ECONOMIC HISTORY.
An estate at Durston
was taxed at 2¾ hides in 1086 and comprised
land for 4 teams. The demesne farm, assessed at
1 hide 1½ virgate, had 1 ploughteam and was
staffed by 4 servi. Four villani, 5 bordars, and 4
cottars occupied the remainder. There were 15
a. of meadow, 20 a. of pasture, and 20 a. of
wood. (fn. 65) In 1312 Durston manor comprised 300
a. of demesne arable, c. 15 a. of meadow, 30 a.
of pasture in a park, 15 a. of wood, and rents
totalling 40s. from 2 free and 8 customary tenants. (fn. 66) Buckland manor and Cogload, which
comprise most of the low-lying land in the
parish, may represent ground brought into use
after the later 11th century by drainage works in
and around Curry moor, at their greatest in the
later 13th century. (fn. 67) In 1338 the preceptory
demesne estate at Buckland comprised 268 a. of
arable land, 39 a. of meadow, and rents; the
priory had 3 carucates of arable and 3 a. of
meadow. (fn. 68)
An agreement of the mid 13th century gave
Buckland priory the tithes of a meadow in
Cogload and 'la Newmede' for horses, and
limited grazing on the preceptory's fields called
Oxenmoor and Cowmoor, the former for 36
oxen in return for carting manure there from
their farmyard. (fn. 69) By 1338 the preceptory employed a hayward, a pig keeper, and a carter. (fn. 70)
In 1539 the former preceptory demesne comprised 122 a. of wheat, 112 a. of rye, 114 a. of
barley, 33 a. of oats, and 1 a. of beans. A further
39 a. lay fallow for one year and 113 a. for two,
8 a. were described as 'dunged with the corn',
and 12 a. as 'dunged with the fold'. There were
three meadows with hay in cocks. Among the
farm buildings were rooms for male and female
servants, a dairy, and a lime house, and there
were pens for cocks, hens, and hawks, and
cider-making equipment. (fn. 71) The site of the priory
in 1542 comprised 117 a., apparently of grassland, which had been arable in 1338, and 10 a.
of wood, the grassland in fields enclosed by
polled elms and ashes, some said to be a hundred
years old. (fn. 72)
There continued to be two main estates in the
parish after the Dissolution: Buckland Priors,
the former preceptory lands, measured over 300
a. in 1548. (fn. 73) By the mid 17th century Durston
manor was mostly divided into small tenancies
on long leases, but Henry Cheeke held the
demesne farm of some 106 a. (fn. 74) The same holding, known as Lodge farm by 1766, (fn. 75) measured
112 a. in 1838. (fn. 76) Buckland farm and Cogload
manor measured together 450 a. in 1725, (fn. 77) and
by 1838 386 a. and 68 a. respectively when the
several holdings of Cogload had been combined
in the hands of Mrs. Anna Gatcombe to form
Cogload farm. (fn. 78)
Inventories of the 17th century indicate smallscale mixed farming with crops of wheat, barley,
peas, and small orchards of apples and pears. (fn. 79)
Richard Weech (d. 1679) had at least 15 a. of
arable, 2 yokes of oxen, 4 horses, 2 milking cows,
2 heifers and their calves, and 4 pigs. (fn. 80) John
Slocombe (d. 1677) had a flock of sheep, a mare
and colt, and some pigs, and held in store bacon,
barley, cider, and clover seed. (fn. 81) Henry Bryant
(d. 1693) had 22 a. under corn and a flock of 22
old sheep and 15 lambs, while Edward Sherwood (d. c. 1713) combined mixed farming with
his profession as a wood carver. (fn. 82) The inn in
1687 also housed a tobacco shop. (fn. 83)
In the 18th century the two farms whose land
lay on the moors in the south concentrated on
cattle raising. In the 1750s the Ruscombe family
of Buckland fattened oxen for sale in Salisbury
and London. (fn. 84) John Kinglake (d. 1809), who
farmed at Cogload and also in Stoke St.
Gregory, similarly traded in cattle over a wide
area between North Devon, Dorset, and Hampshire, and occasionally as far away as London.
The arable land at Cogload in his time produced
wheat and, in 1809, flax. (fn. 85)
Tenements in Durston manor were sublet in
the early 19th century: the largest was called
Drakes and Honey Groves and amounted to 62
a. in 1815 when it was let for seven years for
£105, the undertenant covenanting not to convert grassland for tillage. (fn. 86) By 1838 three farms
ranging in size between 39 a. and 61 a., (fn. 87) Hascoll
or Hascoll's, Warr's, and Frog Lane, were sublet. The names, the first two based on
17th-century tenants, (fn. 88) did not indicate a single
tenant for each farm, and still in 1873 three of
the six named farms were held in multiple
tenancies: Warr's farm was shared by 5 tenants,
Lodge by 3, Frog Lane by 2. Samuel Kidner,
who actually farmed most of Lodge, was then
also tenant of 4 other holdings, his total acreage
amounting to 210 a. (fn. 89) By 1851 the farmer at
Buckland (375 a.) employed 20 labourers and
Kidner had 8 labourers. (fn. 90) Kidner was involved
in the experimental use of lime dressings in the
1860s, (fn. 91) and by 1881 held 300 a. on which he
employed 6 men, 3 women, and 2 boys. (fn. 92)
In 1838 the balance of land use had been
slightly in favour of arable in the titheable area
of the parish, (fn. 93) but by 1905 there were 603 a. of
permanent grass and 418 a. of arable. (fn. 94) In 1982
arable again took the largest share, most under
barley and wheat but with significant areas of
rape, beans, oats, and peas, and one holding
devoted to horticulture. One of the farms was a
specialist dairy holding. (fn. 95)
There was a single shop in the parish by 1824. (fn. 96)
In 1851 there were 3 carpenters, 2 smiths, 2
basket makers, a dressmaker, and a butcher, and
a father and son described as machine makers. (fn. 97)
By 1861 there were 3 shops, a wheelwright, and
a boot and shoe maker. (fn. 98) One shop had closed
by 1875 and there was further contraction in the
1880s. (fn. 99) A wheelwright, a newsagent, and a
chimney sweep were recorded in 1923, (fn. 1) and by
1930 there survived the village stores, the post
office, a wheelwright, and a blacksmith. (fn. 2) By 1931
a petrol filling station was established at Durston Elms, and guesthouse accommodation was
offered there. (fn. 3) Durston Elms garage and Durston (Somerset) Woodlands (founded in 1953) (fn. 4)
were in retail business in 1985.
A windmill was built on Durston manor in
1324-5. (fn. 5) It stood on a mound south of Lower
Durston village once thought to be a barrow. (fn. 6)