OVER STOWEY
Over Stowey 1838
The parish of Over Stowey, also called Upper
Stowey, (fn. 48) lies on the heavily wooded eastern side
of the Quantocks immediately south-west of
Nether Stowey and c. 12 km. west of Bridgwater.
It is roughly rectangular in shape, extending for
5 km. from east to west and 3.5 km. from north
to south. The western boundary follows the
Quantock ridgeway and the southern a road
from the ridgeway to Spaxton. The northern
boundary reaches the southern side of Nether
Stowey castle. (fn. 49) Land at Stowey Rocks (2
houses, 11 persons) was transferred to Nether
Stowey in 1886, and the total area was 3,697 a.
in 1891. (fn. 50) There have been no later changes and
in 1981 the parish covered 1,496 ha. (fn. 51)
Most of the parish lies on the higher slopes of
the Quantock ridge, the land falling eastwards
from 350m. on the summit to 91m. on the
eastern boundary. The slope is pierced by a
succession of steep-sided combes, Bin Combe in
the north, Rams Combe and Quantock Combe
joining together in the centre, and Cockercombe
in the south. (fn. 52)
Most of the higher ground comprises Hangman grits, with Upper Keuper marls and valley
gravels lower down the slopes. At the junction
of grits and marls are areas of sandstone, Ilfracombe slates with grits and limestones, and a
small pocket of Schalstein. (fn. 53) Stone was quarried
for building by 1614 (fn. 54) and in the 19th century
there were quarries at Adscombe and 0.5 km.
south of Adscombe. The second produced green
igneous rock used in the construction of Quantock Lodge. (fn. 55) Road stone was extracted at
Bincombe by the mid 19th century (fn. 56) and limestone was dug for burning by the later 17th
on Aley manor and elsewhere. (fn. 57) Malachite was
said to have been found at Pepperhill quarry c.
1920. (fn. 58)
Copper is said to have been extracted at Bincombe between 1690 and 1724, (fn. 59) and licences to
mine on Aley manor, possibly in Aisholt parish,
were granted in 1716 and 1720. (fn. 60) Other licences
were granted in 1755 and 1758 to mine on Friarn
manor in Bincombe, and a mine there, possibly
on Dodington manor lands, was operating near
Walford's Gibbet by 1790. (fn. 61)
Several barrows and cairns, the linear earthwork known as Dead Woman's Ditch, a small
iron-age enclosure called Cockercombe or Plainsfield camp, and traces of a group of huts at the
head of Rams Combe are evidence of the prehistoric exploitation of the Quantock ridge
within the parish. (fn. 62) The claim that weapons and
burials were discovered near Plainsfield and that
they marked the site of an early Saxon battle has
not been substantiated, although a field called
Deadman's field there might seem to give colour
to the story. (fn. 63)
The limited area of level ground in the parish
dictated the pattern of medieval settlement.
With one exception, dwellings were in small
clusters at the mouth of each combe. The exception is the hamlet of Over Stowey, which lies on
a small spur commanding an extensive view of
the coast and the Parrett. It included by the later
12th century both the parish church and the 'old
castle precinct' on the Stowey 'herpath'. (fn. 64) The
castle may have been the caput of the estate of
Alfred d'Epaignes at Stowey in the later 11th
century and the precursor of the castle at Nether
Stowey. (fn. 65) It survives as a large, flat mound to
the north of Over Stowey village. Aley and
Plainsfield hamlets were recorded in 1086, (fn. 66)
Adscombe in the 13th century, (fn. 67) and Bincombe
in 1327. (fn. 68) Adscombe in 1547 comprised only two
houses and a ruined tenement. (fn. 69) The settlement
called Peppestake (later Pepperhill) was recorded in 1316 (fn. 70) and Hockpit or Hogpit by
1655. (fn. 71) Building on roadside waste was widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries at Friarn,
Bincombe Green, and along the road eastward
from Marsh Mills to Halsey Cross, although
some of the cottages did not stand for long. (fn. 72) In
the 20th century permanent camping sites were
established near Rams Combe.
