came to repair the roof.
Here is a photo of Carters Cottage in 2007 by Claire Edge, the direct descendant of the Chedd family. What is now Carters Cottage kitchen was then a shed with a door where the window is. At some point the Garwoods converted the thatched building, formerly called ‘The Dairy House’ by the Chedd family, entirely into a holiday rental.
The row of terraces was converted into one property with pink paint on top of its cement render. Unfortunately, the cement held in the moisture and eventually, as the integral structure of the house was neglected, the roof leaked, the window frames became rotten and mould grew within the walls. Home Farm Cottage was becoming unstable by 2018 when it was put up for sale.
It was bought three years later by Alison Ward in October 2020. Alison set about renovating these beautiful properties traditionally and sustainably using solar enegry and heat pumps. The cottages echo a simpler way of life and, fully restored, will survive to provide evidence of their story, of times gone by, for centuries to come.
