Box People and Places
Latest Issue 35 Spring 2022 
  • This Issue
    • Gertie Butt
    • Fogleigh Residents
    • Murray & Baldwin
    • Guides 1920s and 30s
    • Noble Family
    • Stewart Family
    • Tunnel Inn
    • Anketell Family
    • Box Tollhouse
    • Institute at Box Hill
    • Memories of Nurse Chalinor
    • Gonks Recalled
    • National Service 1950s
    • Box Quarry Crane
    • More Operative Masons
  • Inter War
    • Postwar Hopes
    • Haunted by War
    • Improving Life
    • Timeline
  • Previous
    • Issue 34 - Fogleigh House
    • Issue 33 - KIngsdown Post Office
    • Issue 32 - Chapel Lane
    • Issue 31 - Saxon Box
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issues 20-29 >
      • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
      • Issue 28 - VE Day
      • Issue 27 - Northey
      • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
    • Issues 10-19 >
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
    • Issues 1-9 >
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys
    • Box School Series
    • Box Farms
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails
    • Prehistory
    • Roman
    • Early Medieval >
      • Vikings in Box
      • Box Before Normans
      • Common Field Farming
      • Conclusion
      • Wessex Under Attack
      • Boundaries of Box
      • Routes in Box
      • Late Saxon Locations
      • Society in Anglo-Saxon Box
      • Christianity in Box
      • Why Box is in Wiltshire?
      • Anglo-Saxon Evidence
      • Art and Craft
      • Why Speak English?
      • Box after AD 350
      • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Feudal
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart
    • Georgian
    • Rail & Quarry
    • Late Victorian
    • Great War
    • WW2 Index
    • Modern
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
        Tudor & Stuart Henley and Washwells        Alan Payne         March 2016
Picture
Both Henley Hill and Washwells are shown on Allen's 1626 map.Neither area is developed; probably because of their steep hillsides. The first documentary evidence of Washwells is dated 1655 when a Declaration of Trust by George Speke refers to his two holdings at Washwells called Chapmans Washwells and Butchers Washwells.

Picture
There was another reason why the are had not been developed other than its steepness; it was a prime woodland area. The areas were not continuous on Allen's map and each has a separate name: Whet Wood Peece , Whit Wood , Stake Leases , Hatt Coppe

Wood was a vital part of life needed to provide building material, fuel resources, and to repair farm implements.[1] Timber was intensively farmed on a commercial basis and carefully controlled by men such as Michael Woodward at Colerne who was a local warden from 1659 and 1675.[2] He personally supervised the coppicing of trees; he gave permission for the gathering of firewood (topp and lopp); marked trees for felling and sale; and allowed tenants to cut certain trees for house repairs and to construct barns, cart sheds and cowhouses.

Throughout the whole area are isolated field names reflecting timber crops, although not such a density as at Henley. Log Croft at Kingsdown refers to logs for building purposes as was Wood Croftes (land set aside for woodland as a crop) also at Kingsdown. Other woodland names include Groves (a copse or thicket), Charlewood (a wood kept for a ceorl or free peasant) to the east of Wormwood Farm and Coulde Harbor (an arbour) at Ditteridge.
References
[1] Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside, 1986, JM Dent & Sons Ltd
[2]
Wiltshire Record Society, Vol 13
Back to Main Article