At least four ancient routes run beside or across
the parish. The most significant at an early date
was the Anglo-Saxon 'herpath' or military road,
which gave the parish its name. (fn. 73) The 'herpath'
followed a roughly east-west route, entering the
parish at Halsey Cross on the eastern boundary,
skirting the castle north of Over Stowey hamlet, (fn. 74) and running directly up a great spur to
Dead Woman's Ditch and thence to Crowcombe
Gate on the Quantock ridgeway. (fn. 75) A second
east-west route branched south-west from the
'herpath' east of Over Stowey hamlet and passed
through Aley Green, a route known in the 12th
century as the great way of Solmere. (fn. 76) The
second route may later have been diverted southwest from Aley Green to the Triscombe stone
on the ridgeway and thence to Taunton. (fn. 77) There
were also two north-south routes. The Quantock
ridgeway, known as Alferode in 1314, (fn. 78) continued to be used until the beginning of the 19th
century when the lower routes were impassable. (fn. 79) The second, largely abandoned in the
19th century, ran south from Nether Stowey
castle, and where it crossed the 'herpath' by
Over Stowey castle gave its name to a holding
called Cross. It ran through Over Stowey hamlet
and Aley Green to Plainsfield. A bridge was
built c. 1640 at Rooksford, where the route
crossed the Seven Wells stream, which runs
down through Adscombe. (fn. 80) The part of the
route between Nether Stowey and Cross and
known as Millers Lane had been abandoned by
1782. (fn. 81) A route further east between Plainsfield
and Halsey Cross had probably been abandoned
by 1838 (fn. 82) and before 1842 was replaced by a
more direct route north between Plainsfield and
Marsh Mills. (fn. 83) Those changes were probably
connected with the improvement of the Quantock estate culminating in the building of
Quantock Lodge, the disappearance of Aley
Green, and the closure of other routes within
the newly created grounds. The road from Aley
to Triscombe, for example, was closed in 1864,
and in 1877 that from Adscombe through Seven
Wells to Quantock Farm was declared private. (fn. 84)
The high ground to the west and north-west,
shared in the early Middle Ages between the
honors or lordships of Stogursey and Nether
Stowey, (fn. 85) seems to have been part of a pre-Conquest forest of Quantock. (fn. 86) The Stogursey share,
c. 1,000 a. stretching south-east along the ridge
from West Hill above Rams Combe, was partly
open ground and was common to the tenants of
Wick manor in Stogursey until the 17th century. (fn. 87)
In the 1630s at least 180 a., part of Plainsfield
Hill and presumably the ground later known as
Aisholt Hill or the Slades, (fn. 88) was divided and
allotted in fee to local landowners including the
lord of Plainsfield, in return for the surrender
of their claims to common over the whole area. (fn. 89)
By 1683, and probably by 1656, about half the
remainder of the Stogursey land had been inclosed and let, and Quantock farm was created
soon after 1686. The owner, Robert Siderfin,
probably built the wall which marked the western boundary of both the farm and the parish. (fn. 90)
The Nether Stowey share, known as the Stowey Customs and covering Robin Upright's Hill
and Great Bear, (fn. 91) remains largely uninclosed,
although Warren House, recorded in 1672, (fn. 92) had
become the centre of a small farm by 1838. (fn. 93)
Attempts to inclose the area in the 1800s led to
disputes between the lord of Nether Stowey and
the vicar of Over Stowey, the latter claiming the
right to cut wood there. (fn. 94) The assumed transfer
of ownership of the soil of the commons from
the honor to the manor of Nether Stowey in the
early 17th century seems to have given rise to
the claims of tenants of that manor to commons
there. In the later 20th century the parish councils of Over and Nether Stowey registered rights
to estovers, turbary, and bracken cutting on
behalf of all householders in their parishes. (fn. 95)
In 1086 Aley and Plainsfield had 25 a. of
woodland and the Stowey estate wood measuring 1½ league square. (fn. 96) Woodland belonging to
the rectory on the lower slopes had largely
disappeared by 1655 and what remained was
scrub rather than timber. (fn. 97) Friarn wood was said
to cover 220 a. in the mid 17th century, but 46
a. had been 'lately grubbed up' by 1688 and the
remainder was coppice. (fn. 98) At about the same time
half of the newly created Quantock farm was
woodland fit for sale. (fn. 99) In 1739 only half Parsonage wood was actually timbered and the
trees, six years old or less, were decayed. (fn. 1) Fifty
years later most of the woodland on Quantock
farm was said to be suitable only for oak coppice. (fn. 2) The sale of part of the Enmore estate to
Henry Labouchere in 1833 brought together
some 660 a. of woodland, of which 4 a. was fir
plantation and the remainder oak coppice. (fn. 3) In
addition there were similar woodlands on the
Stowey Customs further north. In 1838 about
900 a. were under wood, mostly oak coppice, (fn. 4)
but by the 1880s firs had been planted widely
on the Quantock estate, (fn. 5) a policy which the
Forestry Commission continued in the 20th
century despite local protest. (fn. 6) In 1905 there were
920 a. of woodland in the parish. (fn. 7) Clear felling
took place during the First World War but
replanting began in 1922. (fn. 8) The hills remained
extensively wooded and in 1986 were used both
for recreation and for commercial purposes.
