LOWER HADDON
IN the 14th century Lower or Little Haddon,
later c. 457 a., (fn. 63) was taxed with Marsh Haddon
in Brize Norton parish as a single township. (fn. 64)
From the 13th century and probably from the
11th the two were tenurially distinct, however,
the later estate boundary coinciding with that
of the parish, and possibly there were two
separate foci from an early date. (fn. 65) The name,
meaning 'uncultivated hill slope', suggests
relatively late colonization; no evidence of
early occupation has been noted on either site,
and neither was mentioned before the early
13th century. (fn. 66) The prefixes 'Marsh' and 'Little' were recorded in the late 13th century and
early 14th, though Little Haddon seems then
to have been the more populous. (fn. 67) The name
Lower Haddon became established in the later
19th century. (fn. 68)
In 1279 only 5 tenants were recorded at Lower
Haddon besides the lord, presumably indicating
c. 6 houses; 4 inhabitants were noted at Marsh
Haddon, and in 1306 there were 13 taxpayers in
the two settlements. (fn. 69) The population was probably little altered in 1331 when rents at Lower
Haddon exceeded those recorded in 1279; (fn. 70) only
10 persons over 14 paid poll tax in 1377, however, (fn. 71) which, assuming the return was for both
estates, suggests serious depopulation, far
greater than in most of Bampton's hamlets. Only
three houses were recorded on Little Haddon
manor in 1496 (fn. 72) and in the mid 17th century,
when they were assessed on 7, 4, and 3 hearths, (fn. 73)
and from the later 18th century there were only
two, (fn. 74) one of them the former manor house, later
Lower Haddon Farm, described below. (fn. 75) The
other, c. 150 yd. to the north-east, was that called
the 'Lower House', recorded from the early 17th
century when it was temporarily occupied by a
relative of the lord and was described as a
mansion house. (fn. 76) It was later occupied by tenant
farmers and c. 1800 was converted into a cowhouse
and agricultural buildings; (fn. 77) labourers' cottages
on the site in the later 19th century were
demolished in the 20th reportedly following a
fire, though agricultural buildings remained in
1992. Other cottages were built on the approach
from the Bampton-Brize Norton road before
1894. (fn. 78)
Figure 8:
Lower Haddon in 1894
Part of the East Gloucestershire railway was
built across Lower Haddon's northern part c.
1873; the line was closed in 1962. (fn. 79) Brize Norton
military airbase, which occupies Lower
Haddon's western part, was opened in 1937
and extended in the 1950s, its perimeter fence
coming within a few hundred yards of the
farmhouse. Proposals c. 1957 to extend the main
runway across the Bampton-Brize Norton road
were rejected. (fn. 80)