LINK TO ASHILL IN KELLY'S DIRECTORY

LINK TO SOME PLACES OF INTEREST IN ASHILL

 

 

Saxon Origins

From Wickham's 'Churches of Somerset : At Ashill the chancel arch, although encircled later with dog tooth moulding, retains the simple lines of the eleventh century work, and is flanked by arches, now blocked, which appear originally to have been open.

DOMESDAY

AISELLE ('Hill where ash-trees grow'. Old English æsc + hyll) Two thanes held it before 1066; it paid tax for 5 hides. Land for 5 ploughs. In lordship 2 ploughs; 3 hides and 31/2 virgates. 4 villagers and 17 smallholders with 2 ploughs and 1 hide and 1/2 virgate. Meadow, 40 acres; woodland 40 furlongs long and 20 furlongs wide. 2 cattle; 70 pigs; 20 goats.

Value 60s; when the count acquired it, £4

This Manor ought to pay 30d to Curry ( Rivel ), a manor of the King's.

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The following is taken from Collinson's history of Somerset (1791) :' In Domesday book this place is written Aiselle, and is there said to be held by Robert, Earl of Morton, being one of the many manors which he obtained from his brother the Conqueror in this county. In the said record it is thus particularized:

" Malgar holds of the Earl Aiselle. Two thanes* held it in the time of King Edward, and were rated at five hides. The arable land consists of 5 carucates**. In demesne are two carucates, and four villanes***, and seventeen cottagers with two ploughs. There are forty acres of meadow. A wood forty furlongs long and twenty broad. It is worth sixty shillings. This manor pays a rent of thirty pence to Curi a manor of the King"

* Thane - one who held by service to the King - a petty nobleman

** Carucate - as much land as a team of oxen could plough in a season

*** Villane - a 'free' man except to his lord

In the church history there is a printer's error, uncorrected, defining a carucate as the area of ploughed in a "session' rather than a season. The Ashill Oxen must have been the fastest beasts in the west!

''In succeeding times after Domesday, this manor was possessed by the family of Hull, who resided here. The daughter and heiress of the family was married to Thomas de Multon (or Moulton) of Pinho, in the county of Devon, in which name it continued for three successive generations. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, Mary the daughter and heiress of John Multon, married an ancestor of Sir Thomas Beauchamp, of Whitelackington, knight, whose cousin and heiress Alice transferred this manor to Sir John Speke, knight, in which family it continued for twelve generations: and at length became the possession of Lord North* by his marriage with Anne daughter of George Speke, esq.'

*It was Lord North who is generally held responsible for the loss of the American colonies, and who lived at Dillington

Ashill Prebend

The exact date of the foundation of Ashill as a Prebend ( ie having a share in the revenues of the diocese and a say in running it's secular affairs) is not on record, but is thought to be between 1213 (gift of the advowson to the Bishop by Robert de Valhus, confirmed by his mother Alice) and 1298 when it is first recorded a Prebend. It was most probably founded by Bishop Jocelin who died in 1242. Each Prebendary had to support two Vicars, one at the Cathedral and one at the Prebend - except in a very few instances wherethe incumbant served his Prebend in person.

The Prebend's house stood at the junction of the present main road ( the ' New cut' of 1931) and the village road ( ie next to the 'Old Rectory' garage), a pink blossomed chestnut tree now stands on it's site. It was pulled down about 1867.

The Prebendal estate included Parsonage Farm and 57 acres.

 

 

 

Some Inhabitants Of "Asshulle" in 1327

De Johanne de Moltone, Adam Hastyng, Laurentio de Bronkeshull, Johanne atte Hurne, Matillda atte Wode, Willelmo Colegrom, Richardo Merischman, Gilberto le Baker, De Wilhelmo Robyn, Thoma le Old, Roberto Golde, Martino Mannyng, Vincentio Deyme, Richardo de Thikthorn, Willelmo de Thikthorn, Willelmo de Haxhulle, Thoma de Hokkeleghe, Roberto Jordan.

