Purnell’s Parks

Records held in the Hampshire Archive  (41M89/313 and 41M89/315)  refer to  a ‘roofless tenement’  called Purnell’s Parks. The first record dated 1779 is when Anthony Stocker raised a mortgage of £120 to buy a number of properties. The second record dated 1784 describes Purnell Parks as ‘4 acres, 3 rods, 6 perches’. The Purnel family have a long association with the village and the 18th century churchwarden and poor-law book make frequent references to an  farm called Purnel Parks but it was no longer occupied by the Purnell family

The first tenants n c1700 were the Yorke family it was in the  Town tithing.This sugests that the Kingsmills who owned the land and that it was near what is now the modern Chewton House.

A Mr Springbatt was responsible for part of Purnell Parks in the middle of the 18the century when it was listed in the Middlesex tithing but that is more likely to reflect where he lived because it was in the Town tithing when  Mr[s] Ponting was renting at least part of it from the 1730s.

The Hippisleys family were recorded as paying rates, possibly as tenants, to demonstrate how even wealthy people would rent farmland. Purnels Parks is not shown in the 1794 map.

The 1800 map shows that Purnell’s lane was in the East End.