Lower East End Farm

Lower East End Farmhouse may have been occupied to the Hippisley family who had leases on several farms in the East End of Chewton Mendip. It is opposite Hippisley Farm and a short distance from East End Farm. What is called Honeywell farm may have been some barns attached to this farm.  The Wikipedia record for its listed building status refers to is as ‘Old East End Cottages’ which show that it was divided into separate cottages at one time. Confusingly, the modern  East End cottages may once have been a farm and there may have been another farm opposite East End farm. It may have be called Golledge and occupied by the Mogg family in the 18th century.

Lower East End Farmhouse is now back as a single dwelling but it is no longer a commercial farm. The extract from the 1794 map shows the buildings and location have not changed much. The 1794 map also  shows Rowdens lane, which is now just a depression by the side of a hedge, was then a significant road.  Lower East End  is not named in the 1902 map which suggests that it was used as cottages at the time. The 1794 map also shows what may have been the Mannings farmhouse.

Somerset archive record DD/HI/A/115 dated 1555 is concerned with the purchase of land in East End by John Hippisley of Barrow House. It is not clear which John Hippisley it was or where he bought lease on the land but what is now Lower East End farm is the best match for location and age. The oldest part of the  building is believed to date back to the Tudor period but not quite as early as 1555. The listed building description describes it as early 17th century with 19th century alterations. The doorway shows it was not built as a terrace of cottages but the pattern on the door frame does not help to identify who built it. There are a number of possibilities for people who would have built a fine residence for themselves. There is no evidence that the Hippisley family held the freehold but they may have owned long term leases, perhaps for several generations.

The 18th century churchwardens accounts an poor book record the following families paying rates for holdings in East End. Various members of the Hippisley family are mentioned and the Curtis family were linked by marriage and were of a similar social standing to the Hippilslys of Chewton Mendip who were farmers and miners. They may have been the inhabitants of Lower East End farm as may some of the following families.

The Taswells were mainly clergymen but they were also proprietors of land in East End.  The most likely place they occupied was what is now called White Stile. The Thistle/Thisoll/Thrisell family was also recorded at roughly the same time but the vague similarity in the names is probably co-incidental. The Culliford family were also clergymen and landowners with links to East End.

There are recorded links between the Taswells and Thiery families in addition to them paying rates in East End. The Thiery family were descended from French Huguenots but were established in the cloth industry in various villages and it is unlikely that they were residents in Chewton Mendip.

Edward Hippisley was listed as being resident in 1840 tithe lists but he was recorded as living in Dudwell in the 1841 census so he may have moved or he may have been responsible for several farms.

The school registers list a large number of people living at ‘East End’ from 1868 so it is possible that Lower East End farm may have been split into three cottages after Edward Hippisley left.

Lower East End  is not listed in the Waldegraves tenants lunch, probably because it was three separate cottages untill the 1980s. Some of the last tenants have ben identified as the Perkins and the Gillard and Norris families