The Ashill Legend

' The wife of a yeoman residing in the parish of Ashill, sometime during the middle ages, was delivered of seven children at one birth. The progeny being too numerous for the husband to maintain, he took them away from the house in his apron intending to drown them in a stream that ran close by. While he was passing the church to carry out his un-christian deed he was met by the Lady to whom the manor belonged, who at once questioned him as to the contents of his bundle. He replied "only a few puppiesto drown".

Not satisfied with the man's statement, and his strange and excited demeanour arousing her suspicions, she examined the contents of his apron and found there the several children. She rebuked him for his diabolical design and at once relieved him of the tiny babes. Taking them under her own care, she brought them to manhood's estate and one became a Prebendary of the Church. To honour these events, it was said, the effigy of the Lady was raised - and she now lies recumbent in the cusped niche in the north wall of the church, and the little stone cherubs playing about her represent the seven children'

In apparent corroboration of this legend, is advanced the fact of the Prebendary of Ashill's creation and continuation. And too, that church registers indicate that a very large family lived at Ashill Manor circa 1600. The Manor, it is thought, was in the area of Ashill Woods at lower Park Barn Lane.

In the church history there is another theory, wherein the effigy in the church niche is thought to be the "Lady of Gilsland" who clasps to her bosom the heart case of her husband - killed fighting the Scots on the border at Gilsland, Northumberland. She lived at Wood for the many years of her widowhood

The Protestation Returns of 1641/42

With the onset of confrontation between King Charles I and Parliament all parishes were required by Archbishop Laud to introduce the 'Laudian Liturgy' into their church services. In 1641 the Vicar, Churchwardens and Overseers of Ashill signed a list of those parishioners who objected to this introduction. Over a hundred names are listed as being against what they saw as a return towards papacy. Some names are listed as 'recusants' ie those who disagreed with the protest, and who were thus publicly ready to stand up and be counted as in agreement with Laud and the King.

Thomas Mutleberry, then owner of Jordans, appears on this list as a recusant together with his family and some of his servants, and it would seem he paid dearly for his courage and loyalty by loss of that manor during the Civil War.

ASHILL PARISH

The Battle Of Ashill

In June 1685, at the start of the Monmouth rebellion, when the main body of the Duke's force was at Divine Service in Chard, his forward scouts were intercepted at Ashill by the King's cavalry sweeping down from the Blackdowns and engaging them in the 'Forest Fight Field' - opposite the Square and Compass Inn. (The King's Dragoons were led by the second in command of all his forces, Jack Churchill, subsequently Duke of Marlborough and ancestor of Winston Churchill). In the resulting skirmish men were killed on both sides, including a Lieutenant Philip Monoux of the Dragoons, and one of the rebels who was buried in Ashill churchyard.

Monmouth recruited many local folk to his cause on is way from Lyme Regis to Taunton, and not least, those drawn from the surrounding countryside when he passed through Ilminster. Among the latter were John Speke and a company of horsemen 'not of the best quality' so that they were unkindly known as 'Speke's Ragged Horse'.

Later, the infamous Judge Jeffreys declaring that 'the family owed a life for their rebellious behaviour, had Charles Speke, brother of John, hanged.

Ashill Tithes

The tithe map of Ashill, dated June 1774, shows the parish to be in the Hundred of Abdick and Bulstone. Much of the land was still owned by the church. Barton House was then known as Court Barton and was a working farm. The land east of the Old Rectory, earlier known as 'Fair Green', is shown here as 'Ashill Park - owned by William Speke and tenanted by Thomas Trout at Ashill Farm.

The twenty-fourth apportionment of Vicarial Tithes payable to James Mickleburgh - Vicar for 51 years from 1833 to 1884, and thus in receipt of considerable aggregate of parishioners money - contained the following :-

2d per acre for ancient meadow

1 1/2d per acre for arable land

1 1/2d per heifer

1/2d per calf

Quantities of grass or hay, known as 'mead' could be paid in lieu of cash.

