Dudwell

Dudwell Farm 1991. Dudwell Farm is featured in the article about haymaking. Arthur and Margaret Green were the last people who farmed there and supplied the photograph. Dudwell ceased to be a farm in 1991 and is now a private house

This extract from the 1794 map shows that Dudwell was the name of the lane at the time. This map also shows that the farm either belonged to the Waldegraves or Hippisley’s whilst the Kingsmills owned most of the land in the top right hand corner of this map and what was Cutlers Green Farm. Dudwell Lane continues in a southerly direction and the road is renamed Honeywell Lane when it crosses to the Bathway/Emborough road.

The source of the name of this farm and lane is a bit of a mystery because there is no record of a family called Dudwell in the history of Chewton Mendip. One possibility is a corruption of Dudden who had been farmers in Chewton Mendip for centuries.

Anther theory is that it comes from ‘dud well’ because somebody dug a well that dried up. This is similar to the theories about the source of the names for ‘Honeywell’ and ‘The Folly’.

There is some cohesion in the idea that there was a ‘sweet’, or ‘honey’, well at one end  of the road and a ‘dud’ well at the other. It would take an expert in 17th and 18th century English to confirm is ‘dud’ is a word they would have used in that context. Dr Johnson’s directory does not list the word ‘dud’.