Aley park measured 100 a. in 1275 (fn. 9) and occupied land east of Aley hamlet, probably as far as
the eastern boundary of the parish. In 1357 at
least 36 people were accused of breaking into it,
hunting deer, and killing a foal and cattle grazing
there. (fn. 10) Throughout the 15th century the pale
was regularly repaired and the deer were fed as
necessary. (fn. 11) By the early 17th century the park
had been divided. (fn. 12) West of Bincombe in Nether
Stowey lordship the names Warren House and
Great and Little Warren suggest the site of a
warren established after the grant of free warren
to Philip de Columbers in 1248. It is possible
also that the Nether Stowey deer park extended
into Over Stowey in the north-east corner of the
parish. (fn. 13)
There was a tavern at Aley in 1201 (fn. 14) and a
victualler was recorded in the early 17th century. (fn. 15) In 1673 the keeper of a licensed alehouse
in the parish offered no lodging, sold beer during
service time, and allowed cards. (fn. 16) In 1676 four
victuallers lost their licences. (fn. 17) In 1686 the parish had one inn offering two beds and stabling, (fn. 18)
but three years later there were five licensed
houses. By 1690 the number had been reduced
to four and by 1736 to two. (fn. 19) One of them may
have been the Squirrel inn at the junction of
Rams Combe and Quantock Combe. (fn. 20) The Dial
at Aley Green and the White Horse on the
Bridgwater road served the parish in the 18th
century. The latter was last licensed in 1779 (fn. 21)
and later became a farmhouse with the same
name. The Dial, later the Aley Green public
house, was briefly closed c. 1800 (fn. 22) but remained
until 1851 when it was probably demolished
during the building of Quantock Lodge. (fn. 23) It was
replaced by a beerhouse at Halsey Cross,
licensed in 1849, which later became the Albion
and in 1881 the Pear Tree inn. (fn. 24) It appears to
have closed by 1894. (fn. 25) There is said to have been
a public house at Bincombe, probably in the
early 19th century. (fn. 26)
A reading room and news room with a library
of 150 books was established in 1896; it appears
to have closed c. 1925. (fn. 27) There was a cricket club
in the parish between 1897 and 1902. (fn. 28)
There were 115 adult males in the parish in
1641 (fn. 29) and in 1801 the population was 468. It
had risen to 592 by 1831 but had fallen to 561
in 1851. The increase to 613 in 1861 was due in
part to the staff of Quantock Lodge and the
estate, but the total declined steadily thereafter
to 433 in 1891. The establishment of a hospital
and later a school at Quantock Lodge led to an
increase in the 20th century, and the total was
511 in 1971. the normally resident population
in 1981 was 360, many of them probably living
in the north where new housing in Nether
Stowey village extended over the parish boundary. (fn. 30)
In 1645 the rectory and probably the church
tower were fortified for the king by the Selleck
family (fn. 31) and in 1668 a local man was pensioned
for injury in the king's service. (fn. 32) Christopher
Rich (1647-1714), attorney and theatrical manager, and the Revd. John Poole (d. 1857) were
born in Over Stowey. (fn. 33) Henry Labouchere (cr.
Baron Taunton 1859, d. 1869), the builder of
Quantock Lodge, was M.P. for Taunton 1830-
59 and a cabinet minister. (fn. 34)