Mrs. Anne Collie, occupant of ' New House', subsequently known as ' Towns End' in the 1872 directory, and as 'Ashill House' since the turn of the century, paid one penny a year tithe for her garden. The 'Ashill House' of that time is now called 'The Firs'.

Court Barton paid three shillings and sixpence to the Vicar and one shilling and ninepence to the proprietor, John Woodland

William Woodland who owned the land near to the New House ( as his descendants still do) paid the Vicar one shilling and ninepence for his orchards thereon.

Collinson's description of 1791

''Ashill is a small village, pleasantly situated on a rising ground three miles west of Ilminster, six north of Chard, and nine east from Taunton. It probably derived it's name from the quantity of ash trees that heretofore grew upon the spot, which constituted part of the great forest of Neroche. At this day it is tolerably wooded.

'The parish of Ashill is of large extent, and contains fifty-five houses, twenty-four of which comprise the village, wherein stands the church : the remainder are in the hamlets of Southton, Wimblehill*, Wood, Rowlands and Jordans. The number of inhabitants is about three hundred and twenty.

The last mentioned hamlet had it's appellation from the little river of Jordan, which divides this parish on the eastern side from that of Ilminster, and has a stone bridge over it in the road to Horton. Another stream rising in the forest separates this parish on the north from Isle Abbotts. The crossing roads are rough and narrow, full of brown flints, and other stones, which render traveling very disagreeable.

*Wimblehill - has this been corrupted over the intervening years to Windmill Hill? "Wimble' is a Norman/French word meaning a large auger such as might be used for finding water - there might be a connection here too with Wimbleball reservoir.

In a field in this parish belonging to the Earl of Egremont, there is a medicinal spring, bearing the name of Skipperham Well, the water of which is of a singular property, and has been thus analyzed:
1. The soil of the field seems to be a sand mixed with clay, and the stones which the water flows over are covered with a yellow ochrey substance.
2. The water, fresh taken from the well, is of a light grey colour, which is very cospicuous in the bath, approaching blue; but it is collected there in a large quantity, and generally foul. It is very cold, but never freezes; has no smell, but is of a subacid and gently styptick taste, which goes off upon keeping.
3. The sides of the well are covered with air-bubbles, where the water ebbs and flows every day. This effect, however, is not retained afterwards upon being taken out of the well; that is, the water does not sparkle in a glass; but in passing from one vessel to another, even after it has been bottled, something of the same kind may be observed. After standing about two months, it deposited a tenacious green sediment upon the sides of the bottle, which had a putrid smell and taste, and felt like grease.
4. The specific gravity of this water to that which is commonly used was as 740 to 700.
5. Twelve grains of green tea infused by an ounce of this water induced a bright amber colour.
6. A similar infusion with galls became first of a light brown, and after standing two days assumed a green hue upon the top, with a greasy scum.
7. An infusion of ash bark in this water was turned almost instantaneously to a beautiful light green, with a bluish circle at the top.
8. This water made a slight ebullition upon spirit of vitriol being poured into it; it also became much brighter, and bubbles continued to rise from the bottom for some time.
9. The same appearances occurred with spirit of salt, and vinegar. The former seemed to change its colour to purple.
10. With salt of tartar this water assumed a pearl colour, and deposited a white sediment.
11. With lime-water it became milky, and precipitated a white sediment.
12. With spirit of sal ammoniac it formed a light bluish cloud, and upon standing emitted bubbles.
13. Being boiled with milk it did not coagulate, but lathered very easily with soap.
14. A piece of silver having been immersed in it, was, after standing some four hours, covered with air-bubbles, and the water became more pellucid than natural.
15. With a solution of silver in the nitrous acid, it first threw up white clouds, and afterwards became of a deep dirty purple colour, and deposited a sediment of the same.
16.With saccharum saturni it put on the appearance of milk, and deposited a light-coloured sediment.